A.T. Hike, Spring 2007 - Day 1,In Which I Saw Two Bears

Standing Bear Farm to Roaring Fork Shelter, 15.5 miles

My hiking has begun! It was a wicked-long day and I am toast.

I started out at 7 a.m. and about an hour into the climb up Snowbird Mountain, while walking along a switchback, I suddenly heard a lot of branches breaking and something big crashing around about 40 feet to my right. See, that’s the cool thing about bears –they’re a little scary, but at least you usually have some warning that they’re around because they’re big enough and clumsy enough that they make a lot of noise. Anyway, through the trees I saw this ball of black fur, maybe a 100-pounder, and I had apparently scared him because he made quick work of loping away from me. I watched him till I couldn’t see him any more; then I started to move on, thinking smugly, “How fun, I saw a bear my first day, and look at me – such a seasoned hiker that my heart’s not even racing.”

Then a second bear darted right in front of me, maybe 30 feet ahead, and bumbled his way up the mountain. That’s when I nearly fell over backward and my heart rate doubled. See, both bears were juveniles, which meant their mother was probably close by, and here I was, between her two darlings. Probably not the safest place to be. I quickened my pace and was all nerved up for about an hour, until I had gotten well out of whatever feeding territory of theirs I had apparently invaded.

I noticed lots of evidence of wild hogs on the trail today. There are many areas where hundreds and hundreds of Mayapples (these grow in Michigan too and look like the one in this photo) have been rooted up and scattered about, and many upturned areas of soil where the hogs have looked for truffles. I’m guessing the weather has caused a food shortage for them as well as for the bears.

Below is a view from the summit of Max Patch, which was one of the coolest sights today – I’d heard a lot about it. It’s a bald, about 4,600 ft. in elevation, and it used to be the site of an old logging camp. It’s very pretty at the top but a storm was collecting in the distance so I didn’t linger too long there. The rain started about 4 p.m. so the last half-mile of my hike was wet.

At tonight’s shelter I met two young guys who are thru-hiking at the rate of 25 miles per day (hot doggers!) and they offered to hang my food bag with theirs, to which I readily agreed. Chivalry does come in handy at times.

No blisters yet, unless you count the one on my thumb which, actually, I brought with me. I produced it while pushing the lawn mower on the day before I left. Now that’s an outdoorswoman for you – I get a blister while lawnmowing. It broke open and had started to heal by the time I hit the trail. Today it resembles a small piece of prosciutto.

I drank more than six liters of water today.