What was that sound?

Day 247
Mathews Arm VA

Misty dreary drizzle has become the normal spring weather in the mountains. Sleeping at night becomes uncomfortable when everything inside feels wet. Boondocking out here means there are no utilities to make life more comfortable. No electricity means no A/C or dehumidifiers to take the sweltering grip off of our clothes, bedsheets, and towels. It's all part of living on the road and we take it in stride. This has become so normal it takes a second thought to remember what it is like to sit on a couch in a climate controlled house and flip through the channels with a pizza in the oven. To combat the life of travel we fill it with tasks and activites. Today that will be a short walk in the woods and sitting around enjoying the glory that is internet and a couple of TV stations.

We don our hiking shoes for the 1.7 mile Traces Trail. It's a easy walk that rings itself around the campsite. The canopy overhead is thick, and the shrubbery to the sides hides a lot of the landscape. Hundreds of miles of hiking experience has taught us to walk with heavy footsteps and plenty of loud noises to let the local wildlife know that you are coming through. Most animals will turn and walk the other direction to avoid an unnecessary confrontation. Lumbering footsteps through the rocky trail have done there job and I hear a branch snap off to my left side accompanied with a black blur that moved in my peripheral.

Less than 30 yards out a black bear is on the move. The smallest of all the bear families, black bears pose little threat to people in the wild. They are only known to attack if you approach them suddenly or if mama bear needs to defend her cubs. My guesstimate would put this one around 150 pounds, most likely a fully grown female. She sees us and stares after the initial jolt. In no time she goes right back to grazing the forest floor for berries and grubs. It is our first sighting of a black bear in the wild while hiking. Check that off the bucket list.

Finishing off the last half mile of the hike was easy work. Pumped up on the adrenaline of seeing a black bear in the wild gets us to walk back to Penny in no time flat. In the last hour the clouds have cleared and walking out of the woods brings us into a beautiful sunshine filled campground. This will be great for sitting around and catching up on things. Life could be worse.