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Re: [pct-l] bear canisters



Jim Serio wrote:
> 
> It seems to me that bears mostly go after your
> food at night. I was first concerened that they
> would only go after "unsupervised" backpacks
> or food, but now it seems (from reading everyone's
> posts) that they will indeed go after a person
> with a backpack (ie. a backpack in a tent). My
> questions is, will bears go far enough to confront
> you on a trail *while hiking*? Even if you do
> have a bear canister, it seems they would still
> be attracted to other scents in your pack, or
> maybe just your pack. Is it possible bears will
> eventually go this far?
> 
> Jim

Absolutely.  There are stories of a bear in the Smokies that used to
hang out at the trail interesections, waiting for the hikers to come
along. The hikers would approach the intersection, see the bear, drop
their pack and start running. The bear leisurely strolled over to the
pack and started rummaging. One bear did this for quite a while. She was
moved, but quickly found her way back. When a hiker did stand up to her
and refuse to hand over the pack, she didn't do anything, but neither
did she stop her antics. I think they finally put her down. 

On the AT, in '92 there were several bears that came up to the shelters
and campsites while people were cooking dinner. When the people backed
off, the bears would eat the food.  One did that to us in New Hampshire
and we scared it off by throwing things at it. A hit on the nose made it
take off for a while, but he came back. 

With the bear boxes and bear cans, it won't be long until the bears
learn to just wait until people take the food out to start cooking, then
come over and take what they want. It's not that they're being
predatory; they're being lazy. Getting food from a hiker is a lot easier
than digging grubs and eating mice. Most campers will hand it over
rather than try to fight a 400 lb bear. We tried facing down a bear - it
isn't easy.

Few black bears are actively predatory toward people, (they don't want
to eat US, we're too much trouble) but if we have interesting grub in
our packs, they don't see anything wrong with getting it any way they
can.  
Ginny

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