OMG! I Saw A Bear!!

On Saturday, Woody, Vol Fan, and I packed a picnic and headed to the mountains.  It was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining.  There was a slight breeze.  The temperature was perfect.  We could not have asked for a better day to spend in Cades Cove.

As the afternoon wore on, we saw several people in a field looking toward the treeline.  We decided to see what the excitement was all about.  It was bear!  We were not quite as crazy as the people in the field.  It's like they think they are at a petting zoo!  We stayed back at the edge of the field and used a zoom lens.

After the bear wandered back into the woods, the crowd of people eventually cleared out - confident that she wouldn't be making another appearance.  It was such a perfect spot that we decided to pull out the blanket and have our picnic.

As we sat soaking in the sun, we were discussing the fact that Vol Fan has a good eye for spotting wildlife.  Woody said she thought it was because of his dyslexia - that his mind can pick out patterns that it thinks don't belong.  As she said this, Vol Fan said 'I think I see a pattern right now'.  He was right.  There was a black spot in a notch of a tree.  Upon looking closer, we saw that it was two black bear cubs!

As we were sitting enjoying the moment, the cubs decided to climb down the tree.  Turns out what we thought was two cubs was actually three!  They stayed pretty close to the base of the tree.  In a few minutes, Mama returned and told her stray babies to get back up the tree.  So lickity-split, up they went!

A little while later, a couple that we had talked with earlier drove by our spot and told us of a big male black bear at the other end of the field.  Since the sun was starting to set, we decided to go see if we could spot him.  He was a BIG boy!

What a perfect day!!