View Full Version : Bears
Hey all,
I've been out on the trail for about 2 weeks now, taking a zero in Fontana. But every night I've been in the woods, I've been unable to sleep because of being so paranoid about bears (I know, kind of lame)... I string up my food bag, and the bag with all my cooking gear and soap and toothpaste, but I do often eat in my tent (I clear out everything when I'm done eating, though). I was wondering:
How frequent are bears coming into camps/shelters? Do they ever go for people or people's tents, or just food bags? It is ok to eat in my tent if I pack out and hang all the food and trash? Am I actually "at risk" for a bear trying to enter my tent, or am I just being paranoid? How dangerous are bears on the AT?
I'm not overly concerned about bears getting my food. I mean, that would suck, but I could yogi food until I got to town. I'm more concerned about my own safety. Any advice or tips?
I know that I'm probably being overly-worried about this, but I'm considering quitting my thru-hike because I can't handle the stress every night of laying awake worrying. So any help would be much appreciated!
xx
88BlueGT
04-19-2011, 09:49
No need to stress that hard, I promise you. Precautions aren't even necessary but for someone who DOES take precaution, your chances of having a bad encounter with a bear are EXTREMEEEEEEEEEELY slim. I don't know about eating in your tent though, as someone who's a little paranoid of bears as well, I make it a habit NOT to eat in my tent.... just me though.
Like I said before, its certainly not a serious enough issue that you should consider quitting a thru-hike. Maybe there is some things you can do to help yourself sleep better at night, maybe earplugs or something?
Maybe after a run-in or 2 with a few bears and you see them shat their bear pants and scurry away, I think you'll feel a little better.
mweinstone
04-19-2011, 09:49
each peice of gear , clotheing and me and my tent have been litteraly and documentably bacon greese covered each and every one of the 7000 miles i got hiking in 36 years, all but 600 in the winds , AT miles. i never saw a bear but once bounding across the parkway in snp in 08 and the next day digging roots a mile away. he wouldnt budge from his digging down off the road fifty feet from me for all the weirdo noisesand jumping around i could do. they are belgerent and easily avoided. but your paranoia could be lessoned , for you, if at least you followed propper precautions, witch by cooking and eating in a tent , void all protection.
mweinstone
04-19-2011, 09:56
each peice of gear , clotheing and me and my tent have been litteraly and documentably bacon greese covered each and every one of the 7000 miles i got hiking in 36 years, all but 600 in the winds , AT miles. i never saw a bear but once bounding across the parkway in snp in 08 and the next day digging roots a mile away. he wouldnt budge from his digging down off the road fifty feet from me for all the weirdo noisesand jumping around i could do. they are belgerent and easily avoided. but your paranoia could be lessoned , for you, if at least you followed propper precautions. by cooking and eating in a tent , all protection you may or may not need, is void.by far the best way to relax and feel safe and confident about bears is to learn all about them and practice propper interactions with them. how you act is all that matters. reacting is bad. you must act in a manner that says to the bear, you have no interest but respect its domane without fearing it. you are the king of the jungle. they fear us untill taught otherwise.as safe as swimming with sharks can be, it is for few to reach that level of sensitivity to animals. whereas even a novise hiker can learn easily to walk shareing the eastern woods with our black bears.
mweinstone
04-19-2011, 10:00
its tru. im a walking bacon mess. i litteraly slide down the trail.
mweinstone
04-19-2011, 10:02
did i mention i sear mighty steaks most nights in camp?
WingedMonkey
04-19-2011, 11:25
Yes you should quit. If you have really made it to Fontana and still don't know the answers, quit. If you have hiked 165 miles and met dozens and dozens and dozens of other hikers and don't know the answer, quit. If you take a day off to go online and ask for answers, quit. Quit before you go into the Smokies.
Just sayin'
:(
hikerboy57
04-19-2011, 11:39
dont worry about bears, worry about spiders.
trailangelbronco
04-19-2011, 11:57
Bears are ripping people out of their tents and eating them, but mostly in yellowstone.
