Backpacking in Bear Country

I've had a delightful week of backpacking. Chris, Kodie, and me went to the Big South Fork, TN on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday we hiked about 10.5 miles in and about 9 out on Thursday.

The Big South Fork is black bear county and from the start we new it would be a good hike. Within the first couple miles from the trailhead we found a lot of bear activity. Trees and stumps were completely shredded by mighty claws. We also found a recent (a week or less) bear pile, which I didn’t photograph due to the graphic content. ☺
Then we reviewed the map again and noticed that the trail crossed the creek an exceptional number of times. Great. And sure enough at about the third crossing my right foot took a nearly knee-deep dunking which couldn’t be helped by any of my Gore-Tex gear, resulting in a wet foot for the duration of the trip…and my very first hiking blister ever (to be realized at back at the trailhead) and numerous hotspots. Yes, I probably should have done something about my foot when we got to camp but there was a bit of denial and still disappointed that my foot would end up wet the next day too because I was unable to dry my boot.

As you may have noticed, there was a difference in our mileage for a traditional in and out trip. That is because we went off on a side trail hoping to find a great campsite but instead all we found was thicket, a tree limb that mysteriously fell from the tree, and fairly recent bear tracks (last couple of days)...cool none-the-less, we didn't really want to camp there. So we backtracked for a while and hiked to a campsite with which Chris was familiar. It was a beautiful site near a creek resulting in damp firewood but it wasn’t terribly cold. And of course, we were able to spread our junk out across the site in a matter of minutes!
On the way out we visited Slave Falls. And Chris found this cool spider web that I don’t think my camera gave justice.
Here’s a shot of Kodie and I at a lookout point at the falls.
On the way out, my right foot became quite sore and I also twisted my left ankle slightly. Also on the way out, Chris noticed an enormous (recent) paw print in the sand at one of the creek crossings. It appeared the bear crossed the creek, started up the trail, and then changed its mind. Although I was pretty tired once we reached the car, I wasn’t about to let some bear activity, a blister, a couple hotspots, and a twisted ankle hinder my plans for my first solo trip at the Land Between the Lakes.

[more to come]