[pct-l] Mt. Whitney, bears and canisters

[vichanson@juno.com (vichanson@juno.com)]

We just got back from 4 days at Whitney, we camped at the Portal and
there are serious bear problems there. Saw about 10 cars that had windows
smashed, door frames pulled out at the top or other bear damage. One was
a Toyota 4Runner, the bear had broken off most of the trim around the
windows, the antenna, windshield visor and damaged the roof rack but
didn't get in. For other cars or trucks they just smashed the windows
out. I didn't see any bears but others in our group did. 3 of our 4 cars
parked at the campgrounds had bear paw prints and drool on the doors this
morning but no damage. We left the windows open, as instructed by the
bear technician (a nice young lady who goes around telling you how to
keep your food and cars safe and writes up bear reports and puts those
notes on guilty cars), and made sure there were no coolers, no food or
anything resembling food inside them. She also said to remove children's
car seats (the bears think they are coolers? They like babys? Maybe they
just like the cheerios dropped under the cushion!) They didn't bother us
in our tents but the camp host said one camper was surprised by a large
bear behind her when she was cooking an early breakfast this morning. We
used the food lockers at the campground, they also have a number of them
for hikers and are getting more of them. When the campgrounds are full,
as they were, there are not enough food lockers so they allow coolers and
food boxes to be stored in the restrooms! They also have bears at Lone
Pine Campground according to the camp host from there, talked to him at
the Portal Store.

If you are in that area and want to get a bear canister, the Portal store
sells them for $50.00. I guess they are serious about having them used. I
was told that they are available in Lone Pine for the same price but
can't verify that.

Oh yeah, 5 of us hiked up to Iceberg Lake on Friday and camped overnight,
3 of us summited via the Mountaineers Route on Sat. and met 4 others from
our group coming up for their attempt as we were leaving Iceberg on
Saturday afternoon. We were not able to get permits earlier but were able
to pick up the "walkin" ones when we got there (6 available each day). No
bears at Iceberg but were told to hang food or use bear canisters for the
marmots!

I'm doing laundry now, will take care of some minor things tomorrow, go
mtn. biking for a few hours in the late afternoon and then plan on
hitting the PCT in the San Gabriel mountains for 6 days.

Vic