Smoky Mountain black bears are pretty active in July, and the national park’s really awesome wildlife management team has been kind enough to let me tag along with them: they even invited me to meet them at the trailhead (undisclosed trail) at 5:30 a.m. this morning to go check a bear trap, which they’d set in the hopes of catching a bear that’s been hanging around humans a little too much for their liking.
So I got up at 4:20 a.m, stumbled around and grabbed my (NEW! High Definition!) video camera, a powerbar, and some coffee, and went zipping up into the mountains. As you probably figured out if you read the title of this post, the trap was empty. But the view driving back down Little River Road to park headquarters was definitely worth getting up early for.
Keep checking back for bear footage. I promise there will be some, someday. In the meantime, click the photo below to enjoy the vista (filmed in high def, just like National Geographic!), accompanied by guitar music from Bill Mize.
