I was less than ½ a mile into my hike when I saw the bear. His head was too big—like I was seeing him through a zoom lens. That is probably because he was a 400 pounder standing on his hind legs just 35 feet away. Like I said, too big, and too close!

My routine is to keep walking while staring at the bear and try to walk parallel or away—not toward the bear. The trail however, had other ideas. It turned towards the bear and filled itself with sharp rocks. I went from alert to nervous. But not so nervous I couldn’t take my camera out, you understand?

The bear stood up again to look at me and to sniff the air as I drew closer. Yup, big bear. I’d guess he was 6′ – 7′ tall. I got off the one picture from my hip as I walked by since I didn’t want to change my appearance or perspective to the bear by holding the camera to my face. I guess it worked—I’m alive. ¼ mile down the trail I stopped to see if I’d captured the bear in a photo, steadied my breathing and make sure he wasn’t following me.

Bear #6. I appear to be charmed, just don’t tell Grandma Sylvia! Back when my brother and I first started talking about this thru-hike, my maternal grandmother voiced her opinion—as she always did—and made it known that we were nuts and that bears would eat us. So far, so good.

I had an easy 14 mile stroll through light rain today. I am tired so I camped at 3pm, ate lots of food and am trying to go to sleep by 8. Let’s see if I have more energy tomorrow. The mosquitos are bad here, so getting into my tent at 6pm is a relief.

Great views today from the rocky vistas. The AT is looking more and more like the New England trail that inspired me to do this hike in the first place. Blueberries are ripening along the trail and ponds & lakes are getting more common. And the New York border is only 23 miles away!