What Fallie found (and has always wanted to see turn into a butterfly but I made her let it go).
What Fallie found # 14
Matty at the river
Mama bear
Andy got home from camping yesterday and called to say that he found a park ranger at his campsite when he returned from swimming on Monday. There were bear sitings that day, in his campsite, by his tent. The mama bear is looking for her cubs.
Fallie doesn’t like you taking pictures of her when she is roasting marshmallows.
Can you tell how tired she was?
Andy and Matty
Cousins in the hammock at Camp Andy
Snails
Bioluminescent insect larvae
Fallie saw something glowing in the gravel at the campsite. This is what she found when she dug it up! The orange spots along its sides glow in the dark!!! She found two of them during our trip but we have no idea what they are. They were about two inches long. Any ideas?
Black bear cub
After a four and a half hour drive, knowing we have over an hour of work to do (setting up the tent, tarps, air mattresses, making beds, making lunch, putting on bathing suits and then we get to go swim), we pull into the camp ground and the two vehicles in front of us are just stopped. Our campsite is at the very end of the loop - why can’t we just get there?! Oh crap! There’s a bear cub! At the very first campsite! You know who is very close by… Mama Bear is.
But this cub and his sibling were abandoned by their mother. They were captured soon after we arrived. The park rangers said the cubs will be fed because they were undernourished and then let go very far away from the campsites. Good luck little bears.
BRB
We are off to the woods to examine insects, salamanders, and mushrooms. The river is calling and the synchronized fireflies are out. There will be cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandpa, lots of junk food and fried chicken.
firefly camping 2008
moth
Finn and Fallie found this moth last year while camping for the fireflies. It was ill but the girls were very gentle and cared for it and put it in a safe place. Fallie let us take her picture because the moth was so cool. We will be back in the Smokies this week and I cannot wait.
