From: donehoo@strobe.ATC.Olivetti.Com (Doyle Donehoo)
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry
Subject: WAS: Mono Pass...     BEARS! (Oh my!)
Date: 18 Aug 92 23:45:02 GMT
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino CA, USA

In <51400013@hpscit.sc.hp.com> sommer@hpscit.sc.hp.com (Jeremy Sommer) writes:
>In rec.backcountry, ehudlick@BBN.COM (Eva Hudlicka) writes:
>> 	Bears - i thought the north/east sierras didn't have much of 
>> 		a bear problem but a ranger informed me over the phone
>> 		that they have them even above the tree line - ???
>The rangers love to say this kind of stuff.

Really. The ones on the phones seem the most uninformed...about
just about everything. Others hanging about the roads and buildings
are just about as bad. The trail rangers and trail crews know better, as
do the ones in remote backcountry stations. Generally, they spew the worst
case lines to intimidate the tinderfoots.

This last year or so I have had a few bear sightings (within a few yards even),
and I hang with people who have had some real experiences with bears.
Even though your can't make any hard and fast rules about creatures so
clever and agile as Black Bears, here are a few thoughts:

In places where there are LOTS of backpackers/hikers, there will be bears:
1) They are exclusivly interested in your food.
2) They will take advantage of the stupid/careless to get their food.
3) They are habituated to people and do not fear them, so
   a) They are not spooked by humans and will come close, and are little
      threat to humans unless you manage to piss them off somehow.
   b) However, occasionally they learn they can scare you out of your
      food, (having progressed from being hand-fed by stupids to shaking
      down said stupids for their food), and are eventually destroyed.
4) They can always count on SOMEbody being careless enough so they can get
   the food without much confrontation.

Black Bears in a wild state will avoid humans. In parks and wilderness
(if they are not corrupted), they know about humans and avoid them, or
ignore them. Completely wild bear not familiar with humans are capable
of thinking of humans as food if hungry enough. (The few known bear attacks
involving a single bear meet the above circumstances.) This is extremely
rare involving completely wild bears: in California these attacks happened
exclusivly in northern California in very remote areas.

Outside high human impact/use areas, your chances of seeing bears are
very remote. They will be seen only if they allow it.

I just finished about 180 miles of the John Muir Trail, and I didn't see a 
live bear the entire time. There were some very impressive bear claw marks
in Lyle Canyon, the occasional bear scat, but no bears. We heard alot about
other people having their food taken by bears, but I have come to the
conclusion they lost their food because they made it easy for the bears.
Occasionally, rarely, a determined bear will get your food no matter
how well you hang it. Generally, if you do a good job of hanging
(COUNTERBALANCE!) it, your food is safe, and the bear will not take a
second look at it.
In the vast majority of the trail and camps in the backcountry, you
will see no sign of bears at all. At Dougherty Meadow campsite near
Granite Pass, we hung our food (bear scat nearby), but I accidently
left out my "ready bag" (food for the next days breakfast and lunch)
overnight, but it was untouched next morning. In such remote areas
that do not see vast numbers of people (like at Lyle, Little Yosemite
Valley, and other places a few miles from major trailheads), the bears
are very shy and stay away. They have not been corrupted.
One thing that changes things: as the dening time comes late season,
the bears are out eating 20 hours a day until they get their fat
quota, and are more likely to approach your campsite. Hang your food right! 

One last thing. It is VERY unlikely to see bears above treeline. They 
have to stay near their food (mostly found in meadows), and above
the treeline is just too hostile for them to survive. 
There is one story of one unusual bear that lived on grass near a popular 
high altitude above tree-line campsite. He specialized on raiding that
camp to sustain him, and ate lots of grass (a poor bear fodder)
when camper food was not available. Grass was not enough to sustain
him, but he was sucessful enough in his raids to get him by. (He
was eventually destroyed). But this was a rare case.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Bully! Bully!" - T. Roosevelt with John Muir at Glacier Point       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "The mountains are calling me, and I must go."   John Muir           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|"Man has got astray out of his orbit, or away from the ends for which |
| he was created." John Muir.                                          |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow
into you as sunshone flows into trees. The winds will blow their own
freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off
like autumn leaves."    JOHN MUIR

"I only went out for a walk, but resolved to stay till sunset, for going
out, I found, was really going in."  John Muir