Threatdown: Bears

So, no posts yesterday as the two of us "stole" a day from the calendar. I don't think that there's any other way to describe a pleasant, non-humid day in the mid-70's here in the D.C. area in July. So we made a last-minute decision to drive out to Shenandoah National Park and hike the Old Rag trail. The weather was beautiful, and the park was not crowded at all. I guess that no one plans on taking a strenuous hike on July 8 in Virginia. It was also the weekend after the July 4 weekend, which has to be a slow tourist weekend, in general. For most of the 8.8 mile hike, we were all by ourselves.

All by ourselves, that is, except for the bear. On the return down the fire road, we were walking along, minding our own business, when I spotted some movement in the brush to the left of the road. (I am pretty good at spotting wildlife, given my upbringing among the great hunters of the North.) There it was--a fully grown, or mostly fully grown, black bear, not more than twenty yards away.

According to the park's guidelines, fifty yards is the minimum safe distance.

The bear didn't seem that concerned about us, but to be honest, it kind of freaked me out. So much so, that I forgot that I had the camera. I did take a picture, eventually, but it's not very good--that could be a black bear, or a Bigfoot, or a dark-colored rock. Now I know why there aren't any clear shots of a Bigfoot.

OK, so add black bear to the list of animals spotted in the wild. Actually, we saw a black bear once in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but we were in the car, so that's a little different.

Link bonuses:

Is this guy my doppelganger?

Sage Blue Ridge advice on avoiding bears.

(I've been having some fun the last few days playing with the "Search All Blogs" feature in Blogger.)