Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Bear Canister Requirement

There is a "Bear Resistant Food Storage" document that came with my reservation confirmation to hike a section of the JMT. It says to, "Carry the first day's meals outside of the canister". I think that is bad advice. The experts say that a bear's sense of smell is seven times sharper than a bloodhound's; the last thing you would want to do would be to leave a food scent trail that leads straight to your backpack.

I can understand your concern, but bear cannisters are not smell proof either. They just prevent the bear from being able to access your food. I have carried food outside the container before in my backpack without incident, not to say it can't happen though.

Ultimately, do what makes you comfortable. I always make sure to squeeze all the food into the cannister by the first night and place it away from my tent. I also put my backpack a little ways away and open it up completely so any animal that wants to check it out can do so without ripping it open.

First off, the chances of seeing a bear, let alone having one attack your back for food, is close to nill.

What this rule basically says, you can keep food outside your canister, just like a day hiker would, until it is nighty-night time. At which time, all food and smellies have to be inside the canister or you are out of compliance.

Your biggest problem will be with the elfin bears...marmots, chippies and the like; not the big ones.

That "nil" response, and mine below, is anecdotal. I don't know what the OVERALL rate of seeing a bear is for all visitors, but :

in about 12 trips and many hundreds of miles in the Sierras, I have had (A) bear encounters on the trail, (B)bears attacking a cached pack (no food in it), (C) bear sticking its nose into my tent vestibule at night(no food inside), (D) bears walking though the campsite. All for a grand total of 9 bears. The 9 occurred on 3 of the 12 trips. All these were high country, not campgrounds.

I take my current days provisions in a bag,not inside the can. The smaller critters have gotten into that external food several times, very very quickly, at rest stops.

Harvey

Anecdotally, in 9 Sierra trips over the years (I'm from MO, it's a long trip to get there), the only bear I have seen was rummaging through an unsecured dumpster in Mammoth Lakes.

I've seen fresh tracks and scat around Mt. Ritter (Ediza Lake, Thousand Island Lake, etc.) but never Yogi himself.

The mini-bears (to use the Philmont term) are definitely more of a problem when you stop for a break or lunch on the trail. Takes them about 30 seconds to find you, another 10 seconds to dive into your pack and scrounge for that bag of GORP.

I'll keep my day's supply double-bagged (small bags inside a gallon or two-gallon Zip-Lock) in my pack and the rest of the stuff in the bear can. As others have noted, the bear can is not airtight, so the food smells are there no matter what. That's one of the reasons you leave the can at least 50' from your tent. Let 'em smell the can and investigate but not feel like your tent is the source of the interesting smells.

Continuing with anecdotdal information. I have encountered bears fewer than ten times in my xxxx days of Sierra wanderings, not counting in regular campgrounds. Let's see how many I can remember:

-Yosemite, near Half Dome (night, ~1968)
-SE Couloir of Olancha Peak (day, ~1990)
-Vidette Meadow (night, ~1996)
-The main Mt. Whitney trail around 9500' (day, ~2000)
-Cottonwood Lakes (day, ~2002)

Sorry, these are all I can dredge up. There were probably a few more, hence my estimate of ten.

Except for the two nighttime visits when I was in my sleeping bag, all the bears hightailed it away as soon as they saw me.

Two caveats: (1) there might have been encounters where I didn't see the bear but it saw me, and (2) many of my days were at higher elevations, where bears are less common.

During my first Whitney trip last October we had four bear encounters. The first night at the portal campground we had two bears come through.
The next night when we started hiking some other hiking party had left their backpacks outside their truck for a few minutes while warming up inside the car. Well, two bears snatched one of the overnight packs and decided to "open" it right at the trailhead, about 50 yards in. All yelling and throwing small rocks didn't help and so after 15min or so our group of 12 people decided to walk past them. They were about 10 yards off the trail and largely ignored us...kinda scary to stare into two sets of yellow eyes at 2am.
On the way back down I encountered a bear just past Outpost Camp. It was moving parallel to the trail for some 50 yards before disappearing. Back at the portal you could see the remains of that pack. The items were spread around quite a bit.
The next night when we wrapped things up at the portal campground a bear was "inspecting" my car.
I'll be going back to Whitney next week...ready to meet some bears.

They won't attack you, but they will come and check out your camp if they can smell the food.

On 6 Muir Trail hikes, I've seen bears about 5 times, but I heard them more often than that (usually shaking up the large steel bear boxes tied to trees, or hauling off backpacks to slobber over them somewhere away from camp). Yosemite campgrounds and pretty much all the more popular sites on the Muir Trail were bad in that respect. Many of those places now have fixed bear boxes, so you can put excess food in there if you should stay overnight at those sites. However, you just can't rely on making it to those sites every night.

Only once have I had a bear try to get my counterbalanced food (that was all before the days of bear canisters) and that one was not successful (below Graveyard Meadow near Lake T Edison, well off trail). I've seen a sow with cubs at Bullfrog Lake, I've seen a bear jump out of the campground dumpster at Reds Meadows campground on my way to the showers.

In Tuolumne Meadows Campground, bears came every night patrolling the place, in spite of bear boxes. Our site neighbor left a single beef jerky in his backpack and had to search for the pack for an hour in the morning. When he found it, there was just one hole in it, jerky cleanly removed from zip lock. That was the only damage.

