2010 Bigger, Better, Louder: Let the Adventures Begin!

2010 started out with a bang and so our (hubby's and mine) adventures have begun for the year.


Part One:
After ringing in the New year in Gatlinburg, Tn, among 40,000 (city's best estimate) of our closest friends, we headed back to our hotel with dreams of froliking through the mountains after a few hours sleep. We had originally planed on hiking the Alum Cave Bluff Trail early the next day after our traditional stop at Shoney's breakfast bar. ( a NYE day tradition since me and hubby have been together) But Mother Nature had other plans. Snow and Ice closed the road that we had to take to access the trail. So instead we opted to head over to Laural Falls to hike.
The mountains were frosted just like a cake with the newly fallen powder. It was invigorating and breathtaking. Upon arriving to the head of the Laural Falls trail, we made a rash decision to keep driving on to Cades Cove. We had taken the loop tour the day before when we rolled into town but the thoughts of being in the valley with the mountains frosted all around us made us giddy enough to drive the twisty miles to the loop again.
We were disappointed with the view once we arrived. The snow had seemed hit and miss and totally had skipped over most of the surrounding Cades Cove area. Hubby made the decision to take the "short cut" through the middle of the loop so that we could head back over and do the Laural Falls hike. Turns out that was a very good decision.
As we started down the road, we noticed cars stopping and people hopping out, camera's in tow. Usually, we never stop when we see this because people are usually stopping this time of year to spy on and take advantage of getting close to some of the big pretty bucks that reside in the fields of the cove. Being from Ohio, the area where we live, gives us plenty opportunity to deer watch, hence forth, why we usually don't stop. But we both got a feeling in our gut that this time, a big buck was not what was grabbing everyone's attention.
We found a parking spot off the side of the road and I sent hubby to investigate. Heck if I was getting out of the car, in the single digit temps, just to ogle some deer. I am sitting there when hubby comes near, frantically waving, all owl-eyed, for me to get out of the car. I scurried, knowing what he has spied instantly from the awed expression on his face.
As soon as I shut the car door, hubby was upon me saying "cub!"
That's all well and good I thought but where the heck is mama? Before I could ask, he told me that no one over there knew where mama was and that the cub was just sitting there, near some brush, across the creek, just hanging out.
Our vantage point was safe and pretty good. We were across a creek and the baby didn't seem threatened at all. Everyone was snapping pictures and keeping a good eye out in case mama made an appearance. It was an adorable site. A baby bear cub can warm the coldest of hearts and make you forget all about the freezing air temps. We were enjoying ourselves and talking with the other observers about what luck it was to see a cub this time of year. Even thought the black bears in the smokies do not truly hibernate, the chance of seeing one is way more rare than it would be in any other season. We were all standing there gushing at the cuteness and then the stupid people came.
Our small group of observers must have been spotted off the main loop. Other cars started parking on the other side of the creek. These stupid people made the choice to get right up on this little cub and be all up in its face paparazzi style. I don't think I would have thought bad of them if they had just kept their distance but they got so close the baby started feeling threatened. The cub first tried to hide in the brush and eventually felt scared enough to climb a tree. It made me and hubby both fume but really, what can you do? I can't stand there screaming across the creek at these stupid idiots. They would just look at me like I was crazy and go on. We couldn't help but stand there and wish though that mama would choose then to appear. Not wishing harm on anyone but to see them all scatter because they scared this precious cub would have been priceless. The mama didn't show however so after a few minutes, we decided to get back to the car and move on before more stupid people showed up.