Beautiful day in the neighborhood

5/2/2012

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a commute to work. The rain held off long enough for Chris and I to make back up the mountain. I will admit, it was pretty warm, a few sprinkles would have felt nice. The high for yesterday was 68 with a low of 51. Hard to believe a week ago it was in the teens.

It was a pretty quiet day up top. We did get a report from one of the park's bear guys that there is a rather large bear towards the top of Bullhead. If you see this bear on your way up, please report it to the office staff. You will know if it is the same bear by the large yellow paint on his rear end. The park tagged him with the paint so we will know if he continues to hang around. The park employee said the bears are coming around earlier this year. They are in search of food. It was a lean year last year so the bear population is waking up from their winter naps a little on the hungry side.

The sky is clearing off this morning. It is looking like another fine day to be hiking in the Smokies. Come on up and see us.

Tony Ga

5/2/2012 01:21:23 am

Welcome back. Hope your home was alright after the storm.

Anthony W.

5/2/2012 06:30:42 am

Where is the best info on bear activity in park?

Planning on doing a backpacking trip in late May around the Gregory Bald area north of the Twentymile Ranger station. Haven't been to that area of the park before and I want to drink the water from Moore Spring.

Checking out the park's Warnings and Closures page, I see Campsite 113 (northeast/east of the Twentymile station) is already closed for bear activity.

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice on the Gregory Bald area. There are some very knowledge people who post and hang around this blog.

Debi link

5/2/2012 10:08:47 am

Its amazing how the weather changes so fast. Nice to have it warm back up again, but there just seems to be no happy medium. Oh well, I guess we'll have to take what we get. That must be some pretty tough yellow paint they put on those bears. I remember one of the sled dogs coming home last year and that dog was tagged with a tiny bit of pink paint from a race. That paint stayed on his forehead all summer long. He didn't mind!

JoAnn

5/2/2012 01:44:59 pm

My husband Frank and i had a great 7 hr hike up the mountain on Tuesday. Thanks for pointing out the all important Outcropping that signals the last 30 minutes of the trip!

Rod R

5/3/2012 01:12:15 am

Where was this photo taken from? I can't seem to place it.

High On LeConte

5/4/2012 11:20:17 pm

Rod,
It was taken from a clearing a few minutes down Rainbow.

Debra

5/4/2012 12:56:53 pm

Exactly how do you tag a bear on the rear end w/yellow paint?

5/4/2012 11:21:48 pm

Debra,
The Park Bear guys have a paint gun that they use to tag bears that are they are having problems with. This helps them to identify if this bear continues to cause issues. Most of the time, the bear does not like the interaction and you will not see them again.

Comments are closed.

Beautiful day in the neighborhood

LeConte Lodge

Archives