Post 900 Hike #108: Low Gap II--2.5, Low Gap I--2.5, Big Greek--~1.0, Camel Gap--4.1, AT--2.4, Low Gap--2.5

This is a hike that BZ Lane recommended; I encouraged him to select something for his second map because he hiked with me the past two weeks on hikes that I needed for my Geezer Map. I submitted this Thursday hike to our Wednesday Hiking Group; John Hutsenpiller, Judy Gross, and Ramsay Roth indicated that they wished to do this hike too. I picked up John at Cracker Barrel ~07:05, Ramsay picked up his fellow Gatlinburg resident BZ, and Judy drove in from Ashville NC.

We got started on Low Gap II ~08:32 and finished it (>2000' of gain) at 09:42. My new boots felt great; however, on Low Gap I (~1300' of down, I realized that my sock selection was not appropriate; I had to stop to administer 1st aid. (I caught up with my cohorts; in an unguarded moment at lunch, they are: Ramsay, Judy, BZ, & John.)



On Camel Gap (~1700' of gain), my feet felt good; towards the end of Camel Gap I pushed and got my HR up to 150 on two different occasions. The section of the AT that we then did had both ups and downs; that's where this picture of the rhododendron was taken.



I decided to lead on our final leg (Low Gap II--going down this time) in order that I could ice my knee prior to leaving the GSMNP. If one gets a little advanced of the group, one is more apt to encounter surprises unless one talks to oneself very loudly. In many of my early hikes shortly after starting hiking back in 2005, I often led in hopes that I would see a bear; today it happened. I rounded a curve and low and behold there was a good size male (I think--he did not expose self that much) on the trail. (If you look carefully at this picture you'll see some "extra black" just to the left of his head--you can enlarge by clicking on it.) This I subsequently learned was another bear (assume female or one large cub) who quickly left the trail on the downhill side after seeing me.



I had frozen in my tracks upon the initial citing, after all, bears are supposed to be scared of people. However, the male bear obviously did not know what his reaction was supposed to be when he saw a human; he just eyed me for what seemed to be a very long time! Turning around and running on my part would have totally been inappropriate because the literature states that such a behavior could result in being chased (when I worked for the Forest Service back in the 50's we were told that at least Idaho bears could beat a race horse in 50 yds); having nothing better to do, I zoomed in on him to get the next picture.



Although it seemed like quite awhile, he eventually followed his mate (or offspring) down the embankment. I moved cautiously forward down the trail yelling as I went until I had well-passed the point they had originally defended; I also frequently looked back to ensure that I was still alone on the trail.

I was icing my knee ~16:00 and enjoying a soft drink (that John provided) when my cohorts arrived at our vehicles; it was then that I took out my camera and asked BZ to look at my last picture; although I had not looked at it yet, by his exclamation I knew that I had captured the moment. Shortly thereafter we left the Cosby parking lot; I dropped John off at the Cracker Barrel ~17:35 and arrived home ~18:05; I had put on ~150 miles roundtrip.

Pedometer trivia:
15.69 mi.
33,154 steps
31,367 aerobic steps
1,224 kcal burned