Fwd: [pct-l] bears & food

[Ddd51 at aol.com (Ddd51@aol.com)]

In a message dated 12/31/2003 9:57:37 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
sjackson@stratmarkgroup.com writes:


> All this talk of bears has me a little scared.  I'm a big wimp when it
> comes to huge animals capable and willing to smash little humans under
> the right circumstances.  I've done some hiking in bear country and have
> never seen one.  How likely is it that one would encounter a bear on the
> PCT, any real statistics?  
> 
> 
I've hiked the PCT from Devil's Post Pile to Donner, the JMT and several 
other places in the northern Sierra, and from my perspective, the only place you 
are likely to see a bear is at the back country camps in Yosemite. These are 
the backpacking equivilant of a KOA, and attract a lot of people. Last summer a 
sow and two cubs walked into the Glen Ellen site in mid afternoon. I once 
spent a night at the Lake Merced back country campground where the noise from 
bears made sleep almost impossible.  The only bear I've see outside of these camps 
was while I was hiking. It ran away. 

AT Vet