How does Atlanta Wilderness Backpackers spend Christmas?

Are the Bear sleeping during December?

Are the Bear sleeping during December?

Pretty much.

Off the subject, got my curisoity up. Have you ever come face to face with a bear? If so how did you handle it? My customer told me that black bear like to eat their lunch ALIVE.

Off the subject, got my curisoity up. Have you ever come face to face with a bear? If so how did you handle it? My customer told me that black bear like to eat their lunch ALIVE.

Closest we have gotten was probably 50-100 ft away around a ridge. It must've smelled us because it took off steamrolling down the hillside.

Black bears are omnivores like we are but mostly eat fruits, nuts, etc. Most of the animal matter they eat is of the insect variety. So yeah, they probably eat a live lunch.

Off the subject, got my curisoity up. Have you ever come face to face with a bear? If so how did you handle it? My customer told me that black bear like to eat their lunch ALIVE.

Up in the Cohuttas once me and an adolescent bear met at a creek at dusk. We were about 20 feet apart. We stared at each other for the longest time and we must have arrived at some sort of understanding. I decided to get my water and go back to my camp. The bear went his way. I saw the bear the next morning running through the woods, being chased by a guy whose backpack he'd stolen.

About two years earlier I saw my first wild bear, also in the Cohuttas, near the Three Forks Area. It was a very large male. Thankfully he was some distance away. I was in a small clearing, where I'd found a log to sit on to "take a crap in the woods." My pants were literally down. The bear emerged into the clearing and caught my scent before he saw me. When he saw me he took off running through the underbrush and down the side of the mountain.

I wish I had read this story before we left on the 20 miler! Another campfire story we would have enjoyed. I am trying to imagine........