I was having a conversation with one of my coworkers today about hiking, and she told me when hiking in bear country to wear bells and carry pepper spray. I then had to tell her a very old hiker joke: How can you tell if you see bear scat? Answer: it smells like pepper and has tiny bells in it. I’m not sure if she found my joke funny, but it does have a ring of truth to it. I still laughed when I told it.
Well, we didn’t have bear-spray, and we didn’t wear tiny bells, but we did encounter a bear on this trip. It was late Saturday evening. We were worn down from the rugged miles and were thinking about camp. Daniel had just found a large pile of steaming bear poo on the trail. At almost the same time, I smelled a musty foul odor permeating the air, similar to the smell of an old man who has not bathed in several years. Bears are said to have a musty odor. I took a mental note and we forged ahead on the trail. Within seconds Daniel whisper-yelled “Look!” I looked up just in time to see a bear’s derriere flying like lightening into the woods. We paused a moment. Took out our cameras, and proceeded cautiously on up the trail. As we started to crest a hill about 300 yards from our original sighting, a beautiful 400 lb. black bear leaped out of the brush to our right, across the trail, and into the forest to our left. Daniel thinks it was a young male. We later found the tracks of a bear-cub in the soft mud, so I’m more inclined to believe it was a female. In either case, I am certain that the bear wished it had some human-spray at that moment to ward off the scary human beasts!
To start off the weekend, we made camp at the north end of the Kentucky trail. I was tickled to find that the trailhead intersected with Bob Ross Rd. I took it as an omen that we would have a good weekend filled with happy clouds, large shady trees, and maybe even some happy little accidents. We found a nice cozy camping spot for the evening, cooked some bratwurst, drank some Stiegl Radler, and just enjoyed a fine evening spinning campfire yarns.
We got a late start on Saturday morning, departing from the southern trailhead at Terry Cemetery at approximately 11:30am. We stopped for brunch on top of an overlook. I took some videos and pictures and then climbed down through Maude’s Crack.
It was a beautiful hike Saturday. Through the canopy we could see deep blue skies and sunlight beaming down onto the forest floor. The trail was rugged and unused. Deadfall was everywhere. The elevation changes were brutal. After our first climb to a multi-use trail on the ridge, Daniel almost stepped on a copperhead sunning across the gravel road.
We then descended on the other side of the ridge towards Difficulty Creek, and then onward to Troublesome Creek. Both were aptly named, since the large bridges crossing them had both been crushed under deadfall. Trail conditions were deplorable. The trail itself was highly eroded and slanted downhill. Cobwebs crisscrossed between trees. It appeared that no one had used this trail in many seasons.
That was good for us. We didn’t see a single person on the trail the entire weekend. It also boded well for animal sightings. The area was so remote I was frankly not surprised that we encountered a bear.
After our bear sighting, we climbed back up to the top of the plateau. We were now roughly 5 miles south of Blue Heron. We found a field at the Ledbetter Trailhead, threw up our shelters, cooked dinner, tossed a bear-line (to hang our bear piñatas), and went to bed.
We woke up the next morning at 530am for a 630am start. The trail after Ledbetter was easy and pleasant. The highlight of the day was the Catawba overlooking the tipple bridge at Blue Heron. We finished the 21-mile weekend right at 2pm. Daniel and I both had plans for Mother’s Day, and this gave us plenty of time to meet up with our families.
It was a great weekend. Right now, my feet are sore, and I am riddled with bug bites. I can’t wait to do it again!
P.S. I took a video this time!