High Sierra Topix

Thanks Mark - a wonderful, funny, and fascinating read. The days of tying the rope to another tree, the cables and the hooks on top of the metal poles. When I think of those times, I realize why I prefer bear cans, despite the weight.

I also particularly liked the FiFi story. My next door neighbor, up until now a seemingly sensible human being, recently acquired two miniature French Poodles. Now I know where to suggest he bring them on his next vacation.

What Markskor said about what Gary said makes perfectly good sense to me. If you make almost everyone almost everywhere properly use a bear can it seems obvious to me that this would in fact nearly eliminate the problem. I never thought of it like that. Often by eliminating personal freedoms a general good can be accomplished that is worth the loss in liberties. I never thought of it from that perspective. You guys have changed my mind.

My own personal experiences showed me that there was a problem. Although I never contributed to the problem it doesn't mean that the regs shouldn't apply to me.

A nice read, Mark.. My question was more about this year and potential harassment. It's nice to see the trend decreasing on problems with Bears..

Just to continue on with the thread...(so Russ doesn't blow a gasket)
Saw 5 bears this season -
The two doing the "wild thing" in Valley backpacker...
One at lower Ottaway, near the trail crew quarters,
One just out from Tuolumne, up Rafferty trail a bit,
and one at Morraine Dome waterslide, just above LYV.

so.. away is better from crowded places. (forgone conclusion here) I was surprised by the bear in 2007, but it wasn't agressive.. it couldn't run fast enough, as it was so fast i couldn't catch it on the camera. It was 10' away from John when he walked into it.

No gasket blown.. If you're near a LOT of people, and you're careless, you might see a bear.

Now.. How did they miss my fish bones in Sept?

I saw 4 last fall on a 9 day trip. 2 in Paradise Valley, one on the way up to Upper Tent Meadow on the Copper Crk, Trail and one bold, larger male at State Lakes. I know without a doubt that I scared off another by being noisy through a stretch of berry laden bushes. There was scat everywhere and many blind corners.

Mark:

That was a terrific reminiscence. I started as a ranger in LYV in '73 after two years in Yosemite Valley. Great times and Gary Tanaka brings back even more memories. Little remembered is the woman from Merced (?) who challenged the NPS on its poor bear management program -- which consisted of just shooting problem bears and dumping them over the side of the road up to Crane Flat. Her name was Ursula Fozzi. How can yo beat that for a protagonist against the squeaky clean NPS image of the day??

Thanks!

While I haven't been doing so well finding bears I have been encountering more bare naked ladys than in the past. This year at Evelyn. Two years in a row now. No photo this year, Tehipte Tom, still not enough telephoto!

Mike

Dude: where have you been hiking? Not since the 70s has there been much exposed flesh -- male or female. Some years ago, I contacted (hmmm, maybe not the word I want) a bunch of skinny dippers in Dusy Basin. They later came by the station and I didn't recognize them. I was able to use the line "sorry, I didn't recognize you with your clothes on" to one of the women.

There exists, though, a photo of a male & female ranger (unnamed) who had swum across to an island at Rae Lakes but found that it was incredibly cold and they barely (so to speak) made it. No way to swim back. What to do? Swam via a submerged boulder to the other shore but about 1/2 mile from their clothes. Ooooops. Good thing rangers carry their poise and dignity in their very core. ("Hi. Where you headed. Can I see your wilderness permit?").

Another adventure on the frontier, but a digression from bear stories... .

George

If we are talking about "bare" encounters, in recent years I have had more of those than bear encounters in the back country. It started with a girl sunning herself next to Bear Creek as we were going by with some scouts, I guess the name of the creek was fitting. In the last couple years I have seen, on separate occasions, a guy and a girl skinny dipping at Franklin Lake. And in 2008 I saw a group of four women skinny dipping at the higher lake next to the trail in Dusy Basin just below Bishop Pass.

Ok.. so enough drooling about "bare" encounters. I noticed that only the males were chiming in on that discussion, which, well... enough said. fun though..

Back to Bears.. To be really clear, black bear with 4 legs.