“Asheville was in the news again last night,” my father said when he arrived at my apartment for a long weekend visit last week.
Now, my father—luckily (#blessedly)—is not a Fox News devotee. Still, I expected him to say it was some story about how our liberal mayor and city council are ruining downtown by allowing the homeless population to run rampant (my second guess was about how it is the liberal mayor and city council—and not shitty pay—causing a high police office turnover).
It was neither. It was bears. And it wasn’t bears frolicking downtown. It was some assholes interacting with bears that resulted in a closed portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Per the Asheville Citizen-Times:
An eight-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway is closed Oct. 30 until further notice after multiple reports of visitors feeding and attempting to hold a young bear at the Lane Pinnacle Overlook, about 12 miles northeast of downtown Asheville, officials say.
Like, what would possess someone to think attempting to hold a bear cub would be a good idea (I know there are copious answers…none of them are good)?
Thankfully, the Parkway staff did the right thing and didn’t penalize the bear, but the tourists (and honestly, they could’ve just as easily been locals). However, it’s worth noting that if that cub had bitten someone—and rightfully so—it probably would’ve been the one euthanized (not probably, definitely).
In the past three weeks, I’ve seen a family of bears wandering around the green area outside my apartment when I went to sit on the patio and encountered the same family twice in my parking lot. I’ve taken pictures all three times. That’s fine. Bears are fun! But all three times, I’ve taken them from the safety of my car and apartment and didn’t attempt to feed or pick them up because that’s how grownups behave.
AshevilleExplorer 