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bears are intelligent and warily curious. And I’m happy to know that they’re numbers are increasing in the Northeast.
Good to hear after reading so many articles about bear poachers tempted by the high price of Black Bear gall bladders. I’ve heard reports of people offering hunters in PA money for the gall bladder – the report I read said that the State Game Commission felt that poaching was rare. Not so in N Carolina and Tennessee where poaching is a real problem. I used to come upon bear on occaision while biking in the woods of Maine – quite a thrill! Wish I’d come upon poachers when I had a gun near at hand!
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If you believe the stats of World Wildlife fund you won’t have to worry about bears in the USA in a few years. (I am not sure if I believe them.) CBS radio ran this report Friday. The claim is the demand for bear-derived medicines in Asia is so great that several thousand are killed in the US each year for this purpose. A fresh, large bear carcass will fetch $10,000.
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So, here’s my bit on bear encouters. After spending an entire summer living in the Sandwich Range Wilderness of New Hampshire (trail crew) and doing a lot of hiking and canoeing in the Adirondacks I would have to say that I’ve seen more Black Bear in the backcountry than deer or moose. The only time I’ve ever seen a moose is while driving. The only time I see deer is when I’m back in Rochester or Syracuse or someother large city (in the county parks or golf courses, or adjacent farmland). But I’ve seen bear 6 times in the past 2 years. 2 encounters were with camp-bears. I cursed them out while they made a professional appraisal of my food-bag arrangement. (in one case I won, in the other the bear did (broke the rope at the knot). 2 other encounters were at about 100 + yds. With the bear and myself giving each other calm and mutual respect for distance. The remaining 2 were the most humorous. In both cases a close crashing brought my eye around to see a charging bear, which sent me flying in the opposite direction, until my higher brain could figure out that the bear was scared shitless and running away as-well. I’m sure that there are many people around who have had orders of magnitude more experience with Black Bears than I have, but I have to say that after about number 3 I stopped being scared of Black Bears (the evolutionally older parts of my brain will disagree if quizzed by the sight of a running bear, but….). I think bears are cool, I think that wild bears are intelligent and warily curious. And I’m happy to know that they’re numbers are increasing in the Northeast. —
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I have been reading this newsgroup for a few months and don’t recall seeing any posts about bear encounters on the hiking trails. Do people just not bother with posting articles about bear encounters and how they dealt with it or are encounters really that infrequent and of little interest to others? This was encounter #4 in 25 years in the Sierra, involving a total of 5-6 adults and 2-3 cubs.
This is always an interesting subject. The population seems to be divided between those who want to see a bear and those who hope they donUt. Over the last ten years it seems that I see bears on more trips than I donUt; after applying a filter for winter trips and time above 13,000 feet. IUve seen them at all times of the day and night, on trail and off, adults alone, adults and cubs, cubs alone. Frequency? High in the Sierra, Glacier, Alberta and the Yukon. Moderate at the Tetons and Trinity area. Low at Yellowstone. (But saw lots of everything else!) Must be my after-shave, NOT! Regards, Barry. —
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In six years of Sierra hiking, I’ve never come face-to-face with a bear on-trail. However, I did have a close encounter with a mother bear and two cubs this past weekend. In the Tuolumne Meadows campground. 
Allen
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I think one needs to be up early. I had my first and only bear encounter in Sequoia before 7am when I was already a couple of miles into the backcountry. Came across a coyote off-trail near a Lake arrowhead campground yesterday around the same time. Seldom seen anything large later on. Could be a form of wilderness couch potato test — This is news. This is your | Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech
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I have been reading this newsgroup for a few months and don’t recall seeing any posts about bear encounters on the hiking trails. Do people just not bother with posting articles about bear encounters and how they dealt with it or are encounters really that infrequent and of little interest to others? I realize that bears are unpredictable and people don’t generally relish the thought (myself included) of encountering one in the backcountry. Yet, I can’t help wonder if the posting of such encounters may alleviate the anxiety and fear some may have of going into the backcountry. Or is everyone here seasoned backcountry travellers who wish to handle this kind of situation in their own way? —
Well, I’ve had two encounters with black bears while hiking. Both were similar and in the same area. Although seperated by about two years it could have been the same bear. The first time I passed the bear without seeing it. My friend heard a sound behind us and as we turned we watched the bear meander across our path, about 50 yards from where we stood. The bear did not even acknowledge us. No fear, no aggression. He (I think it was a he; it was rather largish) simply walked on, we simply crouched where we were. The second time I was sitting quietly on a nearby crag waiting with another friend to show him a bird peculiar to the area. Neither of had spoken for a long time. Suddenly, I noticed a bear slowly walking in an arc from north to south, about 100 yards away. I pointed, and my friend and I watched it walk 150 or 200 yards where it disappeard behind a small cliff, not to be seen again. I’m not even sure the bear was aware of us, as we had been *very* quite for some time before. In both cases I was in Northern NJ where the bears get some contact with humans. The thing to fear in the woods is a nesting Northern Goshawk!! — John Reece "Oop. Ack. Pfffthpt" Not an Intel spokesman – Bill the Cat
– — Unify Corporation or Sometimes you’re the bug. (916) 928-6258 …!uunet!unify!grp
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In response to the question regarding bear encounters while hiking, my family was going up the Cedar Run trail in Shenandoah National Park when our 8-year-old point man alerted us to the presense of an adult bear and a cub. The bears were about thirty feet off the trail and simply wandered away from us to a tree fifty yards up the hillside from which they observed us observing them. Eventually, both groups had their fill of each other and left the area. This occurred in daylight. I am glad this is all that happened.
