Trail condition - water and bear info?

[mud-maker]

Starting in GA later this week, hiking from dicks creek gap into NC (30-50 miles) what’s the status of water sources? Any recent bear activity near there or cannister/vault rules I need to know about?

[spfleisig]

Starting in GA later this week, hiking from dicks creek gap into NC (30-50 miles) what’s the status of water sources? Any recent bear activity near there or cannister/vault rules I need to know about?

Sorry but I don't have answers to your questions but I'm doing a similar section hike in July. Let me know how it went after you are done.

[Tennessee Viking]

From indirect knowledge, I have heard of bear sightings or encounters from Dicks Creek to Winding Stair Gap.

Its been real rainy from April to mid May. Within the last week or so, its been some lighter rain and getting quite warm in WNC.

[soumodeler]

There was apparently a bear issue at Standing Indian Shelter recently. I do not know if anything has changed since I heard that about a month ago.

[mud-maker]

Thanks for the info on bear activity... so with the heavy spring rain and light recent rain, water sources should be flowing well?

[daddytwosticks]

Thanks for the info on bear activity... so with the heavy spring rain and light recent rain, water sources should be flowing well?

Don't know about that exact area, but western NC has been VERY wet these last few weeks. Water should be no problem. I may be around Winding Stair Gap and Long Branch Shelter area this weekend. Maybe I'll run into you.

[cneill13]

I live in Atlanta and we have had non-stop rain this spring. The lakes are all topping out so I would assume you will have no problem with water on your hike.

I regards to bears, don't worry about them at all. They are nothing but big raccoons. Hang your food or even better sleep with it and you will have no problems.

[Israel]

I would suggest downloading the guthook guide app for the GA through smokies section. Lots of real time updates/comments by current hikers that will help you. I just did the southern nantahalas from last road in GA to NOC last month. Muskrat Creek Shelter had quite a few bears getting food from bags hung properly as did Standing Indian Shelter. Standing Indian Shelter definitely was the most active- shelter register entries indicated food being stolen nearly every time someone spent the night it seemed. But almost all the shelters and camp sites with registers had entries of bear activity here and there. Hanging food each night and hanging properly is important and I would avoid spending the night at Standing Indian Shelter if at all possible. I hiked up to the summit and camped there instead of staying at the shelter as the hike to summit is pretty easy as most is on an old road bed from the shelter. Given the amount of problem activity from bears it is surprising to me that they have not taken the steps yet to install bear cables at the shelters so as to help bears stop pursuing food bags.

[mud-maker]

Bears got to food that was hung properly? Did you mean improperly?

[mud-maker]

FYI - trip was great. Stayed away from standing indian mtn shelter as shuttle driver said as recently as two weeks ago some hikers were losing food to bears there and had to go into franklin for resupply. Report from people along trail of similar issues at Carter Gap shelter. Apparently due to people not hanging food bags properly. I made sure food bag was hung well each night. No issues. Plenty of water along the trail every 3-6 miles. This section of trail was not difficult at all. Climb out of bly gap was a little steep at first, and Albert mtn was extremely steep, but only the last 1/4 mile before the top. Actually fun looking back on it, and views from fire tower were amazing. 4.5 miles first night from dicks creek to plum orchard, 13.5 day two to standing indian summit, then ~18 miles to rock gap day three.

[JC13]

Thanks for the update, headed that way in a month or so!

[Jayne]

Bears got to food that was hung properly? Did you mean improperly?

Yes, the bear(s) in question are getting PCT hung food bags down successfully. They are pulling down the branches that the bags are hung from and raiding the bags. I had a bear at Dick's Creek Gap that kept coming back to work over my Ursack all night long. He didn't get anything out of it but he put holes in EVERYTHING in the food bag. It looked someone shot it 3 or 4 times with a 12 gauge the next morning. The stupid part is that there is a road right there - it would be easy to install a bear box or cables and save these bears. Someone is going to get hurt if the park doesn't do something about this.

[spfleisig]

Yes, the bear(s) in question are getting PCT hung food bags down successfully. They are pulling down the branches that the bags are hung from and raiding the bags. I had a bear at Dick's Creek Gap that kept coming back to work over my Ursack all night long. He didn't get anything out of it but he put holes in EVERYTHING in the food bag. It looked someone shot it 3 or 4 times with a 12 gauge the next morning. The stupid part is that there is a road right there - it would be easy to install a bear box or cables and save these bears. Someone is going to get hurt if the park doesn't do something about this.

Is the bear just grabbing the paracord to pull down the branch?

[Jayne]

I'm not 100% sure - this was all 2nd hand info from a group of 3 hikers that spent the night with at Carter Gap that got raided the night prior at Standing Indian. There were 5 bags hanging from the same branch and a bear(s) broke the branch and tore apart 4 out of the 5 food bags Two hikers lost all of their food and had to get off of the trail, two lost some food but thought they had enough left to finish their section, and one was basically untouched (the vegetarian hiker - go figure ). Anyway, I think that the bear probably did what you indicated and pulled the cord to bring down the branch. They also may have climbed up on the branch and broken it with their weight. The moral of the story is pick a sturdy branch because bears are more creative than some folks give them credit for. In some areas finding a good horizontal branch can be difficult.