bear harassment

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Cloudy
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Re: bear harassment

Post by Cloudy »

While I haven't been able to hike in several years, I have had countless bear sightings during the course of my travels in the Sierra. Discounting Yosemite, I would say that I have run into the most bears on the Copper Creek Trail between Granite Basin and Simpson Meadow. Second would probably be the stretch up the Bubbs Creek Trail to Vidette Meadow. Third would be The High Sierra Trail to Bearpaw Meadow and on to Redwood Meadow. I am almost guaranteed of seeing at least one bear at some point on any of these sections of trail. However, I do quietly hike alone, and I keep an eye out for bears...

Alan
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Re: bear harassment

Post by quentinc »

Doyle, I'll stick my neck out of my bear canister far enough to say I'm with you. Still, even if it weren't for the canister rules, there are certain places I'd be awfully iffy about trying to hang food, like in the Rae Lakes vicinity (hard to even find a decent tree there, apart from the fact that the bears are so habituated). Even pre-canister, though, I never had a problem finding space in the bear boxes that NPS thoughtfully provided. That probably wouldn't be the case over a holiday weekend (when, I suspect, they would be full of people's bear canisters -- seriously), but I wouldn't be caught dead going to place as popular as Rae Lakes on a holiday weekend.

I can't fit more than 4 days of food into my Garcia anyway, so on longer trips I just avoid camping in canister-required areas.
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TehipiteTom
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Re: bear harassment

Post by TehipiteTom »

This is getting a little further afield, but...what the heck...

Am I just over-thinking this (well, okay, I'm pretty sure I'm over-thinking it), or is it really in kind of dubious taste to be releasing a Yogi Bear movie in this day and age? I mean, a movie where camp bear behavior is cute and adorable--really?

Besides being sort of a crappy cartoon in the first place, Yogi Bear was an artifact of a time before the current ethic of keeping food away from bears for their own sake became the norm. Every time I see a poster for the Yogi Bear movie the first phrase that goes through my head is "a fed bear is a dead bear". I don't think the movie will change anyone's behavior, but still...it just seems weird to me.

Is my reaction reasonable, or do I just need to get a life (well, okay, I know I need to get a life)?
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Re: bear harassment

Post by quentinc »

TT, you can ban Yogi Bear, but please don't mess with Winnie the Pooh.

It's funny to bring an adult sensibility to classic kid movies. I always get a kick out of picturing NRA members squirming when their kids insist on watching Bambi.
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DoyleWDonehoo
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Re: bear harassment

Post by DoyleWDonehoo »

TehipiteTom wrote:Am I just over-thinking this (well, okay, I'm pretty sure I'm over-thinking it), or is it really in kind of dubious taste to be releasing a Yogi Bear movie in this day and age? I mean, a movie where camp bear behavior is cute and adorable--really?
WAAAAaa ha ha ha ha! :nod: :rolleyes: :lol: :yummy: :p ;) :bear: :lol: I knew there was something about that movie that bothered me (besides the fact I do a much better Yogi Bear than Dan A.). Yeah, I think you are right. But the movie did not open to big box-office. I do have a mental image of a Ranger watching this movie, smacking their forehead and going "Doh!".

Happy Hollidays All!
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richlong8
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Re: bear harassment

Post by richlong8 »

I did not see any bears this year- I spent 23 nights at various places. I did have one encounter @Courtwright Reservior trailhead parking lot..my friend left a couple pieces of beef jerkey in his pack, and the bear ripped the pocket off the pack in the middle of the night. Oversight and tiredness on his part- that is the first time I recall him making a mistake like that. I think that most of the time it is mistakes in the wrong place that causes bear problems.
I see more bear scat in the southern Sierra than the high sierra, but I did not spend any time north of the Bishop area this year, so that is my point of reference.
I carry a canister, but it sure is heavy! and most of the time, I think it is more about me obeying the rules, than the canister really being of any use. Marmots getting into my food concern me more than bears.
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AlmostThere
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Re: bear harassment

Post by AlmostThere »

I tend to be pro-canister because it's a prophylactic. It lets people be lazy without wrecking life for the bears. Providing many opportunities for bears to get food will eventually result in them getting it, and liking it, and going out of their way to get more. Not providing opportunities keeps everyone safe.

I'm starting to take pictures of badly hung stuff as I run across it in the wild. Here is something from Vidette - where bear canisters are mandatory, and if you don't have one, there are bear boxes. And yet, we have this dumbly hung bag not five feet off the ground.
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gdurkee
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Re: bear harassment

Post by gdurkee »

Hmmmm. Why, that looks like it was hung by a horse packer group: thick rope, large bag. Almost certainly not a backpacker. Technically, even where canisters are required, if an "alert" person is up to watch it at night, it's OK. Dumb rule and hang hang, for sure.

Worse: if it was a horse group, there's no grazing at Vidette! Where was I?!??? A lot of potential violations and chances to educate the visiting public on the error of their ways!

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Re: bear harassment

Post by Cross Country »

Thanks for that Doyle. What you said is what I have believed for 40 years. People on this forum had me convinced I was wrong, but that's what snowballs are all about. Now I believe it's exactly as you've stated it.
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gdurkee
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Re: bear harassment

Post by gdurkee »

Use of bear canisters is one of those classic things that depends on a critical mass of people using them to see the results. Kind of like people getting vaccinated. The good news is compliance is now over 90% in most places, so those few people who don't use them can say they don't have problems -- essentially because of the other 90% who do. This is not true in all areas because, as Doyle points out, some bears are not habituated. There's darned few of those bears and absolutely no bear that wouldn't quickly become dependent on human food given just 1/2 a chance. However, without a lot of local knowledge, there's really no way of telling where you're likely to run into bears who are human food dependent and so will go out of their way to get your food.

"Habituated" bears routinely go over 11,000 feet in several areas (Bishop Pass, Kearsarge, Dumbell Lakes, several areas in Yosemite, etc.). I will also claim a fair amount of experience with bears -- 7 years in both Yosemite Valley and Little Yosemite; 35 in Sequoia Kings. And, now it can be revealed, a PhD thesis give me and Mead Hargis credit for "inventing" counter-balancing. Sorry to have inflicted that on everyone, but it was the best we could do at the time. What I've learned from all this is how quickly bears figure things out. "Don't underestimate an animal you can teach to ride a bicycle" is the old joke. What's great is how quickly they've gone back to nuts and berries with the introduction of boxes and canisters. This directly translates to fewer people's trips ruined by losing their food; less garbage strewn about (and not picked up) from bears; and just your average prowlin' & growlin' bears avoiding people, as they should.

So, it's definitely true that a number of people can hike and not have their food taken by bears. There's some skill involved but I also have to say that there's a huge amount of luck as well as local knowledge that's difficult to copy. What concerns me is that now that we've achieved a pretty incredible compliance rate and and a very, very low rate of bears getting food in the backcountry, that people will stop using canisters. And, the ONLY reason we still have a few bears actively seeking out human's food is because of the people who ignore proper food storage requirements.

I definitely respect others' experience, but there's also a "big picture" here that can only be seen from the cumulative experience of thousands of visitor and bear contacts over a wide geographic area: canisters work. Let's not fool around with that.

George
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