June 4. Mama Bear and cub

Tom and Sonya headed home today. We had such a good five days together and it flew by quickly. We are thankful for their friendship!

The first time I ever went backpacking, it was in the Shenandoah Valley with several youth including Brenton. Trev Weiss and I shared a tent. In fact, her and I worked together with the youth for nine years. One of the first nights, we were asleep until I was awaken by a noise that was something big enough to break sticks. I woke up Trev and we decided to scare it off by clapping. Instead of being afraid, it came up and sniffed the tent. Now I was on top of little Trev and we yelled for Pastor Kevin. He found deer. I was so scared! Trev and I will always laugh about the many experiences we had in those days. It felt like we had not skipped a beat when we talked last night.

Here we are in the Shenandoah for the first day. EZ and I hiked 18 miles to Calf Mountain Shelter. It was crowded. The "Wolf Pack" was there and it looked like a party. We wanted quiet so we hiked on. We had two hours of daylight left. After an hour of zero sign of a tent site, we spotted a perfect place. At the same moment we heard a loud noise. It was a Mama bear and her cub coming down a tree 70 yards from us. We watched them and she watched us. She was not afraid like the previous bears. Like the deer, these animals are use to people in this area. That makes them more dangerous. So, we kept hiking. We found a spot about a mile further. That doesn't seem far enough but it was getting dark hopefully the went a different direction. It was neat to see the bear here in the wild but has left me feeling a bit nervous. I will try to sleep. I am very tired tonight.