What a difference a day makes. After a good night sleep, I felt really good this morning. The wind changed directions overnight and pushed me south through New Jersey. The day started off with a bit of excitement. Several miles from camp, on a country road that runs along Highpoint Park, I saw a large animal crossing a few hundred yards ahead of me and realized it was a bear. My first real bear sighting. The adult bear sauntered across the road and two cubs ran after it. Realizing it was a mama and cubs, I stopped my bicycle for a few minutes and rang my bike bell. I have heard bears are generally scared of humans unless you startle them or get between a mama and her cubs. I wanted to make sure they knew I was there and to try to get them to move on. After a few minutes, a car passed, so I figured it was probably safe. I rang my bell pretty constantly as I passed the area where they were and continued to ring it periodically for the rest of that particular road. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of the bears. By the time I thought of it, they were gone. Read more