Bear Cannisters

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BSquared
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Re: Bear Cannisters

Post by BSquared »

As one who has lost (and then happily found again) a canister to a bear, I have to say that it definitely is possible for a bear to remove one from your campsite. I don't know exactly how this one got taken, but I'm assuming the bear just rolled it out of camp -- we hadn't bedded down yet (we were away washing in a nearby stream) and so hadn't tried to put the (happily closed) canisters in any kind of order, like in a small depression or under a log, and the campsite was on top of a small rise. The bear worked really hard to get into the canister, apparently jumping out of a tree onto it numerous times (judging by the sound). Now: this was five years ago, it was a known problem bear (rumor has it that the bear was ...uh ... "removed" just the next day, but that is strictly rumor), it was in Yosemite (than which there is no whicher), and I think it was just at the time that the Bear Vault people began to realize that the model then in circulation could have its lid popped off by just such vigorous physical assault (we were using a Bearikade and it was utterly unscathed by the ordeal, and apparently Bear Vault fixed their problem soon after). The point is that a determined bear can definitely remove a canister from a campsite!

Aldefarte: a few days later on the same trip we ran into a group of hikers who, in the course of campfire conversation, wryly observed that finding a nice little pile of throwing-sized stones in a potential campsite wasn't necessarily a good sign ;)

-B2
Last edited by BSquared on Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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homeranch
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Re: Bear Cannisters

Post by homeranch »

A note regarding chasing bears out of camp. It is best not to wear your headlamp. My friend, chased the bear out of camp in Big Whitney Meadow wearing his headlamp, the bear left at a run, turned and headed straight for him, by the time Doug realized the bear was going to run him over, it did. It did not attack him, merely ran him down, clawed him a little in the passage and was gone into the night. Doug did a bit of research and found he was not the only person to have been run over by a bear while wearing a headlamp. The light apparently confuses the little buggers.

Oh, Doug has become quite conservative in his approach to bears since that incident.
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gdurkee
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Re: Bear Cannisters

Post by gdurkee »

Homeranch:

Where was that? Nothing about bears surprises me, though I've never connected injuries to a headlamp. Bear could have been blinded and not realize there was a person under the light shining in his eyes. Glad no serious injury.

g.
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homeranch
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Re: Bear Cannisters

Post by homeranch »

Hi, Big Whitney Meadow is west of Cottonwood Pass out of Lone Pine. The bear had run out of camp before he did a 180 and headed for Doug. Doug tells the story much better than I, especially after a few cocktails.
He had taken a Brit, a Japanese friend and his diabetic cousin on this trip. He was awakened in the night by shouting in Japanese, which took him a few moments to recollect that his friend was shouting bear in Japanese.

The bear did succeed in getting his diabetic cousin's hanging med and candy supply.

After the run over they decided to walk out, his cousin began to suffer the imbalance symptoms diabetics without insulin will suffer and they had no candy left either. By the time they got out, the cousin was seriously unhappy.

At the trail head the Brit friend, asked Doug if all back pack trips were like this..


Another story, the guy in the hospital in Bishop, he had been eating his canned food dinner below Kearsarge Pass when a bear entered camp, the guy tossed his can of supper to the bear, then decided against that and attempted to retrieve the can, hence the hospital.

No telling what silly stuff humans will do.
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hikerduane
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Re: Bear Cannisters

Post by hikerduane »

An instructor at our local community college told a story, where he was more than a few days in and had a bear take off with his pack, which still contained his food. He used to place football at Stanford, so he chased the bear down and tackled it. Got his food back and no further issue with the bear.:) You should see this guy in the summer walk by you, all you see just about is two big thighs.
Piece of cake.
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