More Bear Stories: Facts and Tall Tales

Continuing with the theme of North Carolina’s Black Bear Population, it’s time for some tales tall and small about bears. Because these magnificent creatures are a considerable presence in much of North Carolina, there’s quite a few such tales. Seems like everyone you meet here has at least one tale to tell, whether in the rugged mountains or on the fertile piedmont, in the countryside, towns, cities and suburbs.

People who choose to live in the countryside are bound to encounter bears, and most are no worse for the experience. Yet as the countryside becomes ever more populated, the number of bear encounters in more urban settings rises as well. The last installment provided some good links to information about the habits and habitats of NC’s considerable bear population, good to keep in mind whether you’re living in North Carolina or just visiting.

Bears are smart critters. They can become expert at cracking “bearproof” latches on coolers, cars and trucks door handles, garbage bins and dumpster lids to avail themselves of food. They readily learn to beg, pretty much like dogs do. They can put up some impressively aggressive bluffing in order to gain access to golf carts, campsites and your dog’s food. They’ve been known to walk right into cabins, garages, pubs, restaurants and even resort hotels, making themselves right at home.

There are stories about bears that move in to hibernate in the earthen basements of mountain cabins as well as inside the barns, spring houses and root cellars of backcountry homesteads. Advice from old timers familiar with bears (and chock full of bear tales) can be useful. During unexpected encounters they advise body postures, direct eye contact and the kind of dominant behaviors that tend to work well on aggressive dogs to scare them out of an attack. Of course, bears are pretty good at the same sort of behaviors, and often scare people more than people scare bears!

Enough bears are killed on North Carolina roadways every year to have the state engineering wildlife underpasses into road expansion projects. Not just in the mountainous region either, as most of North Carolina’s bears live in the piedmont and lowlands. Wildlife researchers estimate about 2 bears per square mile in parts of the state from Charlotte to the coast.

“It was a weekend camping trip to the Smokies back in ‘72,” Clint Thomas reminisced. “The boat [a Polaris submarine] was in dry dock in Charleston for refit and refueling, my buddies and I often made the 6-hour drive to the mountains for some R&R in those days.” Thomas is still wiry and fit, but not as young now as he was then.

“There were three of us packing along a trail into the backcountry for some non-suburban camping in the rough. An early summer evening rain was falling steady,” he said. We were getting really soaked, which didn’t help our mood any. When we first sighted the bear he was almost as grumpy as we were, started snapping his jaws at us and making front-paw jumps toward us where we’d frozen in our tracks.”

They were in no mood for a bear-fight, so the three young sailors headed off the trail up the mountainside directly for about a hundred yards, catching a further switchback of that same trail higher up. “We thought we’d put some actual distance between us and the bear, and kept on hiking for at least a mile along the trail as it zig-zagged up the mountain. By then it was dusk, so we began to pitch our camp and gather firewood.”

Thomas went to the nearby creek for water, suddenly found himself face-to-face with that very same bear. “He was big, more than 300 pounds,” he says. “He was perched somewhat clumsily on a big boulder in the creek, acting like he wasn’t happy at all to have us in his yard.”

Seems the men had neglected to envision the actual distance from the bear they were when they decided to make camp. Despite the mile or more of trail, the switchbacks gave only an illusion of distance. In truth they’d chosen to make camp just a couple of hundred yards from where they’d first encountered the bear. Thomas and his friends stood still, warily eying the perched bear.

“All of a sudden that bear took a flying leap off that boulder straight at us, graceful as a gazelle despite his size. We knew right then that he could have us in a moment, whenever he chose. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this bear wasn’t going to share his territory with us happily.”

They left the tent half erected, grabbed their packs and headed straight down the mountain in the growing darkness at a full gallop. “We got back to where we were parked in maybe a fifth of the time it had taken us to hike to the campsite,” Thomas laughed. “Funny how mountains can disorient you that way. You think you’re miles away but you’re really not.”

They spent the night uncomfortably in the car, drove home the next morning in what turned out to be a solid 3-day rainy period. “It wasn’t good camping weather anyway,” Thomas reflected. He says the three old Navy buddies tell their bear story whenever they get together, and in their own circle of family and friends more than 30 years later.

“A good bear story lasts a lifetime, you see,” Thomas gleams with an ironic smile. “And we don’t even have the scars to prove it!”

Links:

Victor the wrestling bear took on all challengers - and won

Most Bear Visits Motivated by Food and Lack of Habitat

The Bears Among Us

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Filed under Wildlife, Bears, NC Trails, Carolina History, Blue Ridge, Education, North Carolina |