Grin and bear it!

Where are they? We'd started to wonder why, after several weeks at Mt. Rogers, we'd heard nothing about bears in the area. After all, we are in the woods, and where you have woods you have bears. Right?

American black bear (Ursus americanus)

Then, hosts at our campground began receiving reports of Smokey (or one of his amigos) prowling the area. Trash strewn around the campground's dumpsters and other evidence supported those claims. Eventually, a couple of hosts spotted a bear weighing something in the neighborhood of 400 pounds.

My curiosity now piqued, I took to walking the grounds around the time when most sightings were occurring. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It was downright discouraging. Then, just as I was ready to give up, it happened - my first close encounter with a live, wild Ursus americanus.

Leonard, Sprocket and I had ventured out for a post-dinner stroll. We decided to stop by the campground's office to chat with the hosts on duty. As we neared the office, a voice came over the radio. It was the camp manager, calling from her trailer just a few yards away.

“A bear's headed your way!” she announced.

American black bears use their claws to dig for grubs and

other tasty delights.

We did an about-face, moving slowly in the direction of the camp's dumpsters (the bear's probable destination). Our vigilance was rewarded when we first heard then saw a black bear run onto the road. It stopped, gave our crew of two humans and one slightly curious canine a quick glance, then trotted on down the hill.

Consensus is the critter we encountered is, in fact, not the larger one from earlier sightings. Others have turned up since.

I'm not worried about coming to any harm. The American black bear generally lacks the ferocity of its larger, more aggressive cousin the grizzly. It likes to avoid human contact when possible. However, when hungry it has been known to attack
people so should be given a wide berth.

Perhaps measures being taken by our camp hosts and Forest Service personnel to discourage continued bear activity will prompt these animals to move on to uninhabited grounds. Wild berries are coming into season and may also draw them away from camp. Time will tell.

With our assignment at Mt. Rogers running through October, odds are that this first encounter of the bear kind won't be our last. I'm keeping my camera handy, just in case.

Discarded scraps attract tenacious bears, as evidenced by

teeth marks on this dumpster lid at Grindstone Campground.