CT A.T. Aggressive Bear report

[DougPaul]

The Western Blacks are even breaking into cars which car campers in the northeast still consider a safe place for food.

Routine in Yosemite. Bears will go through the parking lots and break into any car that looks or smells interesting. (Cars are very easy for bears to break into.) Because of this, the regs forbid leaving food in cars.

Yosemite (black) bears are _far_ more sophisticated than eastern bears in their skills at getting human food. They have even been photographed climibing on another's back to get at a hanging food bag.

Doug

 

[Neil]

Most of the threads I've read regarding bears in the NE has been focussed on overnighting and bear bags vs. cannisters.
Now I guess it's time to consider dayhiking with food (nothing like a tuna sandwhich or garlic sausage in July!) and bears, as well as cooking and eating in camp.

I have yet to see a bear in the ADK's but I always think about seeing one and keep my eyes peeled. I think it would be very easy to walk into an encounter with the Momma on one side of the trail and the kiddees on the other side. I usually holler before a bend or a rise in the trail.
Before my last trip to the CDN Rockies I re-read Stephen Herrero's fine book: Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance then purchased a rechargeable air horn and bicycle pump. When bushwhacking to tree line we sounded the thing off every minute or so (more often near running water).
That sounds pretty extreme for the Dacks (imagine all kinds of people with horns blaring on their way up Colden) but maybe if you sounded it off right in a charging bear's face it would do the trick. It would mean always having it at the ready though.

 

[rhihn]

Most of the threads I've read regarding bears in the NE has been focussed on overnighting and bear bags vs. cannisters.
Now I guess it's time to consider dayhiking with food (nothing like a tuna sandwhich or garlic sausage in July!) and bears, as well as cooking and eating in camp.

I have yet to see a bear in the ADK's but I always think about seeing one and keep my eyes peeled. I think it would be very easy to walk into an encounter with the Momma on one side of the trail and the kiddees on the other side. I usually holler before a bend or a rise in the trail.
Before my last trip to the CDN Rockies I re-read Stephen Herrero's fine book: Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance then purchased a rechargeable air horn and bicycle pump. When bushwhacking to tree line we sounded the thing off every minute or so (more often near running water).
That sounds pretty extreme for the Dacks (imagine all kinds of people with horns blaring on their way up Colden) but maybe if you sounded it off right in a charging bear's face it would do the trick. It would mean always having it at the ready though.

We've had only a few encounters, and only one with a cub, on the way back from a trip in the Mahoosucs. The cub was parked right on the trail, just shy of the road, seemingly not wanting to move. Knowing that momma had to be around, we approached slowly and made lots of noise. It finally ran off and we saw no other bears then, though we felt uneasy walking by that spot (we had no choice). I think in the adirondacs most encounters are in camp, where banging pots has often been the order of the day. Has anyone here had an enounter (not just a sighting) with a bear in the Adirondacks while hiking on a trail?

 

[maineguy]

What is the procedure with a bear cannister? Just lay it on the ground? What stops a bear from rolling it into the woods? (Maybe it's parents took him to Clark's Trading Post when he was young). Has anybody reading this post actually used one in the Adirondacks? How did you use it?

 

[rhihn]

What is the procedure with a bear cannister? Just lay it on the ground? What stops a bear from rolling it into the woods? (Maybe it's parents took him to Clark's Trading Post when he was young). Has anybody reading this post actually used one in the Adirondacks? How did you use it?

We generally put it in the woods a little distance from camp, perhaps under a log or in a ravine, etc. Nothing will stop the bear from playing with it, but they likely won't be able to open it. Yes, I use them, and I know many others who do. There is a good chance they will be required in the Adirondacks (at least in some areas) this summer. Try not to put it near water or a cliff, for obvious reasons, and don't tie it to anything. It's a lot easier than hanging it. Some people put reflective tape on it so it will be more visible if a bear does bat it around.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Before my last trip to the CDN Rockies I re-read Stephen Herrero's fine book: Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance then purchased a rechargeable air horn and bicycle pump. When bushwhacking to tree line we sounded the thing off every minute or so (more often near running water).
That sounds pretty extreme for the Dacks (imagine all kinds of people with horns blaring on their way up Colden) but maybe if you sounded it off right in a charging bear's face it would do the trick. It would mean always having it at the ready though.

I would think that sounding a horn or blowing a whistle over and over might make anyone who can hear it think that you are in distress...

(Joke: A person with a certain color hair went out in the woods to hunt, and got lost. Hearing that if you are lost you should sit down and fire off 3 shots, the person fired off 3 shots and waited. Nothing happened, so the procedure was repeated several times. Finally, after being rescued several days later, the person told their rescuer, "Wow, I'm glad you found me, I was almost out of arrows!")

 

[Mr. X]

I had a pretty interesting encounter with bears in Western, MA camping near the Deerfield River (Zoar Gap). I showed up for a typical car camping weekend. I pulled up to the site, unloaded my car and noticed the warning about bears on the picnic table. I've seen them before at other camp grounds so I took the warning seriously, but I still figured it was more of a 'don't leave stuff out warning'. Well I started setting up my tent, we were there for about 20 minutes total and I see a bear out of the corner of my eye about 15 feet away. I remained calm, but was scared enough to soil. I basically pushed my girl into the car and jumped in with her. He or she (the bear) went straight for the bag of bread I left, on the table for like 20 min. I was shocked as hell. Then the bear went after my grill (which must have smelled like food) at this point I got out of the car and tried to scare him by stomping and clapping loud. Well, he gave up on the grill, but got a closed bag of Tostitos. Along with a whole shopping bag of bread. It walked about 15 feet away and parked it self down and ate the whole bag of chips. I figured he'd wreck my weekend and be there forever if I let him have that bag of bread too so I stupidly approached it and took back the bread. From then on all food was always in the car always, even if it was for only 20 min. That whole weekend was packed with bears. They were raiding everyone's sites. They scored on someone's peanut butter cups and Mt. Dew, yep drank the whole bottle by biting through it. Trashed screen houses etc. The environmental police finally came in and shot one of them with a bean bag gun. I guess it got too aggressive with one of the campers kids.

 

[Neil]

LOL, reminds me of a few blond jokes.
Do you know the one about the Indian who drank a shot of whiskey, fired several rounds into a bucket of $hit then chased a cat out of the bar?

As for the blaring horn being misinterpreted as a distress call I suppose that could happen. In the example I gave there was no possibility of such an occurance due to the remoteness of our position.

 

[Tom Rankin]

As for the blaring horn being misinterpreted as a distress call I suppose that could happen. In the example I gave there was no possibility of such an occurance due to the remoteness of our position.

(I'll pass on the bucket of $$$$...)

I was in the Dax a few months ago, and it was a calm day. I could hear my companions speaking in a normal voice, over a mile away. I also remember having a conversation via radio with a fellow hiker on Katahdin. I heard him thru the radio, and then about 5 seconds later, I heard his voice say the same thing, carried thru the air.

 

[Neil]

I know what you mean. I had been playing my flute at Panther gorge (not as a bear deterrant) and several hours later a lone hiker strolled into camp. I was still tooling along on my horn when he came up to me and said he had heard me from Marcy's summit.

(For the others re: the joke:
When questioned as to his unusual behaviour the Indian said he wanted to be like a white man. "Drink whiskey, shoot $hit, chase pussy.")