New Jersey: the land of bears and blueberries

This is day number six for me on the A.T. since I started last Tuesday at Delaware Water Gap, right at the border of New Jersey and PA. By chance, I started on one of the hottest days in New Jersey history, with temperatures reaching to 100 and the heat index at 115. Luckily there are some beautiful ponds and lakes along the trail to stop and cool off at. I've made it through most of New Jersey and the feared rocks-thankfully! I should make it to New York by sometime this week for a trail reunion with some hiker friends whom I hiked with last year that live in the area. Good times ahead.

Here in Jersey, hunting bear is prohibited and you can tell on the Trail. I encountered five bear in five days while on the Trail and it appears as though they are very much accustomed to humans. The other day as I was taking a break and stretching my legs, I looked up to find a mama bear and her two cubs walking towards me. I quickly grabbed my hiking poles and started clanking them together with the hopes of scaring them off. The two cubs ran away while the mother simply stood and stared at me, panting heavily. I continued to clank my poles and hollering out loudly, hoping to scare her off somehow. She gingerly started walking into the woods but still staying close to the Trail, looking back at me nonchalantly. When I lost sight of her, I started again on the Trail but soon enough saw her again about 50 yards in the Trail from me, this time just sitting there staring at me! I crouched down and slowly moved back nervously, clanking my poles together and hollering out whatever sounds I could muster out of me. I had never encountered bear before quite like this and I was afraid that the mama bear was acting in protection of her cubs and was ready to do whatever needed to protect them! Yikes! After about five minutes (it felt like 5 hours!) of clanking and hollering, the mama bear and her cubs eventually walked off and I walked on, more like ran on, nervously northbound continuing to clank my poles and hope to be bear free for the rest of the day!

I guess what happened that day is typical here in Jersey. The mama bear could have been protecting her cubs but she was most likely just tired and accustomed to seeing humans that she didn't feel the need to run off. With that said, I've been keeping an eye out for fresh wild blueberries and friendly bears here on the Trail :)

Until next time,

Gaucha