A BEAR PLAYING CHICKEN
Donna Strickland, Sevierville, TNSeptember 16, 2007
On a beautiful fall-weather weekend, my husband, Joey, and I went hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Old Settlers Trail. We'd hiked only a few miles down the trail when, suddenly, up walked a bear. He seemed to want to play "chicken" with us for rights to the trail. We hopped up and down, making all kinds of noise, to be sure he'd seen and heard us. Nothing worked: that bear just kept walking, right towards us. So, we back-tracked a few hundred yards. We respect bears, in the wild or anywhere else. When we looked back, our bear was still there, lumbering along the trail, steadily moving our way. He looked to be on a mission. Finally, we scrambled up an embankment and circled around him. Yes, he had clearly won. He did leave a gift behind for us, though, right in the trail--a big fresh pile of berry-filled bear poop! Perhaps it was his special reminder of exactly who's the boss when humans walk on his turf. [The photo below is the actual bear.]
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