If it's backpacking weather, it's time for a quick refresher on bears and other hungry critters (mini-bears)!
All bears in the Sierras are American black bears. They range from the lower foothills to the high country to 8,000 feet and higher. Their size, strength, speed, and intelligence requires that you learn to deal with them in their natural surroundings.
Bear Behavior
Bears are curious, intelligent and potentially dangerous animals, but undue fear of bears can endanger both bears and people. Many bears are killed each year by people who are afraid of them. Respecting bears and learning proper behavior in their territory will help so that if you encounter a bear, neither of you will suffer needlessly from the experience. Most bears tend to avoid people. In most cases, if you give a bear the opportunity to do the right thing, it will.
Bears And People
Bears Don't Like Surprises! If you are hiking through bear country, make your presence known especially where the terrain or vegetation makes it hard to see. Make noise, talk loudly or tie a bell to your pack. If possible, travel with a group. Groups are noisier and easier for bears to detect. Avoid thick brush. If you can't, try to walk with the wind at your back so your scent will warn bears of your presence. Contrary to popular belief, bears can see almost as well as people, but trust their noses much more than their eyes or ears. Always let bears know you are there. Bears, like humans, use trails and roads. Don't set up camp close to a trail they might use. Detour around areas where you see or smell carcasses of fish or animals, or see scavengers congregated. A bear's food may be there and if the bear is nearby, it may defend the cache aggressively.
Don't Crowd Bears! Give bears plenty of room. Some bears are more tolerant than others, but every bear has a personal space, the distance within which a bear feels threatened. If you stray within that zone, a bear may react aggressively. When photographing bears, use long lenses; getting close for a great shot could put you inside the danger zone.
Bears And Food
Bears (and mini-bears - like racoons & squirrels) Are Always Looking for Something to Eat! Bears have only about six months to build up fat reserves for their long winter hibernation. Don't let them learn human food or garbage is an easy meal. It is both foolish and illegal to feed bears, either on purpose or by leaving food or garbage that attracts them. Cook away from your tent. Keep a clean camp. Wash your dishes. Avoid smelly food like bacon and smoked fish. Keep food smells off your clothing. If a bear approaches while you are fishing, stop fishing. If you have a fish on your line, don't let it splash. If that's not possible, cut your line. If a bear learns it can obtain fish just by approaching fishermen, it will return for more.
Guidelines for Proper Food Storage
Though not usually aggressive, bears can quickly learn to associate food with people. They will identify food by smell and appearance - bags, coolers, even cars! The same is true for 'mini-bears (squirrels, raccoons, and other critters) in the back country. The bottom line is that if you want to keep your food, you need to practice good storage techniques.
Follow these suggestions, and you'll end up keeping most of your food!
Store all food away from your campsite.
Hang food out of reach if at all possible. If no trees are available, store your food in airtight or specially designed bear-proof containers.
Remember, pets and their food may also attract bears. Treat pet food just like your own.
Avoid taking odorous foods; they attract everything!
Don't leave food & containers (ice chests, bags, cans…) in the cars at the trailhead. Leave them at home.
Store all 'smellables' (soap, sunscreen, deodorant, toothpaste, even garbage) the same way as food. This includes water bottles used with drink mixes or to handle any food.
Burn garbage completely in a hot fire and pack out the remains. Food and garbage are equally attractive to a bear so treat them with equal care. Burying garbage is a waste of time. Bears have keen noses and are great diggers.
Never attempt to retrieve food from any animal.
Loud noises can scare any foraging animals in your camp. Be bold, but keep a safe distance, and NEVER get between an adult animal and its young!
Animals forage for food day & night. Never leave your camp without first properly storing your food and 'smellables'.
Never take foods or 'smellables' into your tent. Never put unbagged foods in your pack. The residual scents can attract animals.
If you leave your pack in camp, leave it on the ground with all flaps and pockets open. Curious animals won't tear it apart looking for 'treats'!
