I have seen boar in the Smokies and thought they were kinda big, but not really that scary - Of course I know they are dangerous. But this weekend on a section of Benton Mckaye Trail close to Farr Gap I saw a big black sow with piglets. She was so big that it scared the crap out of me. I would have guessed 400 pounds, but then I did some research online and it does not seem that they ordinarily get that big. She was so big that her body looked liked a small hippo. And when she saw me, just before her and the piglets took off down the hill, she looked right at me. Her face was more like that of a domestic pig - actually she had a sweet face, sorta pretty for a pig.
The size of her put the fear of god in me. You could not outrun that. And when it caught you.... no stick in the world would be big enough to beat that thing off you.
The piglets were typical brown and tan stripe, but I did not really get much more than a glimpse of their rear ends.