Saddling Up For Tennessee

WHERE'S THE BEEF?
THE PAST TEN DAYS IN THE BUFFALO VALLEY AROUND MORAN have been mostly cool, breezy and rainy, atypical for late August/early September. Today however is sunny and warm---a good moment to be packing up and saying goodbyes for now. It's time to leave, since never in my recollection have there been so many grizzly bears down low---instead of up in the higher country----this early in the fall. Evidently it's because the pine beetle blight has killed so many pine forest stands with pine nuts---bears' favorite bulk up food for winter---in higher elevations and grizzlies have been forced to come back down. It's had a sobering effect on my fishing and hiking here this year. Believe me, I've seen and encountered many more grizzlies than I could ever wish for in a lifetime. Frankly, I don't want to push my luck right now.

That and very limited Internet connection have me to almost looking forward to getting back to the city soon. Anyway, I'll put up some links as I proceed, but mostly will be in travel mode for the rest of the week. Hope to be back to civilization and a bit more computer functional next week.