Overall, though, they are not that common and if you take care, you will keep your food, even without canister if things should not fit inside.

Marmots have only once come to my camp at night looking for food, but they will chew through things to get to the food

I think to be safe in some areas where canisters are not mandatory but your bear canister is too small, an Ursack with the extra food counter balanced on a tree may be a good solution, even though it's not an approved bear "canister." It works pretty well and adds extra security to counter balancing in case a bear should get interested.

Having a bear canister is great for peace of mind, though - none of that "what if..." thinking when you go to sleep. I'm planning a trip this summer with a large Bearikade and a small BearVault canister to supply one adult and two 11-year-olds along the Muir trail. I think 6 days will be the longest leg between resupply and the first night on that leg will be outside the area where canisters are mandatory.

Bottom line - if you hike the Muir trail, bear canisters are now mandatory on 2/3rds of the trip, plus they do work where trees don't grow - those nights in the higher elevations on my previous trips were always been the big gamble. I have never seen a bear that high, but that's where the Marmots roam.

here's a good link regarding rules and bear box locations

http://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/bear_bc.htm

Could I add a question to this thread? (Being a new poster, I'm not sure if the etiquete is to start a new thread. Corrections welcome to a new kid on the block.) I would appreciate advice about using the cannister and avoiding critter damage to my pack. Should I tie up the cannister to a tree or rock? Should I hang my pack from a tree? I'll remove all smellables, but I'm not real wild about critters making holes in my pack.

Brent N.

I usually hide my canister about 100 feet away. I keep my backpack in camp, but I open all the zippers so the marmots don't gnaw through the material.

Don't tie up your canister, just place it somewhere that a soccer playing bear won't be able to kick it too far. If you're really paranoid you can stuff it in a crevice or pile some biggish rocks on it.

I normally camp in the Sierra where bears are rare and leave my canister (if I have one) about 5 feet from the tent door. Maybe 10 feet if I think the chance of a bear is more than 1 in 100. The pack goes under my feet inside the tent.

Ideally you should adjust your behavior according to the perceived likelihood of an encounter. If you're in doubt then be cautious.

I really think it depends where you camp as to where the marmots that can and will chew through your pack are located. I slept at Outpost Camp last June and never saw the pesky marmots.I did however encounter them at Trail Camp and on the Summit. They are curious little buggers for sure and they sure know that humans bring food.

Have any of you encountered Marmots chewing through a tent while you were in it to "inspect" the smell of your pack?

Brent N

Great info for us newbies!!! I plan on camping at Outpost Camp in mid July. I am sure it will be PACKED!! How do you you put your bear canister 50 feet from your tent, if everyone is packed in so tight? Does everyone put them in a pile somewhere, or is there truly lots of space between tents???

Have any of you encountered Marmots chewing through a tent while you were in it to "inspect" the smell of your pack?

No. Marmots aren't active at night. The problems I've heard about are marmots eating unattended boots and pack straps (for the salt) during the day. They can destroy a pair of boots.

I used to believe that bears only existed in campground and not in the wilderness. I have discovered that is not the case.

Happy Isles - 2003
Little Yosemite Valley - 2005
May Lake - 2006
Hetch Hetchy Vernon Lake - 2006 (two bears)
Hetch Hetchy Rancheria Falls - 2006
North Pines Yosemite Valley - 2007 Actually had a stand off with the bear over a cooler and convinced it to run away and find easier food.
Hetch Hetchy Tiltill Meadows - 2007

I have been fortunate that I haven't lost any food to a bear or contributed to their delinquency.

Sandy, all of those places are pretty high likelihood bear areas.

Bears visit just about everywhere that they are capable of reaching, but the frequency of visits varies from place to place. If you go to Little Yosemite Valley or Hetch Hetchy your odds of seeing a bear are high. Other places less. One frequent companion of mine spent over 15 years of busy summers in the Sierra before seeing a bear.

Odds may be increasing overall though. The statewide population of bears has doubled (at least) in the last twenty-five years.

I leave my tent door partially open for the marmots to go in and inspect if they so desire when I am gone for the day. I often just use my rainfly and ground cloth for traveling light and have seen marmots running in and out when I leave the camp. My best advice is store your food properly away from your tent and when a pack or tent is left unattended leave it open for any curious animals to check out. The nylon that packs and tents are made of isn't going to stop them, so I do what I can to give them easy access if they really want it.

Since 1986, I have seen at least one bear on every trip made to the Sierra (20 trips). It was a whole lot of fun back in the days when bear canisters we unavailable. Bears can be found up to 11,000 feet - sometimes higher. One reason I see so many is because I rarely get into a deep sleep (while backpacking).

I think I am going to try out the BearVault this year. I have been a Garcia fan for quite a while, but this year I want to try the lightweight backpacking approach (cannot quite make it to ultralight).

docd,

Even if Outpost Camp is "full", there are only a set number of spaces (not sure how many), and they all have some spacing between them. The last time we stayed there with a canister, I just piled a bunch of rocks on top of it just outside the perimeter of Outpost Camp, as a whole, which was, I'm guessing, approx. 50 feet from my particular tent site (which was somwehat near the main trail itself, as it passes around the outskirts of the camp).

CaT