We started the day expecting rain.  The hike began at Newfound Gap with a goal of Davenport Gap on the north side of the Smokies. About 3 pm we could see the clouds forming over Tennessee.  We began looking for a suitable tent site which was no easy task as this portion of the trail traveled along a ridge for many miles leaving no level ground. We were almost at Pecks Corner Shelter but wanted to avoid staying there due to what I had read about rodent problems.  Finding a spot about twenty yards off the trail we began setting up. I found a suitable tree to hang our food bag safely out of a bears reach.  Jeff and Josh went about setting up our two man and one man tents.  It started to rain about 4 pm.  Not wanting to leave our packs in the rain we decided to put all three in the one man tent and we could cram into the two man tent.  We were literally touching the walls on all sides.  I thought about seeing if I could make room in the one man with the packs but it was just a passing thought.

We set about trying to occupy our time until dark.  Josh and I were on the sides with Jeff in the middle. The rain and wind was relentless. Finally about 8 pm it was getting dark and we drifted to sleep.  Around 11 pm I awoke with a start after hearing something scrap the tent down the left side of my body.  I thought it must have been some animal because there had been no branches hitting the tent all night.  My head was stuck in the corner with my body running down the side of the tent.  That changed.  I moved as far as I could from any tent surface and lay there listening.  The rain made that hard.  About ten minutes later something grabbed the corner of the tent that used to cradle my head and shook it with a growl.  I shot to the other side of the tent with my heart bursting out of my chest while shaking Jeff. “Get your knife, there’s something out there.” He awoke a little disoriented.  The shaking had stopped before he was fully awake. We sat there for a bit, Joshua still sleeping, and listened.  Nothing.  We decided, hopefully, that it was a raccoon.  We laid down again but I couldn’t go to sleep. 

About twenty minutes later (time was very relative at this point) I heard rustling around the pack tent.  Jeff grabbed my small LED light, opened the tent door and peered around our tent toward the the pack tent about ten feet away.  He came back in and said everything looked still with no animals in sight.  We continued listening and heard the occasional noise, when all of the sudden there was the unmistakable noise of the other tent.  Once again Jeff opened the tent door and this time yelled, “Hey! Get outta here, get outta here!” He used the LED light again but was having trouble seeing the tent.  I handed him my head lamp and he was startled to see a rectangular dry spot where our tent had been.  Josh was finally awake and we were all thinking bears.

While we listened to the crashing sound move away from us we sat there stunned. The tent was gone, our packs were gone.  The crashing stopped only to be replaced with a ripping, cracking, tearing sound that lasted for some time.  We envisioned our tent and our packs being torn to shreds. I thought about trying to walk to the next shelter a mile or so up the trail but we were worried about running into other bears that might be close by.  I could never hear the bear walk around but would occasionally hear a twig or branch break at various places around our site.  All we could do was wait.

About 4 am I couldn’t wait anymore and talked the guys into going out and relieving ourselves because there was no way I could make it until morning.  We shined our lights all around but there was no bear in sight.  We looked into the ravine but could not see our gear.  This gear contained my bear whistle and long knife. Not smart.  We retired back to our tent to continue the vigil until daylight.  I lay there with my tiny Swiss Army knife thinking about how we might fight this bear when he finally started destroying our tent.  I was imagining a bear about eighteen inches on all fours, kind of a big bull dog, a bear that was going to cause serious damage but a bear we might be able to fight.

Around 6 am I unzipped the window in the tent door to watch the daylight coming.  The lights of Tennessee were amazing. It was starting to get light but I laid back down waiting for the day to fully begin. Soon after laying down I heard a loud snort next to Jeff’s head.  I jumped up and unzipped the window opposite the door.  As I did I saw the bear walking away. He turned his head to face me and gave a big growl and walked slowing up the hill until he was out of sight.  The image of a ‘manageable’ bear was quickly erased.  He was huge! Maybe three feet tall on all fours and upwards of 250 lbs.  We didn’t stand a chance. At that point I wanted to leave.  He seemed to be saying that enough was enough.

Before climbing out I noticed puncture marks on the tent where he took his first swipe and then where he grabbed the tent and shook.  Chilling. We walked over to the ravine.  About thirty yards down a newly carved tunnel through the under brush we could see the color of the tent. I kept watch for the bear while Jeff went down to check on things.  Josh ran the gear back up the hill.  The tent was shredded with every pole snapped.  Our packs had puncture marks all over with some small rips but were mostly intact.  He had punctured several water bottles and dry sacks and thrown clothes further down the ravine. Everything was soaked.  While keeping an eye out we backed the remaining tent along with our other gear.  We cut down the food bag, it was untouched.  All in all things were looking better.  We could not decide if we should continue or turn back. We started forward for about a mile when we stopped to talk.  We were going to run short on water with several of our containers out of commission but what bothered me most was how I was going to sleep the next night without hearing every snap and pop of the forest.  We decided that if we headed back now would could make our starting point before nightfall so we set off.

I had very mixed feelings. I so wanted to finish but fear won in the end. It’s going to be some time before I can camp in a wood with bears.

Charlies Bunion on the left with the AT off to the right.