Remember, Federal regulations require proper food storage and prohibit feeding of any park animals, with fines running as high as $5,000! Some developed camp sites provide bear proof metal storage boxes. Use them. Other parks require the use of bear canisters, with high fines for failure to comply.
Using 'Bear Bags'
Lots of animals are interested in your food; it's often much easier to get than berries and nuts! You need to make it hard to get, or risk losing it. The following illustrates a simple 'bear' bag setup that allows even the smallest Scout to hoist a fairly heavy food & smellable bag out of reach. First a warning, these animals are smart! If you don't do this right, your food is gone. If you use this simple technique in highly trafficked areas, your food is gone. If luck is against you, your food is gone. With that said, this setup requires rope and carabiners that weigh just under a pound and stuff into a small 'ditty' bag that doubles as your rock bag for tossing the rope over a limb.
With a 2:1 pulley advantage and elimination of the ropr friction over the top of the limb, this setup allows even the 70 pound food packs issued to you at the Northern Tier Canoe Base to be lifted by a couple of Scouts! As a side benefit, you're avoiding tearing up the bark on the limb, and saving your rope at the same time.
The bear bag kit is carried in a small nylon stuff sack;
Note that a set of instructions (in a ZIP lock baggie) are included so every Scout gets it right the first time. The carabiners are climbing grade at about ~$5 each (on sale), the pulleys are also climbing grade at ~$12 each (light duty 10KN rated). The rope can be smaller diameter as you won't need such a firm grip to get the bags up. We use 5/16" 'Home Depot' grade poly rope (rot resistant) at ~ $5 for 50 feet.
Note that the pulleys can be easily attached any where on the length of rope. This makes setup much easier. The pulleys can be eliminated for lighter (weekend) bear bag weights letting the rope just slide through the smooth carabiners. Since they only weight a few ounces each, I always take them along anyway. There's no telling when you'll need some extra leverage to free a canoe, or whatever!
You don't rig the setup before you string the rope, but I thought it might help to see waht it looks like on the ground. The rop going off to the left is thrown over your tree branch (use the stuff sack with a rock or sand in it). After attaching the top carabiner with a figure eight on a bite, the carabiner is pulled up to the branch and the rope on the left is tied off to a nearby tree trunk. Kepp a hold of the rope on the right so it doesn't slip back through the top pulley! The bottom carabiner and pulley are attached to the rope and clipped to your food bag. Pull the bag up with the rope on the right securing it in position by tieing off the right hand rope as well.
Obviously this branch isn't suitable for a real bear bag setup, but I hope it helps with the details. This rigging provides a 2:1 mechanical advantage in lifting the sometimes heavy food/smellable bag. Its main disadvantage are the exposed tie off ropes. An experienced bear can chew trough these ropes in no time, making off with your food. In problem areas, a small diameter steel cable can be substituted for the ends of the rope, up to 10 feet off the ground. Other bear proofing strategies are discussed at length in the Basic Backpackign Awareness seminar.
In highly trafficked areas you need to use a bear-proof canister or a double bag counterbalance technique. In the counterbalanced arrangement, two fairly equal weight food bags are hung on opposite sides of a limb, being pushed up into position with a hiking stick, paddle or fallen branch. Before hoisting the 2nd bag, a 2nd rope is threaded through the bag's handle with both ends left lose so pulling on just one end pulls the lose rope out without moving the bags. (Pulling on both ends pulls one of the counterbalanced bags down to you.) Loosely drape the ends of this 2nd rope in opposite directions so a critter (most likely) will chew/pull on just one end at a time, ending up with no food. If a critter does manage to pull the lose rope out from the bag, you'll need to retrieve your food with an extended branch, paddles lashed together, or climb the tree.
In some areas, the bears have gotten too much experience with all of these techniques to be fooled. Food canisters are the way to go here, and are required in some wilderness management units. Call ahead to check the requirements for your next trip.
And Remember--
Most people who see a bear in the wild consider it the highlight of their trip. The presence of these majestic creatures is a reminder of how privileged we are to share some of the country's dwindling wilderness.
This page revised October 27, 2007