You should be ok.
Montana Mac
04-19-2011, 12:00
Bears are ripping people out of their tents and eating them, but mostly in yellowstone.
You should be ok.
Actually the one last year was outside Yellowstone in the natioanl forest east of Cooke City and she is now on the underside of the grass :D
bigcranky
04-19-2011, 12:01
Seriously, it's not something to lie awake at night worrying about.
Just from your own experience in the last two weeks, how many of your fellow hikers have been eaten by bears? How many of your fellow hikers have even seen a bear?
Yes, there is a non-zero risk of a bear hurting you. But that risk is so close to zero as to be meaningless. You are much more likely to be injured in a fall, or by lightning, or hypothermia, or crossing a busy highway, or getting Lyme disease. All of which are also very low probability, so please don't lie awake at night worrying about them!!!
All that said, if you can't sleep, it's hard to hike the next day. I hope you can work this out.
SouthMark
04-19-2011, 12:46
I and a lot of others sleep with our food in our tents. No problems. The bears prefer the easier food from poor bear bag hangs. People are not on black bears menu. NO At hiker has been dragged out of his or her tent and eaten. Bears do not come into camp looking for people to eat. They come in looking for an easy meal, poorly hung food, food in an unattended pack, even food in an unattended tent. The Forest Services's own publication "Living with Black Bears" states that black bears will most likely not enter a tent occupied by humans. Check out this link to help ease your mind:
www.bear.org
Lone Wolf
04-19-2011, 12:57
Hey all,
I've been out on the trail for about 2 weeks now, taking a zero in Fontana. But every night I've been in the woods, I've been unable to sleep because of being so paranoid about bears (I know, kind of lame)... I string up my food bag, and the bag with all my cooking gear and soap and toothpaste, but I do often eat in my tent (I clear out everything when I'm done eating, though). I was wondering:
How frequent are bears coming into camps/shelters? Do they ever go for people or people's tents, or just food bags? It is ok to eat in my tent if I pack out and hang all the food and trash? Am I actually "at risk" for a bear trying to enter my tent, or am I just being paranoid? How dangerous are bears on the AT?
I'm not overly concerned about bears getting my food. I mean, that would suck, but I could yogi food until I got to town. I'm more concerned about my own safety. Any advice or tips?
I know that I'm probably being overly-worried about this, but I'm considering quitting my thru-hike because I can't handle the stress every night of laying awake worrying. So any help would be much appreciated!
xx
i eat and sleep with food in my tent. i never hang it, it's a good way to lose it
mweinstone
04-19-2011, 13:20
one day im going to have to fight for my life against a bear. i drempt it long ago in one of those 3d dreams. i only got away with my life by luck. when it reared on its hind legs towering over me i kicked it with my heavy asolo boot square in there.when it dropped down it shook its head back and forth dazed long enough to get away running. i managed to get all of the bearsf food he had found hanging in trees. it was a great haul of candy and lunch meats and bread and a jar of shine.
Yes you should quit. If you have really made it to Fontana and still don't know the answers, quit. If you have hiked 165 miles and met dozens and dozens and dozens of other hikers and don't know the answer, quit. If you take a day off to go online and ask for answers, quit. Quit before you go into the Smokies.
Just sayin'
:(
Ouch. No, I took a day off because I needed a zero, it had nothing to do with the internet or bears, merely the state of my knees. I know the "by the book" answers about bears-- I was asking for personal accounts. Sorry to have offended with my worries. I know they are irrational, I just wanted reassurance. :o
88BlueGT
04-19-2011, 14:11
Some of these posts are so unnecessary.
If you feel the need to post dumb responses and comments, you should do it on another forum. I sure this poor girl was posting on here for a little bit of comfort and reassurance that she was not going to get attacked on the trail.... not to be told to quit and to cover herself in bacon grease. Just pointless.
88BlueGT
04-19-2011, 14:12
Damn I'm good :p
maybe clem
04-19-2011, 14:17
Do they ever go for people or people's tents, or just food bags? It is ok to eat in my tent if I pack out and hang all the food and trash? Am I actually "at risk" for a bear trying to enter my tent, or am I just being paranoid?
