Bear activity forces closure of section of AT trail to camping

[Ed'n Lauky]

Authorities say bear activity has let them to close a section of the AT trail in North Georgia to camping until further notice. http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=237993

 

[Peaks]

Will canisters be next?

 

[Guthook]

Will canisters be next?

I doubt that. I quite like the section of the AT in Georgia, partly because they have some decent precautions against having your food stolen by bears. Those food hanging cables at all the shelters make life nice and easy. But with the crowds that that section of trail gets, it doesn't surprise me that bears are getting more habituated. Last time I was at Neel's Gap I remember hearing about a hiker who'd had his food bag emptied by a bear, and he just came back to the gap and went out the next day with another bag of food. I'd guess that the only thing on his mind was the inconvenience to himself, and not the issue of the dangers to the bear of becoming habituated.

 

[Brambor]

Scare the bears

Looks like the bears aren't scared of humans. I'm not much of a hunter enthusiast but when bears associate humans with fending for their life they will avoid them.

 

[peakbagger]

The area in question is a "bear training ground" for habituation. There is a fresh crop of new hikers every year, many of whom are novices at long distance backpacking and are only a couple of days into a thru hike. The advice on many forums is dont worry about the bears or "sleep in the tent away from a shelter with the food bag as a pillow" (Lonewolf) so most folks dont worry about it or depend on the bear lines. There is a fresh crop of hikers every night and even if 10% of them dont hang the food correctly, thats pretty good odds for the bears for that time of year.

The bear line design and location also does not help. Most of them are very close to the shelter and use the pulley method of hanging with mutilple lifting lines hanging down. While slackpacking through the area several years ago, we encountered one hikers who complained about the bears keeping him up all night as they rattled the bear line. I expect the Baxter State Park Chimney Pond bear line consisting of a steel cable supported by metal poles with hooks would work better, but unfortunately it would probably encourage the New Jersey bears methods of running into the shelter near mealtimes and snatching food bags (also a trait of the Pemi Desolation Shelter bears of long ago).

The shelters and campsites are crowded and I expect that the smell from food draws in bears from quite a distance. The "locals" might have controlled the bear resource illegally over the years by poaching bears but the local law enforcement and ridgerunners in the area most likely have driven the poachers elsewhere.

 

[DSettahr]

A few years ago, while I was working in Georgia, I went on a weekend trip in the North Georgia mountains in late April. I was surprised by how many people we encountered in the woods... we weren't really anywhere near the AT even. It was pretty obvious that backpacking and hiking are really popular activities in Georgia. I can imagine that there is an increased rate of negative human-wildlife interaction as a result.

 

[Maddy]

I have never seen as many bears as I did in the "Smokes". I have also never witnessed so much disrespect for them by people. They seem to turn a blind eye and continue to approach and feed them despite warnings to the contrary.
I scared one woman when I observed her feeding a cub by the side of the road with the mother a few feet away. A group of tourist had gathered and I yelled so loud they all turned with a panicked look and said "I didn't do it, I didn't do it." The culprit ran to her car and sped away. I think she mistook me for a ranger. I was on a bike and wearing a red jacket and pack, with a stuffed bear sticking out the top. Must have looked like some kind of "bear patrol" person. When I discussed the incident with a ranger, he recommended that the next time I get the plate number and turn them in. He told me they do go after them, and there is a $5000 fine for feeding bears. All that info is posted but people seem to turn a blind eye to it. It's too bad for the bears who are habituated to people.
We had a bear encounter at a trail head and wound up with a bear perched on our car. I was in the front seat and he was about a foot away from my face trying desperately to break the window.
His 8X12 still hangs in my living room. That bear was very habituated to people and would lurk nearby waiting for someone to pull up. They were going to try to relocate him in hopes that maybe he would stay away. My gut feeling is he was most likely going to come to a bad end sooner or later, thanks to us. Each person (tourists) we related the incident to replied the same way. "Why didn't you just give him your food?"
I could see "bear education" really made a difference. I think the rangers might have had more luck educating the BEARS!

 

[peakbagger]

FYI the AT in georgia is about 90 miles from Atlanta, so it has the same potential usage as the Whites does from Boston. What is different is that there are numerous fire roads passable by car that run up to and along the ridgelines. A large stretch of the first day or two of the AT is roughly parallel to a fire road on either side of the ridge line. There are some gaps and summits along the way, but the terrain is mostly a lot more gradual than the whites making it easy for less fit and presumingly less well educated campers entering the area. The thruhikers tend to be their early in the season, but the bears get reinforcement for the resst of the summer and the fall from people out for a few days.

The start of the trail on Springer is about a 45 minute walk through the woods from a forest service parking area and the approach trail is accessible from a couple of fire roads. While slacking down there, it was quite common to see weekenders partying at pull outs all through the mountains. The whole concept of LNT doesnt seem to be ingrained very well for the car camping crowd.

 

[DSettahr]

FYI the AT in georgia is about 90 miles from Atlanta, so it has the same potential usage as the Whites does from Boston. What is different is that there are numerous fire roads passable by car that run up to and along the ridgelines. A large stretch of the first day or two of the AT is roughly parallel to a fire road on either side of the ridge line. There are some gaps and summits along the way, but the terrain is mostly a lot more gradual than the whites making it easy for less fit and presumingly less well educated campers entering the area. The thruhikers tend to be their early in the season, but the bears get reinforcement for the resst of the summer and the fall from people out for a few days.

The start of the trail on Springer is about a 45 minute walk through the woods from a forest service parking area and the approach trail is accessible from a couple of fire roads. While slacking down there, it was quite common to see weekenders partying at pull outs all through the mountains. The whole concept of LNT doesnt seem to be ingrained very well for the car camping crowd.

It's not just the vicinity of the AT... all of North Georgia is riddled with logging roads that make for easy access. There is also a fairly extensive network of hiking trails throughout the mountains in this portion of the state.

I would bet that another factor that plays into increased levels of use in this area is the shorter winter season, which means a longer warm season. In the northeast, we're used to the major hiking season (when you can expect to encounter crowds on trails) being between Memorial and Labor Day. When I was in Georgia, this season was already in full swing in April.