Just past dawn I headed out on my usual bike ride - back roads up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's fairly common to see black bears along the way, especially as one rides through more densely forested areas above the Asheville basin. Today was a new record for bear sightings --- I saw six black bears (three adults and three cubs). The first group was a threesome - a momma bear and two large (second year) cubs splayed across road eating acorns off the pavement (photo below) and "horsing" around. While fun to observe, the bear "roadblock" stopped me in my tracks for about 20-30 minutes before they finally moved upslope. Another couple of miles up the road, I encountered more bears - this time, a momma bear with a single cub (see photo). Then, as I got closer to the Parkway, there was a large solitary bear ambling along the road. Why so many bears today? Hard to know for sure, but probably it being early on a Sunday morning had something to do with it (fewer cars, walkers, and cyclists).
A bit of background info on our local bears....Asheville's urban bears are used to encountering humans and are rarely aggressive, with very few reported incidents of people in this area being harmed by bears over the years. There was however a recent incident near Sylva, about 90 minutes away, of a woman walking her dog being attacked by a momma black bear with two cubs (apparently, the bear perceived the dog to be a threat to her cubs).
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Momma bear and two cubs blocking the road
while eating acorns and frolicking around |
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| One of the cubs and the momma bear |
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| Momma bear with single cub |
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