More bear story

[balzaccom]

Here's a video of a man fighting off a bear while climbing in Japan;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxJ-zAgJzt4

The person who posted this seems to have a pretty level-headed response to the whole situation, but I did love this line in his comments:

"I always have a bear bell,but I mute it when descending rocks because it is noisy."

[Blastomatic]

My closest bear experience happened on a section hike of the JMT between Tuolumne Meadows and Mammoth. I stopped to snack on a lovely sunny rock and am mid-chew when I see a fuzzy cub come out of the brush yarping and yipping and moving in a semi-circle around me, from 9 o'clock round to 3 o'clock. As I'm thinking 'Where's mama?' she emerges from the shrubbery at 3 o'clock and stops to take in the whole scene.

The instant before the adrenaline hits I also take in the scene. I have a bag of dried beef and half a brick of cheddar just sitting in my lap, open bear can at my feet. Cub to my right. Mama to my left. Looking back I know that both were at least 20 yards from me, but at the time it felt like we were in a phone booth.

Then the adrenaline is pumping and I reach into my pocket for 'old reliable'. She's a tool I always bring, but rarely am called to use. Simple to use, but a lifetime to master. Raising her up, and giving valiant effort, I drove off both sow and cub. Yes folks, cold steel is what made the difference that day, I tell you hwut.

Here's the exact tool I used: https://www.amazon.com/Hohner-Marine-Ba ... B0002D00H8

It's also useful for playing taps, She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain, and making sure other people know to put their tents as far from yours as possible.

[Gogd]

I've encountered bears intermittently though the decades. Virtually every meeting was little more than curious crossing of paths. And as a light sleeper who camps cowboy style I know that we get many more late evening visits by Mr. Bruin than what most realize. I think they even have Yogi & Boo Boo "grocery" routes they patrol regularly, where they know hikers tend to overnight and the pickin's easy to come by. On some trips they seem to visit on about 40% of the nights. Only rarely do the bears find us when on seldom traveled routes or XC. They play the odds.

Oddly enough you'd think bears would be a no-issue concern high up during snow season, but that is not my experience. I've gone over high passes in February and observed scat and tracks along the way. I've often wondered what would draw them up that high in the dead of winter, then in August, 2018, I was on my way back from a XC tour of the upper basins south of the Palisades massif, when a particularly rank odor wafted up from the general vicinity below and east of Bishop Pass. I followed my nose to a "kill zone" where a large number of deer carcasses were strewn, well picked over by the bugs and scavengers. I came to find out there are known locations where deer get swept by avalanches, or end up after tobogganing to their doom on steep ice, sometimes en masse. I was looking at the aftermath of such an event from the previous spring that caught these deer. My guess is they slid to their fate on icy slopes. I base my hunch on the fact they did not look as mangled as one would expect of snow slide victims, plus the number of carcasses alluded it was several groups of deer passing through the area over a period of days that lead to the casualty numbers. This location had similar incidents over prior decades. Duck Pass, Mono Pass (above Ruby Lake and Rock Creek) are two other kill zones, as are several other places whose locations I cannot recall. Early and late season weather events are chiefly to blame, as deer do not venture over the Sierra Crest unless on the way to and from their summer and winter grounds. But evidently bear do venture out into the winter. I suspect they are drawn up high during warmer winters by the stink of dinner awaiting in these kill zones, and perhaps also by the hapless coyote or small mammal that succumbed to exposure or starvation. But I digress!

My one memorable encounter with a bear was when camping at Ruwau Lake. I had the lake to myself. It was early evening, but still light. I was kicking it, enjoying the view with my after dinner cup of Joe, my thoughts and the Inconsolable Range reflecting off the mirror calm surface of the lake, broken by the intermittent boils of trout on the evening bite. Suddenly this marten bolts right past my toes in full sprint. Whoa! Not even a blink of the eye later a bear around 30" high at the shoulder came blasting past, almost bowling me over, the gusty huffs of his breath quickly fading from ear and view. WTF! Qu'est-ce que c'est, les deux! (And I don't even speak French!) I don't think either saw me. The bear was probably forty yards further along, still hot on the tail of his dinner, before enough time transpired for my stink to fill his nostrils and inform that he almost sideswiped El Gringo. The whole event was two seconds of utter pandemonium, interrupting the elegant serenity and stillness we always hope to experience in the Sierra.

And then there was the encounter I had with a large, juvenile mountain lion in the Four Jeffrey Campground at last light... Forget about the food and coolers, watch out for your pets and young'uns!

Ed