A warning from the National Park Service

[PeterG]

The National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Glacier National Park and other Rocky Mountain parks to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter.

They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking. The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them.

This might cause a bear to charge.

Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear's sensitive nose and it will run away.

It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.

Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur.
Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.







http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1772383

[OverHillandDale(Admin)]

I'm sure the campers Bearly noticed these new suggestions.

Until it was them for breakfast.

[progdirjim(Admin)]

I suppose this will probably be my only (valid) opportunity to tell this story.

About 12-13 years ago, I was backpacking in the Sierras with two friends. Now you probably don't know this about me, but I am a VERY experienced backpacker, and one of my buddies was a Navy Seal, so if you dropped him in the wilderness naked with a safety pin, he'd probably fare OK. Two days into a trip in Sequoia National Park, after dinner and bear-bagging our food (and believe me, we knew how to do so properly, at least according to conventional wisdom at the time), once we were crashing in the tent, we got raided by black bears 3 times. First time, the bear walked out on the branch we had hung our food on. Per instructions, it was too lite to support an adult bear. The bear jumped up and down on this branch several times until the branch and bear both fell (at least) 20 feet to the ground. The bear picked up one of our food bags in its mouth and sauntered off. All the while, we were banging our cookware and shouting at the bear (conventional wisdom at the time), and the bear looked at us like we were nuts.

After rehanging the remaining bag of food, about an hour later a second bear arrived, climbed the tree, and I am not making this up. It walked out on the branch our food was hung over, grabbed the rope, pulled the bag of food up, BIT through the rope, and carried the bag of food down the tree.

So now we are totally out of food. Just before dawn, a third bear shows up. We just yelled at it from the tent "we're out of food you moron, try your friends!"

When we woke up, we scoured the area and found one packet of coffee left from our food stash (about 4 more nights worth). We had coffee for breakfast, and hiked about 20 miles back to the car, over a 12,000+ foot pass. Needless to say, by the time we made it to the car, we were hungry. "Pizza and beer, pizza and beer" was our mantra once we crested the peak. It was another 15 minute drive back to said pizza, which NEVER tasted so good.

Point of the story, besides entertainment - do NOT underestimate the intelligence of bears. We called it the first annual human-bear olympics - final score - Bears, 2, Humans, 0.

Also, if you're a backpacker, buy one of those bear tubes if you don't have one yet. They work, at least for now...

[NorCalKurt]

Ah.... Darwin was right. Been there Jim.

[PeterG]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

(snip)
and found one packet of coffee left from our food stash

Just wait until they learn to brew... then we are really in trouble.