[pct-l] Smart bears

[Jo Pegrum Hazelett]

>From Donna Saufley:
Another factor is those dang bears are so smart.  The Backcountry Ranger who
had manned the Rae Lakes station in '05 -- at the time when they had bad
problems with a bear who learned how to pop open a certain model of Bear
Vaults -- said that the bears would walk right past other bear canisters and
head directly for the Bear Vaults, because they knew they would hit paydirt.
So, where bears have learned they'll receive a payout, they'll be there.  In
the Sierras we've taught them well, but in the PNW, we haven't (yet) ruined
them.  But it's not too late for humans to screw that up too! 

Hi Donna!

I am not any kind of expert but have had more than 30 face-to-face
encounters with black bears in the Sierra Nevada-- specifically in Yosemite.
My husband and I live in the SF Bay Area and have spent many summers
wandering around there. Thought you might be interested to hear my "smart
bear" story. Before we started to carry a canister my husband had an
ingenious method of hanging food. I should preface this with the fact that
we have never actually lost any food but we have had to chase bears off many
times. We always considered hanging food a delaying tactic only. You hang
the food; the bears make noise, you get out of your sleeping bag and make as
much noise as possible to chase them off. As long as they didn't get the bag
down, you could save the food. My husband used a clam cleat like sailors use
for securing the sheets on a sailboat to run the bag up the tree, then he
threw the rope up so it wasn't on the ground. If we had bear visitors and we
were unlucky enough to have the bear snag the rope and pull on it, all that
happened was that the bag would be cinched up higher on the rope. All this
gave us more time to mobilize and save the food. 

One time we were up above Yosemite Valley toward Half Dome when we woke up
to bears having at it with our food bag in the tree. Upon closer
examination, saw a Cub walking up a hill with the rope and yanking on it as
he went. This is exactly what you must do to release the cleat. We watched
briefly, in horror, as our food bag slowly lowered toward the ground in the
bright moonlight. My husband, not realizing the mother was near by (yes, he
should have!), charged the Cub and yelling at it, only to find the mother
chasing him! In retrospect, it's funny, but at the time it was one of those
"life passing before your eyes" moments. But that's another story.

When the bear canisters came out, we were some of the first to use them:
they protect the bears and they let you sleep easier at night. If you don't
have a canister--you must remain alert, because any other method you use
will only delay the bears, it won't stop them. We know a lot of people, even
clever people who have lost their food to bears, it is not a happy
prospect--

As I said at the start of this post, we have never had problems outside of
Yosemite even though we have hiked a great deal in most of the wilderness
areas of the Sierra Nevada. In addition, someone wrote about dogs being bear
bait--my experience with our dog on the trail (and others I have spoken to
about this) has been that he is an excellent deterrent for bears--I think
that bears are looking for easy pickings and dogs are just too much bother.

Jo (section hiker and list lurker)