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Post by High Sierra Fan on May 16, 2023 14:27:25 GMT -8
Aggressive Bears Have Forced a Camping Ban Along the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina“Unusually aggressive bears have led to a camping ban along a stretch of the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina this spring. The ban comes amid a flurry of online reports from hikers who have experienced bears stealing food from backpacks and bear canisters, and sometimes even coming right up to tents” www.mensjournal.com/news/appalachian-trail-camping-ban-bearsCanisters necessary more and more places.
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Post by marmotstew on May 17, 2023 4:52:21 GMT -8
Must be from all that cocaine falling from the sky.
How are they stealing food from bear cannisters?
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driftwoody
Trail Wise!
Take the path closer to the edge, especially if less traveled
Posts: 14,506 
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Post by driftwoody on May 17, 2023 8:57:00 GMT -8
How are they stealing food from bear cannisters? IIRC the Bearvault cannisters were banned (in the Adirondacks?) because some black bears had learned how to open them. |
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walkswithblackflies
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Resident terrorist-supporting eco-freak bootlicker
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Post by walkswithblackflies on May 17, 2023 9:42:21 GMT -8
Yes... High Peaks region of the Adks. |
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reuben
Trail Wise!
Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
Posts: 10,739
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Post by reuben on May 17, 2023 11:58:45 GMT -8
Really? So it's just Bearikade and Ursack now?
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Post by marmotstew on May 17, 2023 12:04:12 GMT -8
Wonder if it’s because people aren’t going past the click. You gotta go past the click.
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driftwoody
Trail Wise!
Take the path closer to the edge, especially if less traveled
Posts: 14,506
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Post by driftwoody on May 17, 2023 12:30:19 GMT -8
Really? So it's just Bearikade and Ursack now? Not so sure about Ursack. |
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Post by High Sierra Fan on May 17, 2023 13:04:37 GMT -8
How are they stealing food from bear cannisters? IIRC the Bearvault cannisters were banned (in the Adirondacks?) because some black bears had learned how to open them. Twice; a single female around the Marcy dam learned how to undo the top on an older Bearvault latch design and currently the population has learned they can gnaw in through the sides. At the Adirondack Loj info center they’ve a display of Bearvaults with holes in the clear container and some of them looked very new, so not age related structural flaws. But the other issue is the bears just run off pushing the canister along and it’s lost in the brush. They don’t necessarily get a food reward but the backpacker loses their food. Or they knock it into a stream or lake… one bear in Yosemite has a technique where she knocks the canister off a cliff onto rocks: that breaks it open (Snow Creek trail at the rim). For a long time she hadn’t trained her cubs so the park just closed her area to overnight camping; but the rumor last year was her cubs were learning the trick.,,, Andrew Skurka got an information report on canister failures from Yosemite: www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/hiking-gear/not-bear-or-idiot-proof-documented-canister-failures/ |
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driftwoody
Trail Wise!
Take the path closer to the edge, especially if less traveled
Posts: 14,506
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Post by driftwoody on May 17, 2023 14:07:08 GMT -8
In all my treks in the Southeast I've used my OG Ursack, and it's never been ravaged. Tied to a tree, it won't be carried away.
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reuben
Trail Wise!
Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
Posts: 10,739
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Post by reuben on May 17, 2023 14:24:54 GMT -8
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Post by absarokanaut on May 18, 2023 11:18:07 GMT -8
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Post by swmtnbackpacker on May 25, 2023 5:06:07 GMT -8
IIRC the Bearvault cannisters were banned (in the Adirondacks?) because some black bears had learned how to open them. Twice; a single female around the Marcy dam learned how to undo the top on an older Bearvault latch design and currently the population has learned they can gnaw in through the sides. At the Adirondack Loj info center they’ve a display of Bearvaults with holes in the clear container and some of them looked very new, so not age related structural flaws. But the other issue is the bears just run off pushing the canister along and it’s lost in the brush. They don’t necessarily get a food reward but the backpacker loses their food. Or they knock it into a stream or lake… one bear in Yosemite has a technique where she knocks the canister off a cliff onto rocks: that breaks it open (Snow Creek trail at the rim). For a long time she hadn’t trained her cubs so the park just closed her area to overnight camping; but the rumor last year was her cubs were learning the trick.,,, Andrew Skurka got an information report on canister failures from Yosemite: www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/hiking-gear/not-bear-or-idiot-proof-documented-canister-failures/The solution may be more food storage lock boxes in heavy bear pressured areas with perhaps a separate (dated) permit and bear proof trash nearby. |
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Post by High Sierra Fan on May 25, 2023 9:06:10 GMT -8
swmtnbackpackerFor the east where designated campsites are rather common I’d think placing steel lockers at those sites is eminently sensible. Iirc I’ve read of locations in NH (?) where there’s been some of those construction site or pickup bed smallish steel tool lockers being placed for that purpose.
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ErnieW
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I want to backpack
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Post by ErnieW on May 25, 2023 15:57:23 GMT -8
Harriman Park NY is close to home and my go to place for quick overnights. It started with all the shelters getting a bear activity sign and now it seems they are getting serious food hangs. The one at Letterock shelter, a big AT stop, there are nine cable runs. It can be a very busy shelter. They are anchored at the ground by big stainless eye bolts set into a big rock. If you search YouTube for "bears Harriman" there are now a lot of videos. Some of the AT hikers have said the bears were dangerously aggressive. A little disconcerting.   |
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Post by High Sierra Fan on May 25, 2023 17:11:59 GMT -8
Eastern bears seem to get trained by hikers into aggressive behavior from too many food rewards. It’s why outside the big western grizzly national parks the one park I’ll aware allows carrying the “weapon”, bear spray, is Great Smoky Mountains NP where false charging black bears have been getting hikers to drop their packs since the 80’s.
Fwiw the only black bear food reward I’ve ever personally witnessed was off a cable setup in the Yosemite Rancheria Falls area (where rangers said fishermen had long habituated the bears to human food). Some at an adjacent site had used a rope to suspend their packs from the simple cable stretched between trees high up: instead of a counterbalance hang, so apparently the bears just went for the suspension rope, got the packs low enough to rip down…
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