Bear Creek Trail (Smokies)-- Up and down "Jumpup Ridge" in one day. This was another
of those nearly impossible dayhikes of an interior Smokies trail in the Forney Creek (Bryson City, NC) area of the park.
No bears on the trail today but we did find WILD BOAR! 11/11/08
Bear Creek trail involved a 20 mile hike on Veteran's Day, 11/11/08,
from the tunnel on Lake View Drive (Road to Nowhere) out to Bear Creek trail where we hiked up the 3,100' of mostly 17% -
20% grade trail for 5.9 miles to Welch Ridge trail. Parallel to the trail were extensive runs of terraces
which my hiking guide says were cut by the Norwood Lumber company to aid skidding-out of logs to waiting railcars.
We also walked past the access to Hoyle Cemetery.
Views of the surrounding mountains were fabulous and the streaks
of fall color along the sides of Pilot Ridge were exceptionally beautiful.
Click elevation profile image to open full-size in a new window
Our return included a slight diversion across White
Oak Branch trail where we had multiple night-time encounters with a HUGE wild boar.
The wild boar encounter
on Whiteoak Branch trail occured just after sunset. The critter was a big 'un--maybe 300 lbs.--and was eating alongside
the trail when we first encountered him. He moved across a drainage area then stopped and turned around to look back
at us. I shouted at him and he walked on into the bushes.
Apparently he had moved thru those bushes and back
up onto the trail because just a few minutes later we encountered him a 2nd time.
This boar had a very odd color
pattern with a totally white rump. His color, combined with his extraordinary size, made us certain it was the
same porker. This time he snorted loudly and took off down the trail and around the corner. It was quite dark
by now so we could just barely see him even with our hiking headlights.
A bit later we had our 3rd encounter
with the same razorback and this time our lights reflected from his beady little eye as he glared at us and growled from his
position that was only about 15' away on the side of the trail. A long moment of hesitation elapsed before
he scooted up the mountain slope, perhaps in response to my vocal urging.
We stopped
often to listen for any signs that the big boy was still haunting us but we had no more encounters this night. Three
were plenty!
This was the first time my friend
Janice had seen a wild boar in the Smokies (she'd had one enter her basement and dig up her yard in Walland--Jan had
TWRA trap that one!).
This wild boar is representative of
the one we saw on this hike. This critter was trapped about 3 miles from the Smokies in Jan's backyard where
it had been raiding her basement in search of catfood. This one weighed about 200 lbs.
n included a slight diversion across White
Oak Branch trail where we had multiple night-time encounters with a HUGE wild boar.
