Marmots eating car hoses in Mineral King

[Herm]

Imagine the fun for the driver and passengers of such a vehicle if it overheats, which is always a distinct possibility when climbing the Mineral King Road.

[Cross Country]

Every time (10 -15) I left my car I feared this. Thank God it never happened.

[AlmostThere]

I'd never spray the interior of anything I wanted to keep with cayenne/pepper spray and park it in active bear territory! That's like begging for the Black Bear Wrecking Company to work over your car.

Probably wouldn't even phase the marmots.

[rlown]

Seems like the best approach is to try and line up your trip with Shawn and have him drive.

[Oubliet]

Hey, how about adapting some pigeon-spike barriers and deploying them around a car?
Or,are marmots good at "slithering" around even poke-y things? I know they seem good at burrowing under rocks. The ground in parking lots is pretty hard-packed, though, so I dunno.Once, a friend tried cacheing food that wouldn't fit in our bearcans under a rock cairn.

When we returned after a bit of dayhiking, he uncovered the top rock in the cairn and was puzzled by what he saw. It took a moment to recognize that he was staring at the hind-end of a marmot with most of his body buried headfirst in a bag of dehydrated beef stew that was at the top of the pile.
( noticed the pile of fresh dirt from the burrowing nearby.)

[SSSdave]

Over the years I've parked at the two trailhead many times, have never taken precautions, and never had any problem. But then I never go early season when there is still lots of snow about and marmots have come out of hibernation and are hungry. Oh I've seen other vehicles with all sorts of defenses set up. And I've seen the hillarious pics at the ranger station and had a good laugh listening to ranger stories.

Any grubby old vehicle is probably safe. Marmots are after fresh meat. Those newer cars with their squeeky clean brightly colored plastics. As the alpine sun beats down on the warming hood those fresh plastics outgas exotic aromas that any marmot cannot deny is tempting. Just a lick or two on that soft rubbery coolant hose. Ahhh that sweet taste! Hurry up Bucky!!! (Soon as Bucky bites all the way through we'll get the juice.) We all gonna die but today WE LIVE!

Want some pics of marmots? There is no better place in the Sierra to see DOZENS wobbling about than at the horse corral at the trailhead.

[East Side Hiker]

I'm amazed at all the stories and advice about Marmots I've read about on this thread. I can saw, I really didn't When I worked at Uppper Piute Mdw, the evelvation of which I can't remember now - over 8,000' ? - there were marmots all over the place. But the most I see are in the Horseshoe Mdw. area. They almost seem tame. I wonder how much damage cars get at those two trailheads?

[Shawn]

RLown is right. I'm ready for another season at Mineral King and I'll drive.

[oldranger]

Shawn

What kind of gas milage do you get?

Mike

[AlmostThere]

Looks like it will be a long ride in there, but we won't have to pull over much for oncoming speed bumps - I mean, traffic.