First Bear Sighting and Completion of the Georgia section of the AT

[buck]

I left home about 2:30 AM Saturday morning and drove to the Byron Reece Trailhead (Neel's Gap) in Georgia where I had arranged for a shuttle back to the Indian Grave Gap Trailhead on the Appalachian Trail. I was returning to complete the part I missed after experiencing problems with my left knee during an April trip. The shuttle arrived at 7:00 AM and about 8:15 AM I headed south down the AT and arrived at Neel's Gap about 9:00 AM this morning, completing the entire Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail.

In addition to reaching a goal, I also had my first bear sighting while hiking. It was Saturday and I had just left Blue Mountain Shelter after eating lunch. I was probably less than a 1/2 mile south of the shelter when I walked up on the bear feeding by the AT. I scared him and he scared me ... and then I pulled out my camera and made this footage:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fwf0pHinUpU&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Fwf0pHinUpU&rel=0</a>


More to come about this trip.

[southmark]

You are one of the lucky ones. So many hikers never see a bear. Such is the normal nature of the eastern black bear. They are afraid of man and/or have no interest in man. Nice video of a rare encounter.

[buck]

For those interested, here's some video footage from my last hike on the AT.

Part 1 begins at the Indian Grave Gap Trailhead and ends on top of Wildcat Mountain

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_Oo9a_M6XrA&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/_Oo9a_M6XrA&rel=0</a>



Part 2 begins on top of Wildcat Mountain and ends at Neels Gap

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/NF3EOvv5zNI&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/NF3EOvv5zNI&rel=0</a>