Exploring NC

I had one of the most exciting weeks I have had in a while.  I went to a couple of new places, and saw a bunch of animals.  It all started out earlier this week along the blue ridge parkway.  When looking at a map, I found an area north of boone that I havent been to, so I decided to ride along it and look for trees for my night photography.  The animals were out today!  I noticed a number of deer and some pretty landscapes, but I was having trouble finding a good tree.  As I am driving down the parkway, I notice a large animal in the middle of the road.  I have seen a loose cow before on the parkway, so I thought it was pretty normal.  I drove closer and pulled over, and to my amazement, it was a large black bear!
I quickly grabbed at my camera, but it ran swiftly up the side of the mountain before I could capture it.  I looked around for a while, but the bear was gone like a ninja.  It was pretty quick for a 6 ft creature.  Anyways I was all excited about the bear, but I still wanted a good picture so I kept driving down the parkway.  I eventually found another deer, and this one didnt mind me staying within 30 ft of it, close enough to get some good pictures.  Here is one of the pictures, and in it you can see why they call it the blue ridge parkway

Later on in the week, I decided to check drive over to Randleman Lake to check out the morning fog.  After trudging through the woods for a bit, I realized that the area had a ton of spiders!  I got the picture of the lake and then decided to try to find the best wed that I could.  I eventually found a large orb weaver spider and it was perfectly positioned with the lake in the background!  Getting too excited about the photo, I backed into another web, and felt a creature walking on top of my head….it was a large brown spider!  That freaked me out a little bit so I got the picture and left before I got bit.
When getting home.. I realized there was some small bug walking on my arm…and with careful inspection i noticed it was a tick!  …I kept looking and I kept finding ticks…until I found over 70, mostly on my ankles and legs, and they were just starting to bite.  A couple days later, I am covered with bites, but so far no signs of Lime disease!  In the end though, the spiders and ticks were well worth the adventure of trying to find a new area.
Here are the two pictures I got from the lake: