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View Full Version : what time am i most likely to encounter a bear?



cabalot
11-14-2003, 01:28
i am getting ready to start backpacking in march and plan to by a bear bag like the ursack. just wondering what time am i most likely to encounter a bear. are they mostly nocturnal?
i am also buying a food sealer to vacuum pack. this should eliminate a percentage of the food oders.


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Peaks
11-14-2003, 08:55
When? Most of my bear sightings have been in the early morning, but not always.

By the way, a Ursack isn't needed along the AT. Just try to seal everything as best you can in zip locks, and when in bear country, be sure to hang your food bag properly.

Kerosene
11-14-2003, 10:20
Certainly an Ursack isn't needed to keep out bears, and in fact it my not prove very effective against a determined bear who has time on his hands. However, I do think that it provides another level of deterrence against those devious, pesky, ingenious mice who happen to complete the flying leap from the rafters onto your food bag.

bearbag hanger
11-14-2003, 10:36
I think Backpacker Magazine did a test with the Ursak and a couple other items. What they found is the Ursak held up for the ten minute attention span of the average bear, but a second bear managed to rip it apart. In light of that, I would think a herd of mice, one trying after the last one quits, would be inside in a couple hours at most. Usually, they get in a sack at the opening. It's hard to imagine how small a hole they can wiggle through until you've seen it.

I think the Ursak will protect against bears, but you should probably replace it each time a bear gets a hold of it and does a little damage. Mice, I suspect, can get into one. But, on the AT at least, mice are more likely to go for the easy pickens of the people who don't have Ursaks or something similar.

I'm told, but don't have any real knowledge of, the vacuum packs aren't helpful. Both bears and dogs have no trouble sniffing out whats inside them. What is more helpful is hanging your food away from a bear's normal daily routine of looking inside the shelter, looking around the shelter, etc. If you hang your food a 100 yards or more away from the shelter, the bear will be too lazy to go looking for it.

cabalot
11-14-2003, 13:56
Certainly an Ursack isn't needed to keep out bears, and in fact it my not prove very effective against a determined bear who has time on his hands. However, I do think that it provides another level of deterrence against those devious, pesky, ingenious mice who happen to complete the flying leap from the rafters onto your food bag.

i won't be in shelters, i prefer camping away from others

smokymtnsteve
11-14-2003, 14:00
Hanging food in shelters???..for shame

Jack Tarlin
11-14-2003, 15:46
Bear encounters on the Trail aren't so much a matter of time as they are of location, i.e. certain places such as shelters and established campsites are far more likely to attract bears as the animals have learned to associate these places with food, garbage, idiots that feed them intentionally, etc.

Certain areas are notorious for bear activity and visitation, such as Great Smoky Mtn. National park and Shenandoah Park (especially the latter) as car campers/casual campers weekenders, etc. are generally more lax or careless with their food/cooking/trash removal, etc.

Your likliest place geographically to have a bear encounter on the A.T. is in New Jersey, and the time of day doesn't seem to matter much---I've seen (or heard) them in Jersey at dawn, at sunset, at four in the morning, and every hour in between. This pretty much covers ALL of Jersey by the way, as I've seen them minutes North of Delaware Gap, near the Mohican Center, near Culver's Gap, and pretty much all the way to New York. A few shelters in Jersey are essentially infested....if you stay there, you WILL see a bear. Gren Anderson comes immediately to mind.

While bears, like most woodland creatures, seem more active at dusk and the hours immediately following, this isn't always the case. In short, being on "bear alert" as the end of the day approaches can't hurt, but it's no guarantee you won't run into them at other times.

Peaks
11-14-2003, 17:10
Yes, I tried to answer the question as to when I most frequently saw bears. For me, it was early in the morning, but like Jack, I have seen them at other hours also.

As to where, generally it's where they are protected from hunting. This includes the 2 national parks that the AT traverses, and New Jersey. Now, New Jersey is having the first bear hunt in several decades this year, so that should thin the population some.

One place that Jack did not mention is Georgia. Bears are especially bad in that state. Probably the worst on the whole trail.

Elsewhere along the AT, the mostly saw only glimpes of bears in North Carolina and Tennessee outside of the Smokies National Park, and Pennsylvania.

Footslogger
11-15-2003, 18:40
Every single one of my bear encounters/sightings this year were early in the morning or late in the afternoon/early evening. I know of other hikers who reported seeing bears in the middle of the day but I never had that experience.

illininagel
11-16-2003, 00:38
I've probably seen about 7 different bears in my life on backpacking trips. Oddly enough, I've seen most of them during the middle of the day---between 11 AM and 4 PM.

I've seen a few in Shenandoah National Park, but I've come across bears in Olympic National Park and Grand Teton National Park. Sometimes, a hiking partner has had to point them out to me. Once, I walked right by one as it was eating berries about 100 yards below the trail as I crossed.

Once I saw three at one time while cooking dinner by a lake in the backcountry at Olympic National Park. They were across the lake up on a hill---about a half mile away. I definitely wanted to finish dinner and get things picked up and put away before the bears got any closer.

kank
11-21-2003, 17:22
When you see bears will also depend on where you are. In camping areas where bears have become a nuisance, they are now mostly nocturnal, since that's when they typically find their food. In the wild, bears are usually awake during the day. Our habits have led some bear populations to hunt at night and sleep much of the day. Most of the people I know that have seen a bear have done so in the mornings or evenings, but at popular tent sites you are most likely to come close to a bear at night when they are going after your food bag. In campgrounds, I think bears like to make visits around supper time, since campers quickly abandon their food when they see a bear. The last time I actually saw a bear was late in the evening when it was seeking out garbage cans to pilfer. This was in Gatlingburg, TN (a ghastly example of industrial tourism, but my only excuse is that I was there with some relatives).

I would try to camp away from shelters when I could or at least eat and hang my food away from the shelter. A hammock can help avoid bear encounters by camping where they don't normally go, but any form of stealth camping helps. The vacuum sealing might help somewhat, but bears can smell extremely well and will still find the food if it is hung near regular camping areas. Minimizing the odor will help avoid attracting bears to a stealth site, but you should still cook and eat away from your actual camp.

Footslogger
11-21-2003, 17:59
When you least expect it !!

jlb2012
11-21-2003, 20:10
when your camera is 1.) at the bottom of your pack, 2.) when you are out of film or batteries, 3.) just before you get to where ever the bear is, 4.) right after your hiking budstell you to look