[pct-l] What attracts Bears

[jolson at olc.edu (Jeffrey Olson)]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Deems" <losthiker@sisqtel.net>


> Catch some fish, clean them on the bank and toss the remains into the 
> lake, then fry them up in camp late at nite.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ON my SOBO section hike this summer I met my friend Deniece at Steven's Pass 
and she hiked with me to Snoqualmie.  The first night out of Steven's Pass 
we walked a couple hundred yards down the trail and cooked, and then another 
couple hundred to clean up.  It felt like overkill.  Did it anyway.

We got back to camp and Stick Girl and Bump )?_ were getting water.  20 
minutes later three guys, Oh God, Gizmo and Donkey, cooked and ate 40' from 
our camp on the other side of rocks from us.  They didn't know we were 
there.  We could smell their food...

I saw six black bears between Canada and Santiam Pass, and one giant grizzly 
poop, two inchs across by about two feet long two days south of Manning.  I 
poked the poop with my hiking pole and it hadn't developed a "skin" yet.  I 
poked a lot of poop, and this was about as fresh as it came.  I walked for 
an hour "singing in the rain, actually, snow..."  I saw all the bears before 
eight AM.

Jeff Olson
Santa Rosa, CA