Dancin' down them dirty, dusty trails...: Hikes and bears on Giant Ledge

Someone was kind enough to clue us in.

Hike name: Giant Ledge (on Panther Mountain)

Length: 7 miles, but we did about 7.5 due to a wrong turn/singing Disney tunes and not paying attention to trail markers

Peak elevation: 3,170ft (966m)

It was a girls weekend, something I'd never done! And of course we called ourselves "Team Bad" in homage to Michael Jackson. Eda, Rachel, and I drove up to Rikka's house and the 4 of us ventured out to the Woodland Valley Campgrounds near the town of Phoenicia in the Catskill Mountains. Saturday was for campin' and hikin'. Sunday we breakfasted in Phoenicia, and then rode jet skis in the Hudson River (a first for me!).

.75 left to Giant Ledge, after the first 2.75 miles.

I'd done the Giant Ledge hike twice previously with my family - it was where my family and close friends spread the ashes of a very dear friend in 2006. Usually it's been a easy, breezy 3 mile round-trip hike from the parking lot, but going from Woodland Valley Campgrounds more than doubled that. Worth the trek as the view up there. whether summer or fall, is breathtaking! The hike took us through the green, peaceful woods, up and down some steep stairmaster worthy patches, all the way to the views from the Ledge. You can hike further to the peak of Panther Mountain, but we did not, and I hadn't in the past. Since we had no idea how long the hike would actually be, we kind of mentally and physically overexerted ourselves thinking "We're almost at the top", singing at least 50 different songs at the top of our lungs the whole way up.

The way down was slightly quicker, slightly quieter, and mostly providing us with the idea that soon we would be at the campsite cookin' up some hot dogs and s'mores. We thought the animal encounter highlight of the day was the sweet little chipmunk who dared to eat organic berries and fresh almonds from our hands. We were wrong!

Amazing sketch I did of what I saw. Amazing.

Not 8 minutes from the end of the hike, just after I had pointed out "You can see cars!" I froze when I saw there, not very far, maybe 30 feet away a black bear on our path. I am also pretty sure I saw mama bear to the left but because I am not 100% she is only half finished in my mystical sketch. Now before you get all, "Oh you shoulda made some noise", have you ever seen a bear in your path looking curiously at you? It stops your heart the first time. I've seen some bears out in Yellowstone from the safety of a car, this was different! Also there's a first time for everything, maybe next time we'll pile up on each other's shoulders and sing Disney tunes at the bear to scare it off. Maybe.

Although Rikka was in front of me, I saw the bear first and said "There's a bear." It took at least 60 - 75 seconds to convince her, she must have believed some part of me because she remained still, looking at me while trying to convince me to quit joking around. I could see this teen bear (bigger than a cub) behind her and all I could think was "Stay still, don't make eye contact, be cool." Rikka was convinced and we stepped back a few feet to meet Rachel and Eda. "There's a bear on the path," I said, and once again no one believed me!! Not until Rikka slowly, quietly peaked over and said, "There's a f**king bear" was everyone onboard. In the haze of adrenaline (panic, fear, excitement, shock), we forgot we were hungry and dead tired and quickly, literally slid down the rest of the hike. There were maybe 50 feet of slightly damp leaves off to the side, and down we went. The bear followed us down too, slowly and curiously. We came out onto someone else's campsite and informed them of the bear, which I got one last good look at, and they all hopped in their cars to honk horns, and make noise.

Needless to say, we were pumped up the rest of the night and the park rangers came over to us twice to hush us up. We couldn't help laughing, singing, and being loud to scare off any other bears hoping to get some of our food! We got to learn some more information from the second park ranger who informed us that the teen bear and mama bear had been spotted around the campground after our hike encounter. He said that there are bear sightings on the campground at least twice a week because they're after food, but seeing the bears on the trail was a once in a lifetime experience. He also clued us in to a sad fact: the bear population in the Catskills is the highest it's been in decades at about 2,800, whereas not too long ago there were 500 of them. As a result, hunting season was opened for huntin' bears this month.