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Maybe 15- to 20 people were watching a mother black bear and her 3 cubs forage on a hillside adjacent to the road — the bears were not more than 40 yards away … one guy was bound and determined to get his $5 entrance fee’s worth. Impressing us all with his athletic prowess, he firmly grasped his instamatic camera, jumped the ditch, and started making his way up the hill, through the woods, and toward the bears.
When my family camped in the Rockies in 1968, we had a similar experience — cars stopped on the road to watch several bears, including a mother with cubs, actually out on the road, begging for handouts. Some idiot had given his six-year-old daughter a bag of marshmallows, and was trying to convince her to feed the cubs so that he could take pictures. She was actually starting to do so as we arrived. My father scooped up the little girl and put her in the car on her mom’s lap, then picked the father up by his lapels and backed him up against his own car, shouting at him the while. I’d never known the Old Man had it in him. — Joel Hanes
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I have been reading this newsgroup for a few months and don’t recall seeing any posts about bear encounters on the hiking trails. Do people just not bother with posting articles about bear encounters and how they dealt with it or are encounters really that infrequent and of little interest to others?
Shucks, I was just waiting for someone to bring the subject up. I had a chance trail encounter just 3 weekends ago. I was hiking solo from Wishon Reservoir to Tehipite Valley in Kings Canyon. I’m humping along, staring about at the ground right in front of my feet. All of a sudden I hear something crashing around and clawing at a tree just off to my right. I look up, and this black bear is frantically trying to get to the top of a short snag about 20m off the trail. I decide to keep walking ahead, and when I get to the point where my back would be to the bear, I turn around and start backing away. The bear is peering around the side of the tree, much like squirrels do. When it sees that I’ve turned around it gets this "Please Hammer, don’t hurt me!" look on its face, jumps down, and tears off in the opposite direction. This was encounter #4 in 25 years in the Sierra, involving a total of 5-6 adults and 2-3 cubs. A good example of the way unhabituated bears are supposed to act. This area only sees a party every couple of days, and half of them seem to be on horseback with strongboxes for their food. I realize that bears are unpredictable and people don’t generally relish the thought (myself included) of encountering one in the backcountry. Yet, I can’t help wonder if the posting of such encounters may alleviate the anxiety and fear some may have of going into the backcountry. Or is everyone here seasoned backcountry travellers who wish to handle this kind of situation in their own way? —
– John Reece "Oop. Ack. Pfffthpt" Not an Intel spokesman - Bill the Cat
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I’ve seen bears on about half a dozen hikes in Shenandoah NP. However, my most unusual "bear encounter" involved my car. I was driving towards a campsite late one afternoon in Algonkian (sp?) National Park in Ontario a couple years ago when a black bear darted out in front of me from the underbrush. I slammed on my brakes, but I was not able to avoid hitting it. It slide along the road and went over the embankment. A couple other people saw it happen and we all stopped and watched the bear wander off into the woods. One of them got a hold of a park ranger who went to look for it. They never did find it, I found out later. After calling my insurance agent, who said "You hit a WHAT?…," he told me to take care of it when I got back home, since the car was driveable. Note that this was the first day of a 2 week vacation. So when I got back home, I went to the claims adjuster who casually asked me what I hit, and when I told him, he said "So YOU’RE the one who hit the bear!" Then he goes into his office and brings out about 6 people and says to them "Want to see what a bear does to a car?" And all of these people are looking over my car. It was so funny. The bottom line was that it caused about $800 in damage to my car (most of it cosmetic), fortunately all of it covered by insurance. Steve "The bear killer"
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I just returned from spending two weeks camping/hiking in the Canadian Rockies (ie. Jasper, Banff, Yoho and Kootenay NPs, Mt. Robson PP). This being my third hiking venture into the Canadian Rockies, I was beginning to wander if there really were bears in the backcountry. I had seen one run across the highway once and that was it.
