(Daily Mi: 12.0) Extremely wacky day. Crossed into NY. Ended up getting up close and personal with an aggressive bear. Set out this AM with the intention of guerilla camping in Harriman State Park about 20 miles on. Surprisingly tough trail though. At one point it took almost an hour to cover 3/4 of a mile (lots of scrambling and hand-over-hand climbing). Lots of boney ridgewalking and minor ups and downs as well. Crossed over Wildcat Rocks at about 2:00 and hit the side trail to the Wild Cat shelter (12 miles from Wawayanda) about 2:15. Normally I wouldn't have bothered with the shelter. It was a half mile down the sidetrail, and I had no intention of stopping for the night. But I was in sore need of water, and there was a spring on the way to the shelter. The shelter was set on a steep ledge about 150 yards past the spring, and I ambled a little closer to check it out.

As I approached the base of the rise, a black head poked out the front of the shelter. A bear! He ambled down the steps and began nosing about for food. I snapped a picture and retreated to the spring to treat my water and give the bear some space.

I had just mixed two batches of chlorine dioxide when I happened to look up and see the bear. He was jogging towards me down the sidetrail. I stood to my full height and grabbed my hiking poles. Striking what I believed to be an aggressive posture (it felt pretty aggressive anyway) I began to beat my poles together and shout at the charging animal.

He didn't even slow down.

As he closed to within five feet, I grabbed my pack and wheeled from his path. He quickly adjusted course and kept coming. When I grabbed the pack, I had registered my garbage bag in an exterior mesh pocket. This was most certainly among the things the bear had winded in the first place. I grabbed the trash and threw it clear and to one side of the bear who once more changed course. As he tore into this, I slipped past and hustled (somewhere short of running) up the sidetrail to the AT.

I'm not certain how I knew he was still behind me. I may have turned and looked, but I can't remember. I do remember not wanting to break into a full run (although my panic must have been pretty obvious at this point). When I finally made it to the AT I began back the direction I had come figuring I knew the terrain (some high rocks not too far back) and that I was most likely to encounter support heading south.

Almost immediately I noticed a familiar pack by the trailside.

"Piper!" My friend Piper was taking a break somewhere nearby just off the trail.

"Piper!" I called again, "a very aggressive bear is following. Get your pack and get moving."

"What." Piper stepped bemusedly from the trees.

"Your pack. Put on your pack. A very aggressive..." I began again pointing back to the side trail where the bear decided to illustrate my point by suddenly emerging.

Following my same initial approach Piper struck an aggressive pose in the center of the trail and began yelling at the bear while loudly beating his hiking poles together.

The bear did not even blink.

Piper quickly collected his pack and followed in my wake with the bear now less than 20 feet behind.

Coming around the next bend, I almost trampled two hikers (Evergreen and Snaps) I had who had been at Brink Road and again at High Point Shelter earlier in the week.

"Dudes!" I repeated my warning about the bear.

They stared blankly for a moment, understanding but not registering my words. Then Piper came around the corner with the bear now all but nipping at his heels. They grew wide eyed and quickly joined the urgent migration south.

Discussing the situation as we fled we drew the general conclusion that the bear was "whacked in the head" but would not likely stand up to four hikers unless he was "really whacked in the head". Coming around another bend to the first high rock, we quickly mounted and formed a perimeter, beating our sticks and began shouting in unison.

The bear at last broke off the chase (my guess is from boredom rather than fear). We gave him five minutes and then began tentatively back up the trail.

My water bottles were still by the spring. I skipped the treatment and guzzled half a quart more or less right from the spring.

Looking back on it, it is pretty clear to me that the bear had been given snacks more than once, most likely by day hikers, and had come to see people as a quick and easy source of snack food. In addition, the bear had clearly come to associate the shelter with sloppy cooking and clean up -- the next morning another hiker saw what we guessed to be the mother (and what he described as the biggest black bear he had ever seen) sitting on a ledge above the shelter avidly awaiting our departure.

This is really unfortunate for the bears, as they are almost certain to be eventually labeled as aggressive and be deported (if not outright destroyed) and a real problem for hikers trying to use the shelter (not to mention the only reliable water source in a twenty mile stretch).