Mama bear and cubs amble onto tracks as mountain coaster nears, Tennessee video shows
A little yellow cart hoofing it down the tracks of one of Gatlinburg’s mountain coasters was impeded by unexpected rail crossers over the weekend, video shared on TikTok shows.
The culprits? A family of black bears.
The incident occurred on the Rail Runner at Anakeesta, an outdoor theme park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, that encompasses more than 50 acres in the Great Smoky Mountains with zip lines, adventure courses and lookout points.
Bear sightings are not uncommon in those parts. Anakeesta, in fact, posted on Facebook about bear cubs climbing trees on the property in May.
The typically shy creatures are less frequently seen on or near noisy amusement rides — with the exception of this family.
TikTok user @ricktock69 shared two versions of the close encounter over the weekend. The first, captioned “Bear vs. Mountain Coaster,” is edited with a cartoon-like soundtrack as a man in a coaster cart rolls toward the mama bear and her two cubs in fast motion. The second shows the action in real-time.
In it, bystanders can be heard gasping as the mama bear puts her two front paws on the coaster’s tracks, seemingly checking out the metal contraption in her path.
The cart, meanwhile, is inching closer.
“I would be freaking out,” one person says.
“Make some noise,” another adds.
The mama bear then leaps up onto the tracks with the two cubs at her heels, the video shows.
“Oh no — stop it,” someone in the video says, referring to the cart.
But at the last minute, mama bear lumbers off. One cub hesitates on the tracks for a moment before following while a second climbs underneath the coaster and chases after them.
The Rail Runner is one of several mountain coasters in the Gatlinburg area. Riders can control the speed of the cart — which maxes out at 25 mph — using a hand break on the 1,600-foot downhill track, according to its website.
Anakeesta temporarily closed in March at the start of the coronavirus pandemic but reopened in May with temperature checks, mask requirements and social distancing rules.
State officials in North Carolina shut down a similar coaster, the Wilderness Run Alpine Coaster in Sugar Mountain, in August, citing Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order barring amusement parks from operating, according to a Facebook post. Tennessee allowed amusement parks to reopen in May as long as they followed strict social distancing measures.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Mama bear and cubs amble onto tracks as mountain coaster nears, Tennessee video shows."
