Black Mountain as seen from Black Mountain Pond. We will be climbing up there tomorrow. On the hike towards the shelter we met a ranger who this very morning encountered a black bear. The first he had seen after working for the National Forest for four years. The ranger also gave us some potent bug repellent which did help a little. On this the animal life we saw included 2 snakes, 14 people, many toads, frogs, fish, a beaver, numerous birds, millions of annoying bugs, and a good number of chipmunks.