Bears on Glassy Mountain

Well, Spring is officially here on the mountain! We found some good bear paw prints in the neighborhood. It looks like a large bear and a small/medium bear traveling together. Could  be a mother and a 2 year old. Here are the larger of the two paw prints – notice the indentations from the claws!

 

Here is the picture with the smaller print on the left and the larger one on the right. There are some other prints mixed in. I’ve set up a trail camera to try and get some pictures of the bears themselves.

Big And Little Bear

Stinging Plants

While hiking to a waterfall on Glassy Mountain I suddenly felt a sharp sting on my elbow. Ouch! Well it turned out to be a plant called Wood Nettle – similar to Stinging Nettle. I’ve lived up here 10 years and never ran into it until now. Apparently it is edible (gotta be careful) and can help treatment of arthritis. Here are some pictures of the large plants and their many needles.

20121003-222427.jpg

20121003-222552.jpg

Rattlesnakes on Glassy Mountain

Timber Rattlesnakes do live up here on Glassy Mountain. I’ve seen three in the past 10 years. Copperheads are much more common. We see a lot of snakes in our driveway, and have even had two slip into the house! Today, though, our cat cornered a rattlesnake in our garage. A little too close for comfort with pets and kids outside. Here are a few pictures:

This is the same rattlesnake after I used a rake to move it out of the garage. It was not aggressive at all, just slithering along.