Gamecock Fans in Yellowstone

Uscg1984 said:

I spent two days in Yellowstone this week and met a bunch of Gamecock fans. We met four other couples in different parts of the park who were either wearing Gamecocks gear or called out to us when they saw ours. We saw two of these couples in busy places like the Old Faithful visitors center and the Norris Geyser basin, but the other two were at "what are the odds?" kinds of places like along the river at the bottom of the Tower Falls hike and at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic site in Deer Lodge, MT. I also met another group from Easley who were visiting Montana with a youth ministry group, but at least some in that pack were Clemson fans.

It almost seemed like there were just two groups of people in Yellowstone this weekend; Gamecock fans and Asian tourists.

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rockingamecock said:

A few years ago just outside the Tower of London I ran into a guy wearing a Gamecock hat who happened to live 15 miles away from us.

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Uscg1984 said:

Yeah, when I was in London in April, I wore my Gamecock hat most days and got a couple of shoutouts from Gamecocks fans. A few years ago, I ran into some Gamecock fans from Irmo outside the Talisker Distillery on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. That was probably the most unexpected place I've met other Gamecock fans.

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Uscg1984 said:

I spent two days in Yellowstone this week and met a bunch of Gamecock fans. We met four other couples in different parts of the park who were either wearing Gamecocks gear or called out to us when they saw ours. We saw two of these couples in busy places like the Old Faithful visitors center and the Norris Geyser basin, but the other two were at "what are the odds?" kinds of places like along the river at the bottom of the Tower Falls hike and at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic site in Deer Lodge, MT. I also met another group from Easley who were visiting Montana with a youth ministry group, but at least some in that pack were Clemson fans.

It almost seemed like there were just two groups of people in Yellowstone this weekend; Gamecock fans and Asian tourists.

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Uscg1984 said:

Oh, yeah, we saw 3 bears on this trip. Two definite black bears and a cinnamon colored bear at a distance that all the tourists around us were certain was a griz. But black bears can also be colored like that I and I couldn't get a good look at the bear's nose, ears, or "hump" (or lack thereof), so I can't be sure. It certainly could have been a griz, but there wasn't a ranger around, I didn't have my binoculars with me, and you certainly can't trust a tourist's opinion.

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o_Pepsicock said:

Back in the day we went out there. We went to see Badlands, Devils Tower and Yellowstone ' We saw a clemmer at the Badlands. Out in the middle of nowhere. lol

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18IsTheMan said:

I turned it on for a bit last night. About 10 seconds after I turned it out, the ball was kicked out of bounds. Then it happened again 25 seconds later. I won't deny there is a good bit of strategy and skill in the ball movement, but it seems there's just as much wildly wailing on the ball to just kick as far and as hard you can away from your end of the field.

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Uscg1984 said:

I think they're generally just opportunists. I'm not a bear expert either, but I've seen grizzlies on visits to Yellowstone any time between mid-May and mid-September at "lower elevations." Of course, virtually the entire park is above 7000' and Canyon Village is about 7900', so "lower elevations" is a relative term.

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Uscg1984 said:

Yes, bears have an incredible sense of smell. As an elk hunter, whenever I pack out a quarter and come back to the elk carcass to retrieve the rest of the meat, I'm very very careful. If possible, I try to glass the kill site from a distance before approaching. Of course, this is 100 miles or more from the park in the national forests. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks used to tell hunters there were two distinct ecosystems of grizzlies in Montana; in and around Glacier NP and Yellowstone NP. As their territories have expanded and the two ecosystems have merged, FWP's official advice to hunters now is to be prepared to see grizzlies anywhere in the western half of Montana. Fortunately, I've never seen one while hunting, but I have caught one on a game camera in my hunting area. And I have seen plenty of FWP fliers at trailheads warning of recent griz activity in a particular area.
As for black bears, they're just everywhere, it seems. I see them almost every time I go into the park and several times while hunting or hiking on the USFS lands.

Make no mistake, the griz in Yellowstone don't just hang out at the edges of the park. lol. The park is immense and the average tourist sees less than 1% of it. It's true that you likely won't see a grizzly from a boardwalk or paved walking trail, but they aren't far away and there are grizzly sightings by tourists virtually every day of the summer. Two hikers were mangled by a grizzly on the Mystic Falls trail in May, which is one of my favorite short hikes in the park, and it's probably less than 2 miles from Old Faithful. There are few things better than doing a true hike in Yellowstone to get away from the crowds of people, but definitely carry bear spray.

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Uscg1984 said:

As for black bears, they're just everywhere, it seems. I see them almost every time I go into the park and several times while hunting or hiking on the USFS lands.

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