Two nights ago, about an half hour before sunset, I went for a short stroll north from Milam Gap, along the Appalacian Trail.  I got to the place where a culvert directs a small stream under the trail and turned around to go back.  I had been watching for wildlife at ground level and up in the trees the whole time.  As I was passing a patch of ferns where I had seen some deer on the way out, I noted that they were no longer there anymore.  Suddenly a black head popped up from the ferns just twenty feet away.  The yearling black bear cub looked startled that I was there, and that caused another black head to pop up, a sibling yearling cub also about twenty feet away.  Then Momma Bear raised up from the ferns about thirty feet away and started walking toward me.  I smacked the end of my walking stick onto the trail several times to make noise ( I was too scared to yell), and that banging noise was unusual enough to scare all three of them into a full speed retreat away from me and around a large rock formation.  The whole sequence took only five seconds.  That was my number 4, 5, and 6 sightings of bear this year in SNP.  I already have two bobcat sightings,  and seven wild turkey sightings.

Today, I did my first Terrace Talk of the season... I talked about b.b.b.bblack bears.