The Great Smoky Mountains national park has had a black bear problem for weeks in the back end of Cades Cove at the Abrams Falls Hiking Trail and has finally been forced to close the trail for visitor and the bear's safety.
The closure of the Abrams Falls Hiking Trail starts on the dirt road before the parking lot area so the Rabbit Creek hiking trail in Cades Cove is also affected.
There are other hiking trails with black bear problems in the Great Smoky Mountains national park which have warnings issued on them include: the Little River hiking trail, The lower portion of Trillium Gap trail near Grotto falls and the lower portion of Crooked Arm Ridge trail.
3 comments:
Just returned from a week at CC and must say there was a bumper crop of bear this year.
It is my understanding that the nuisance bear near the falls is a big one and is getting into cars.
We saw 10 bear in one morning AFTER the mill. That is a record for my family who have camped there for 42 years.
One bear charged some people one evening, but they were crowding him. There is also a mom with three cubs out and about.
It was a great trip despite two very strong storms.
6/20/09 KMS
13 bear in two and 1/2 days (july 20th-july 22nd of 09) no aggressive bears and saw one momma with four cubs who did do a little paw slapping when she got seperated from her babies crossing the road and traffic didn't allow her cubs to follow. abrams falls was open to hikers so the agressive bear problem must have been solved. anyone have dates on when they plan to close the cove for repaving?????
Still a warning on that trail but the chasing of visitors (at least 1 up a tree) has subsided.
Bear, bear everywhere! Every trail, every section I am watching now I see bear and plenty of them.
It seems overflowing garbage pails are more of a problem this year which will only hurt the situation. Fewer pails because of less money to pay for pick up. Pack out what you can to help.
Cades Cove repaving will start in late winter (Feb - March) and is expected to end around Memorial Day. I am hoping everything is done before July 4th weekend. The weather - both temperature and rain are key factors that will determine how long it will take.
We will have some sort of a continuing "progress report" rolling once the work or repaving Cades Cove starts.
Chris Hibbard
YourSmokies
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