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Re: minearl king marmots ?!?!

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:56 pm
by daverudolph
I just got out of this area without any such problems. It is a subject that recurs while one is on the trail especially in the home stretch.The interesting thing to me was that where I parked for 4 nights (Mosquito Lakes trailhead) directly across the river from the pack station, all cars including mine left their hoods up as the precaution. I only saw one car with fencing around the base. On the other hand cars parked at the lot for the Sawtooth Pass trailhead all had hoods closed while most were enclosed with fencing. Keep in mind that I was gone for the duration and I am unaware of whether any visitors had problems with the marmots nor what protection might have been used while I was gone. I will say though that before I settled into the Mosquito lot I was parked at the Sawtooth lot long enough to see a hiker leave his car unprotected and as soon as he was on his way a marmot scooted across the lot and found his way to the underside of this vehicle, all within minutes. Witnesses did scoot her away but you get the idea.

Re: minearl king marmots ?!?!

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:25 pm
by quentinc
I've never had a problem in all the dozens of times I've parked in Mineral King, but the weekend before last, a marmot chewed the foam handle off one of my hiking poles in Darwin Canyon! I could not believe it. Other than cockroaches, marmots are my first choice for a species that should be extinguished from the face of the earth. :)

Edited to add: I see that AlmostThere had the same experience in Yosemite. I should have read his/her post sooner (like before my trip!).