We arrived in The Great Smoky Mountains after shopping most of the day and found out that we had arrived during the height of the Synchronous Firefly Season. Mark, Alex and I spent quite a bit of time out in the forest beside our camper that night watching the fireflies. Adam had read the informational signs at the Visitors Center and learned about all of the different types of snakes that live here, so he chose to stay in the motor home ~ randomly signaling us with his flashlight to make sure we were still alive.
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| The next morning, we woke up to people gathered around this contraption that was about half a block from our campsite, and about 20 feet from where we had been watching the fireflies. A Black bear was in it that had been roaming the campground in the night and had pulled a grill out from under a camper to lick the grates. We found out later on the hike with the rangers that it had been a really big bear for the area ~ 398 pounds. |
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| After watching them haul the bear trap away, we spent the morning riding our bikes on Cades Cove loop. They close it off for bikers and so we took advantage of that. Mark did a couple loops and was lucky enough to see another bear from the road. Adam and I saw turkeys and did a water crossing but no bears. We then headed out on a hike to Abrahms Falls. |
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Saw this little guy hanging out of a tree ~
Adams hand never left his knife handle but he did very well ~ as did his Mom.
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| As we neared the falls area, a few people we met told us there was a bear by the Falls. When we got there though, the bear was actually on the path. It had gotten into a backpack and had eaten a sandwich. It was busy looking for more food. It wandered around within feet of people and grabbed peoples bags and dug through them. It was small, the rangers eventually told us they thought it was about 45 pounds, but it was still scary to see people that close to it and even little kids. We stayed back quite a ways ~ Mark said "this is probably going to turn into a you tube hit" as people were trying to get selfies with the bear and were within feet of it. We decided we should leave and as we turned around two rangers came. They decided they needed to tranquilize it as it was eating a Gatorade bottle when they arrived and people were so close to it. We watched them do that and then as they got it ready for transport we headed to the falls. The falls were neat but no where near as exciting as watching the bear. We started heading back and caught up to the rangers who had to actually pack the bear out as the transport team wasn't close. We got to hike out with the Rangers and the bear. We learned a ton about bears and what was happening on that hike out. The bear started waking up twice and they had to give it a booster shot to keep it asleep. When we were about 3/4 of the way, the transport came. They strapped her onto a gurney and wheeled her out. At the end of the trail, they put her in the water to cool her down, took DNA samples, temp, tagged her ear and were going to tattoo her lip and pull one of her teeth for ID purposes, but they ended up not pulling the tooth or doing the tattoo as her temp was too hot. They gave her a shot to wake her up and took off with her in another cage. The whole thing so exciting to see but also sad. They said she was a 'first time offender" and would be relocated but my guess is she probably got enough positive out of the eating that it may be a problem and she may have to be put down. We hope not, but it was amazing to be apart of that. |
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This was her right after they tranquilized her. The bears eyes stay open and still send some signal to their brains so they like to reduce all the stimulation. They put goop in them so they dont dry out and then cover them.
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| The Rangers had to switch back and forth with the bear as they had about an hour before she woke up. It made for a very fast hike out. Adam stayed right with them and even shared his water bottle with the Ranger. They were impressive in their strength to say the least. |
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| Meeting up with the transport team on the trail |
~ Some sights along the journey today as we made our way out of the park ~
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| We did a short but steep mile hike up to the lookout at Clingmans Dome. Beautiful views from up there and you can see Mark and Alex on the way down from the platform. |
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| Glad this guy was on the road and not on the trail! Yuck |
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