On the subject of grizzlies: The September/October 1992 issue of Sierra magazine states that, "The grizzly population in the contiguous 48 states has dropped from an estimated 50,000 when Lewis and Clark trekked west [1805] to fewer than 1,000 today. Some 30,000 bears persist in Alaska, and more than 15,000 in Canada, but in the Lower 48 the once-wide-spread griz has been confined to a few small pockets of habitat centered around parks and wilderness areas in the northern Rockies." (p.61) "North Cascades Region: An estimated 10 to 15 grizzlies have about 6 million acres of habitat available west of the Columbia River along the Canadian border, including North Cascades National Park. (Another 6 million acres of contiguous habitat lie north of the border.) . . ." (p.59) "Selkirk Mountains: About 35 bears inhabit a 1.3-million-acre recovery area at the southern end of the Selkirks." (p. 59) "Cabinet Mountains-Yaak Valley: Some 20 bears have survived on 1.6 million acres in northwest Montana and Idaho, ranging from the Cabinet Mountains and the Yaak Valley up to the Canadian border." (p. 59) "Northern Divide Region: Betwen 400 and 600 bears occupy 6.2 million acres of this recovery zone, which encompasses the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park." (p. 59) "Selway-Bitterroot Region: There is no confirmed besar population in this 3.4-million acre potential recovery area . . ." (p. 59) "Yellowstone Region: A minimum of 228 grizzlies roam 6.1 million acres within the official recovery area, which includes Yelowstone and Grand Teton national parks and areas within six national forests." (p. 59) The above excerpted article, "A Grizzly’s Place" by Geoffrey O’Gara is quite interesting and informative–it has great bear pictures too! Check it out and support the political efforts of the Sierra club and other environmental organizations. Away–
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| was when I was on may way up to do Half Dome. Some hikers thought it | would be a good idea to hind their stuff in some bushes while they | hiked the rest of the way up the cables. Well the bears agreed, as | they were shreading every item they found. Must be the same "hiker" I saw. On a recent drive down Skyline Drive in Shenandoah, we came across about 5 cars stopped on the road. Maybe 15- to 20 people were watching a mother black bear and her 3 cubs forage on a hillside adjacent to the road — the bears were not more than 40 yards away (although they were up a hill from the road/people). As the camera shutters clicked away, one guy was bound and determined to get his $5 entrance fee’s worth. Impressing us all with his athletic prowess, he firmly grasped his instamatic camera, jumped the ditch, and started making his way up the hill, through the woods, and toward the bears. As I stood there pondering whether I would have the least bit of sympathy for this guy if the mother turned on him (isn’t that what Darwin would have called "evolution": the dying of the weaker or downright stupid members of a species), the bears hustled away from the area. Not only had the jerk violated every park rule in the books, risked his life, etc., etc., he ruined what had been a great surprise. Incredible.
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Personal experience in 22 years of hiking/camping: My dog chased a young cub in the Porcupine Mt’s of the Michigan Upper Pennisula in 1979. That scared the sh** out of me. I was sure the dog was going to chase the thing right to mama, and mama was going to destroy both dog and me. I hiked away like crazy, calling dog. Dog finally came along, and no harm was done to anyone. Another older cub encountered while hiking Mt. Tom in Olympics in 1985. Cub ran up a slope. Most interesting encounter was in the Olympics on a bridge. We had stopped on a lonely bridge over a river (in a car). I think it was the Moclips R. or something like that. Anyway, it was a cold, rainy winter day and about 150 yards upstream a herd of elk were crossing the river. We stopped and killed the engine. Watched the elk cross single file for about a half hour. We were quite transfixed by this progression. On deciding to get going again, I looked in the rear view mirror to find a big black bear coming up behind us, presumably using the bridge to cross the stream, or perhaps to check out the car. Boy did he fly down the road when I started the car. I don’t think he knew there were humans in the car. All of these were black bear encounters. -Jeff a.k.a. Jeff Parke, Washington State University College of Vet. Medicine
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been reading this newsgroup for a few months and don’t recall seeing any posts about bear encounters on the hiking trails. Do people just not bother with posting articles about bear encounters and how they dealt with it or are encounters really that infrequent and of little interest to others? I realize that bears are unpredictable and people don’t generally relish the thought (myself included) of encountering one in the backcountry. Yet, I can’t help wonder if the posting of such encounters may alleviate the anxiety and fear some may have of going into the backcountry. Or is everyone here seasoned backcountry travellers who wish to handle this kind of situation in their own way? We’re all elitist bastards, and we know bears on a first name basis.
