Welcome, guest [login | register]

Posted by Bill S on March 25, 2008 at 9:24:20 pm EDT
In reply to Camp Kitchen Shelter posted by Kapiltranistapidal on March 25, 2008 at 12:10:22 am EDT

kutenay, you should visit Yosemite and watch the local bears sometime. It is amazing what they can and will do to get food. Doesn't matter how high you hang the smellables or how far out on how spindly a branch (to discourage them crawling out the branch), they will get it. They work in teams, often a sow and cubs, with the cub doing a kamikaze dive onto one of the counterbalanced bags, chewing through ropes and cords (they have learned how to trace tie-off ropes), or if you use aircraft cable, they will just chew through the branch (my ranger friend in the Valley has photos of this in progress, as well as an 8-inch branch that one chewed through). At some backcountry sites, there used to be steel poles ten to 15 feet tall (nothing for the claws to get into, right? And these are blacks, which can only reach about 8 or 9 feet - supposedly). Somehow they figured out how to get up the poles or use the retriever poles. Whatever the method, they get the food unless it is in a steel box with certain types of locks or in one of three bear cylinders.

For the Sierra blacks, I am afraid that your hanging method that may work very well for BC grizzlies won't keep our local bears from getting the food for more than a couple hours at most.

In the campgrounds, they have figured out that certain makes and models of cars are easier to get into than others. But if it is a supposedly harder one and they can see something recognizable as food, they will just smash the window.

The legend is that blacks can climb trees well, while griz can't climb. So maybe (if the legend is true, which I have been told is NOT true), you can hang smellables in grizzly country, while the Yosemite blacks, good tree climbers that they are, will solve the hanging food problem. Plus the Yosemite blacks have learned that certain types of containers (ice chests, Coke cans, ...) and certain types of cars usually have food and are easy to get into.

I have not lived my entire life in bear country, just 3/4 of it, and I also have not lost food to bears or had a camp wrecked. As I have said before, I don't know much about grizzlies, having dealt with black bears for the most part. And I do know, and have seen, the blacks around here get food that was hung.

By the way, the bear attacks in Calif in the past few years that involved physical contact with a human (not just close encounters or merely losing food or having gear damaged) have all involved food on or close to the human (such as kids keeping candy with them in the tent).

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bears.htm

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bearcans.htm - quoting from this one (the backcountry section) -

Quote:

"Food" includes all food and drinks, regardless of packaging, along with trash, toiletries, and other scented items. These items must be stored in either an approved bear-resistant food canister or food locker. Hanging food is illegal throughout Yosemite.

Replies

View: flat | threaded

There have been no replies

Post a Reply

Before replying, please read the complete thread.