Skyline Drive

This black bear was in the tree at Thornton Gap. He walked out that thin limb with all four paws. When he decided to climb down the tree it took less than 5 seconds.

Carita and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by taking an overnight in the Shenandoah Mountains and a drive up the famous Skyline Drive. We got out of Julius and did two nice hikes. The first was at Bearfence Mountain where we hiked part of the AT. On the way to the summit we had to climb over a rock scramble which was much harder than anything in the White Mountains. After lunch at Big Meadows Lodge we hiked down a mile to Dark Hollow Falls. The trail was easy to follow, but had a constant grade; the kind that really gets your heart pumping on the way up. I took liberty from Carita and ran the return trip.

In the Shenandoah's the leaves have turned colors and 70% of them have fallen to the ground for the winter. However, those that remained on the trees were beautifully golden. It was another world and we enjoyed our time, how ever short, that we spent there.

Seeing the bear was icing on the cake for our trip. By 5pm on our last day we had only travelled 40 of the 65 miles of our projected Skyline Drive trip. We decided to cut it short and cut off at Thornton Gap. We must have been drawn to this bear, because it was in a tree on the off-ramp to Thornton Gap that we saw the bear in the tree. What a treat!

We have a video of the bear, but the digital world is not allowing me to upload it hear. I'll try again soon.