Bald Mountain and a Story

Today (Wednesday) is a gray day!
It is blowing light to moderate rain
so that I dare not take out my camera.
Perhaps I will procure a gray shot later,
as the fog and the mist here masking
the mountains and drifting in and out
is amazingly fun and wonderful to study!
The mountains are always changing.
Here is a shot (however) of a rocky,
bald mountain peak through the trees
Saturday, last. Photos never really
do these things justice, as it is
a massive and a bold structure.
Click to enlarge (that may help get my
previous point across!) Honestly,
I am usually quite disappointed at
many of my photos, as they cannot
convey the size, mass and volume
of what 'goes on' here.
The Story (as previously promised...)
:)
...On Saturday,
I saw something that made me
scream out full volume! As I told
of previously, we took a car journey
deep into the Appalachians and off
the Blue Ridge Parkway on a gravel
road to procure the shots that started
the week here on "Whoa...at Home in the
High Country."
The Story: As we were standing near a one lane
bridge with a small waterfall~~photographing,
a convoy of 'bad boy' BIG 4X4 trucks....
(5 in total) came whipping up the gravel
road leaving a gray-white trail rising.
My husband urged me, "Honey, step
off the bridge, quickly!!" (as it was a
true one lane bridge in the boonies
without side rail and such.)
To my amazement, the convoy
never slowed down one iota!
But~~ that's not all, friends. On
the back of the middle truck, which had rails
and a large grated box with compartments
on it, laid draped ONE HUGE (very big;
startlingly BIG) hunter's catch; a very dead
(and I'm sorry here...)
BLACK BEAR.
He was massive in size...much larger than
I ever would have thought or dreamed that
a bear in the parkway could be. Honestly,
I'm no bear expert of any kind (obviously...)
but he looked to be the size of a grizzly.
He was the kind of bear that~~
if I did see this size creature anywhere
near me in the wild woods; I would be
very tempted to simply RUN off. I mean shag it.
He was so large that he scared me
(even in his most unfortunate condition...)
The trucks sped by, stealthily removing their
catch up and up the long and the winding gravel trail.
And they were scary too [I mean the people...
(...and who were they; were they poachers...red-neck
hunter-type people...were they normal people, I mean
???) with their blackened car windows up,
rifles and ammunition everywhere~~and the gravel flying...]
Needless to say, my husband and myself
decided to head up and OUT, at this point as
neither of us had a single clue that it was most likely
bear hunting season in the Blue Ridge.
So today, an ode to the Big Black Bear...
Alas, this one, will travel the Blue Ridge,
no more, no more.