Lost, Found, Rescued and Saved. And God used A Bear too! This is a long story with several parts ~ I cant leave any thing out So I am going to post it with photos I too along the way. I am sorry but there are no bear photos but there is a bear and it plays a major role in the story. Part 1 A photographic Adventure It was a beautiful day and anticipation of capturing something beautiful with my Nikon Camera was high. Early Sunday Morning my wife drove me through the entrance of Cades Cove Park and dropped me off at the trailhead for Abram Fall’s. One of the few places left of interest for me photography wise was to take a photo of Abram Falls, I had made a decision to hike the long trail and get there in time to have some great lighting for my photography. I told my wife that since I had, had some leg pain, from hiking the day before, that I was not planning on getting off the trail, but would hike the trail and that way if something happen, there would be people available to get help. But I also told her that if there was a route to hike that would take me over to the visitor center, I might would take that route on my way back. I took a moment to let her know what I had with me. I had my trusty “Buck” Knife that I purchased when I was 16, it’s been on many a camping trip and has proven its use to me over and over. I described what I had in my back pack, two apples, two peanut butter and homemade grape jelly, a pack or two of Ritz Crackers, 4 or 5 Cutie Mandarin Oranges, and 4 bottles of water and a pack full of camera accessory’s, including a Mirror 300 mm lens, my phone, a walk about walkie talkie, my Nikon D 300 and the 18 by 200 mm lens, a Nikon P520 camera, and a box of miscellaneous SD cards, and a flash card. I grabbed a small Led flash light that had a small carabineer with it, but I also took the neck strap that went with the light. I also grabbed my SB 800 Nikon Speed light, and my tri-pod. I mentioned to her not to worry but if I did not make it out by 6:00 she best send someone after me. I told her that I had the food and a whistle, that will split your ears open and could be heard from miles around, my knife, but nothing to start a fire with, but not to worry I felt like I had good survival instincts but lighting a fire was not one of them! I also had some vitamin C, some Turmeric pills for pain relief and my asthma spray. I was all set for short term emergency. I had not gone over a plan in such detail as I did this time, but then again I was taking a much longer hike then I had been taking. The pack was way too heavy so I drink one of the bottles of water, and handed my 50 mm lens back to my wife and my 11X16 mm lens back saying I won’t need these, plus if I get lost and or something happens I would not want to lose the 11X16 mm lens and there was no real reason to care it with me. She paused a moment looked at me and said are you feeling like something might happen? You have never gone over a hiking trip plan like this in all the years we have been married. She knows I am not tied down by a trail but this time I told her I was staying on the trail. I told my wife I loved her put my pack on and started for a photographic adventure. I didn’t even make it to the bridge at the trail head before I spied beautiful color of fall and so I started shooting right there. The very first time I set up my tri pod the thing pinched me so hard that I started bleeding all over my tri pod, not realizing at first that I had been bleeding. Oh great I thought, bears are going to really like me… peanut butter in the pack and the fresh smell of blood. A black Bear is thought to have one of the best senses of smell of animals, with up to 7 times better than a blood hound. So I took out some lens cleaners and wiped my tri pod down as best I could and kept on taking photo’s and then moving on up the trial stopping every now and then to take a scenic shot in or capture some of the beautiful fall colors. Thinking that an injury like this was a bad way to start the day out, and nursing a good size cut on my hand that seemed to not want to stop bleeding I continued on. Little did I realize that the day was going to get much worse? See Part 2 in comments. Hold all comments till I have finished posting.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 23:56:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015