About 4 years back my kids and I camped for a few nights on Santeetlah Creek near Joyce Kilmer Nat. Forest. It’s the most remote road camping I’ve found in NC.
A local bear hunter and his son were out training their dogs and asked to come into our camp as a pair of their dogs were headed that way (tracking collars). While waiting for the dogs to show we had a great time asking questions to which they happily replied.
These guys let the dogs chase the bear and follow along which means they go where the bear goes which is straight up the mountain, then sideways then down then up again and through the thickest brush.
I asked the father what was the most eventful hunt he ever had was. He told me the dogs had chased the bear into a rhododendron thicket but didn’t go inside. He crawled in on hands and knees for 50 yards and heard a grunt, looked up and was face to face with a big bruiser. He reached for his pistol that was strapped to his chest and found he’d zipped up his jacket. Said that was the most scared he’d ever been in his life.
They had a face off for couple of minutes then the bear turned away and headed off. His hunting partner was waiting for it at the top of the ridge and dispatched it.
Aaahhh….Santeetlah Creek. Perhaps only second to nearby Snowbird Creek as my favorite mountain stream. It isn’t as nice now as it was 30 years or so ago. The hemlock wooly adelgid has done a number on the Canadian hemlocks.
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. I don’t think that there is a nicer piece of forest in the eastern United States. Once again, the loss of the hemlocks has been awful, but the yellow poplars are still magnificent. We try to go there every few years and take a photo of us between the two giant yellow poplars that are side by side. Good memories. (Some would say that being a tree-hugger is my greatest failing as a conservative.)