[pct-l] Bears and Stuff

[Steel-Eye]

Good evening,

In the last 47 years that I've been tromping around in the Oregon and Washington Cascades I've seen many bears, all of which depart as soon as they detect that I'm around.  There is a very strong population of bears in the Cascades, but they keep their heads down.  With one exception, I've never hung food, and never used a 'can or a bear box.  I kept the food in stuff-bags close to me while I sleep, with or without a tent.  Neither I, nor my food, have ever been molested in any way.

The one exception was on the short section of PCT in North Cascades NP where I found it necessary to camp one night.  The NPS always seems concentrate bears and people in consistent and predictable locations, and as a result creates habituated bears as in California. The ranger at High Bridge insisted that I camp in a designated place and that I hang my food from an existing cable between two trees, so that's what I did.  I saw bear tracks in the area but I didn't see where they ended.

Steel-Eye
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: g l 
  To: Robert W. Freed ; PCT 
  Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 4:58 PM
  Subject: Re: [pct-l] Bears and Stuff


  Also, can we now talk about the bears in the Cascades?

  Wheew
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