Trail

What a great day! The Lands Run Gap is at mile 9.2 of the Skyline Drive. There is a parking lot there. Park and hike down the gravel path, which is a fire escape route. It takes you to the 'falls', which is more like a trickle if it hasn't rained recently. Nevertheless, the path is beautiful. It winds slowly as you descend about 1000 feet. We were listening to our books and making our way to the bottom when I saw some movement to my right. There was a deer standing behind a tree about a 100 feet away. I took out my camera, attached the zoom and was clicking away when we heard a rustle just behind us. As luck would have it there was bear running toward us. It was sheer luck to have a zoom ready. Little did I know that it was coming right at us. I think at about 25 feet it caught sight of us, came to a sliding stop and took off tangentially. That is when I managed to focus on it and take that picture. Wow! a memorable event. Finally I got a picture of those elusive black bears.