Oh, so you know Yogi and Booboo? :=) We don’t consider them a threat, they’re our friends. When we see them, they know who we are and they leave us alone.
So you don’t blink when you walk between a mother and her two cubs? (Sorry Craig…)
No prob, I got a chuckle out of it… —
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Most of the bears I have seen have been in either Kings Canyon or Yosemite. The last time I saw a bear (well accually it was two bears) was when I was on may way up to do Half Dome. Some hikers thought it would be a good idea to hind their stuff in some bushes while they hiked the rest of the way up the cables. Well the bears agreed, as they were shreading every item they found. The funniest part was when one bear bit into a Sigg bottle full of fuel. The bear was not too happy about having white gas squirt into its mouth. Black bears are cool, grizzlies are really cool, Kodiacs scare the hell out me. Allen R. Sanderson Salt Lake City, Oootah "Pucky lads, a wee bit over their heads" Doug Scott after encountering two climbers on Denali suffering from exposure.
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I have been reading this newsgroup for a few months and don’t recall seeing any posts about bear encounters on the hiking trails. Do people just not bother with posting articles about bear encounters and how they dealt with it or are encounters really that infrequent and of little interest to others? I realize that bears are unpredictable and people don’t generally relish the thought (myself included) of encountering one in the backcountry. Yet, I can’t help wonder if the posting of such encounters may alleviate the anxiety and fear some may have of going into the backcountry. Or is everyone here seasoned backcountry travellers who wish to handle this kind of situation in their own way?
We’re all elitist bastards, and we know bears on a first name basis. We don’t consider them a threat, they’re our friends. When we see them, they know who we are and they leave us alone. (Sorry Craig…) — Communication Services | or (if desperate) | vegatables, then what Ottawa,Ont. Canada K1N 6N5| (613) 564-7646 | eat?"
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I just returned from spending two weeks camping/hiking in the Canadian Rockies (ie. Jasper, Banff, Yoho and Kootenay NPs, Mt. Robson PP). This being my third hiking venture into the Canadian Rockies, I was beginning to wander if there really were bears in the backcountry. I had seen one run across the highway once and that was it. Then this year, I sighted … I have been reading this newsgroup for a few months and don’t recall seeing any posts about bear encounters on the hiking trails. Do people just not bother with posting articles about bear encounters and how they dealt with it or are encounters really that infrequent and of little interest to others? I realize that bears are unpredictable and people don’t generally relish the thought (myself included) of encountering one in the backcountry. Yet, I …
I think the bear posts tend to be cyclic on this group. While no frontiersman, I have been hiking, etc. for 20+ years in the Blue Ridge of Va., Great Smokies (black bear heaven!), Yellowstone, etc., and have only ever seen 1 bear (black) in the wild. Partly because I eschew developed campgrounds, etc., and backcountry bears are more shy. I have seen plenty of scat, scratched up stumps, etc., but no bears, until I was jogging along the Skyline Drive (Shenandoah N.P.) at dusk early last spring. A big blob rolled down the bank onto the road, and as I approached, resolved into a good sized black bear. I made a point of keeping distance, although I was close enough to easily see the radio collar he/she wore. Then we both grunted at each other, and went our ways. Points: Early spring–probably a hungry bear scavenging the roadside. No indication of cubs, but that was my biggest fear. We were both a little surprised to find the other. — Brad Whitehurst | Aerospace Research Lab
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I just returned from spending two weeks camping/hiking in the Canadian Rockies (ie. Jasper, Banff, Yoho and Kootenay NPs, Mt. Robson PP). This being my third hiking venture into the Canadian Rockies, I was beginning to wander if there really were bears in the backcountry. I had seen one run across the highway once and that was it. Then this year, I sighted another bear on the highway and had two face-to-face encounters with black bears and one "follow the bear walking on the trail" situation while on the hiking trails. I have been reading this newsgroup for a few months and don’t recall seeing any posts about bear encounters on the hiking trails. Do people just not bother with posting articles about bear encounters and how they dealt with it or are encounters really that infrequent and of little interest to others? I realize that bears are unpredictable and people don’t generally relish the thought (myself included) of encountering one in the backcountry. Yet, I can’t help wonder if the posting of such encounters may alleviate the anxiety and fear some may have of going into the backcountry. Or is everyone here seasoned backcountry travellers who wish to handle this kind of situation in their own way? —