I've been back to Shining Rock and Flower Gap numerous times since, but mostly in the winter. The memory of that event was not at the forefront of my mind as I ate my dinner last night. I was camped about a mile away, and had carried my food and some water to this spot to watch the sunset. It was lovely. The temperature was in the 50s and aside from a strong breeze it was perfect sittin' weather.
Once the sun vanished the temperature started to drop a bit and that breeze became a bit chilly. I had my pack stashed in an area out of the wind, and was standing by it putting my things away when I saw a large black shadow emerge from the darkness about forty feet in front of me. It had the bulk of a small cow and moved effortlessly, gliding through the dark making no sound. It took my brain a few seconds to register what I was seeing. Large dog? No. Small cow? Don't be ridiculous. Bear? Shit. Bear.
It definitely saw me, and I'm sure that the still open pouch of steaming beef stew residue was setting off every alarm in the thing's giant head. We both froze and stared at each other.
Now, I've been hiking for over twenty years, and both of my bear encounters are in this story. I know from reading and hearing it again and again that black bears are timid and will usually flee first. You're supposed to make a lot of noise so that's what I did. I raised my arms above my head and shouted, "YAH! YAAAAH! GO AWAY BEAR!"
This bear either did not speak English or had not read the same books I had read, because instead of fleeing, he cocked his head like a curious dog and did the opposite of fleeing, which was moving closer to me. I've seen this act before, he seemed to say. Your pitiful cries are no match for my powerful claws. You smell like food.
The bear closed the distance to about twenty feet and I yelled again. The sun was gone and only the moonlight remained. I continued yelling and flipped on my headlamp. This new light source confused the beast and he stopped his advance. One more yell and I backed away until I couldn't see him through the trees and then I began walking briskly along the trail for the next ten minutes, stopping often to listen for grunts and growls behind me.
I reached my camp after another ten minutes, passing two other campsites along the way. I warned my neighbors of the bear sighting, we all hung our food from the highest branches we could find and retired for the evening.
When I awoke this morning, despite having hung my bag, all of my food was gone, as were my neighbors' supplies. All that remained were cracked branches, coiled rope and a huge pile of empty wrappers and boxes, pockmarked by jagged teeth and covered with drool. One group said they came face to face with it while trying to hang their food. Their leader told me, "I shined my flashlight into the trees and saw two green eyes coming toward me so I threw my food bag at it and ran back to our tents!"
Thankfully no one was hurt, and the worst of it was that we all had to hike back out to our cars this morning on empty bellies. Bear: 12, Humans: 0.
Oh, and the good news is, other than that whole bear thing, the shakedown hike was a success, my gear feels great and I'm ready to go live outside for a while!