Yes, a bear will rip open your tent to get food inside, even if you're inside the tent. Tent material will not stop a bear. Click on my handle to find the description. It does happen. Do not sleep with food in your tent.
I wouldn't eat food in my tent. Even if all the food is removed, crumbs, oil or other things that leave scents may remain. I would be worried more about dumb rodents chewing a hole through my tent to chase the smell. Bears may fear people enough to stay out of your tent, but rodents are not. They will chew through your pack, your tent, and then scurry across your body in search of food. It's those little guys that I really want to stay away from.
If people persist in trespassing upon the (bears') territory, we must accept the fact
that the (bears), from time to time will harvest a few trespassers.
—modified from EDWARD ABBEY
each peice of gear , clotheing and me and my tent have been litteraly and documentably bacon greese covered each and every one of the 7000 miles i got hiking in 36 years, all but 600 in the winds , AT miles. i never saw a bear but once bounding across the parkway in snp in 08 and the next day digging roots a mile away. he wouldnt budge from his digging down off the road fifty feet from me for all the weirdo noisesand jumping around i could do. they are belgerent and easily avoided. but your paranoia could be lessoned , for you, if at least you followed propper precautions. by cooking and eating in a tent , all protection you may or may not need, is void.by far the best way to relax and feel safe and confident about bears is to learn all about them and practice propper interactions with them. how you act is all that matters. reacting is bad. you must act in a manner that says to the bear, you have no interest but respect its domane without fearing it. you are the king of the jungle. they fear us untill taught otherwise.as safe as swimming with sharks can be, it is for few to reach that level of sensitivity to animals. whereas even a novise hiker can learn easily to walk shareing the eastern woods with our black bears.
This could pass as the most coherent comment I've ever read from mweinstone! Good thing he followed up with a handful of nonsense posts just to balance things out again... :D
ALLEGHENY
04-19-2011, 17:37
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/how-to-survive-a-bear-attack
ALLEGHENY
04-19-2011, 18:12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJAVe57yH-o
Skidsteer
04-19-2011, 18:33
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJAVe57yH-o
That's some funny stuff.
No reason to worry about bears. It's funny that hikers do the entire trail without seeing a bear and yet during my section hikes I see (or hear) them all the time. I have even been close friends with a bear that just wouldn't go away (not fun). Just remember that it is their woods and we are visitors. When I started section hiking a few years back I too had some of the same fears. To help this, I would sleep in shelters, in the middle (or upper floors) with my head towards the back wall and wear good ear plugs. I just figured I would rather have my nose tickled by a mouse then my face licked by a bear. Now having said that, I no longer do these. I still like to sleep in (most) shelters as it is more convenient than my tent and still wear ear plugs as not to be woken up by the guy snoring next to me . Most of the time I compromise and hang my pack (without food) in the shelter (or in my tent) and hang my food on a cable. I just figure that a bear has to work at getting my food if I hang it verse just take it if left low. I also open all the pockets in my pack so the mice have an easy way in and out to see there is no food. This is so they do not eat holes in my packs.
So relax, take a deep breath and enjoy the woods. Be aware of where you are and that you might just turn the corner and see a bear. Not a big deal, just stop and let them pass. Thousands of people do this an no one is getting hurt and either will you.
gregpphoto
06-16-2011, 10:49
I and a lot of others sleep with our food in our tents. No problems. The bears prefer the easier food from poor bear bag hangs. People are not on black bears menu. NO At hiker has been dragged out of his or her tent and eaten. Bears do not come into camp looking for people to eat. They come in looking for an easy meal, poorly hung food, food in an unattended pack, even food in an unattended tent. The Forest Services's own publication "Living with Black Bears" states that black bears will most likely not enter a tent occupied by humans. Check out this link to help ease your mind:
www.bear.org
You're an a-hole and you're putting those around you in danger. Whats more, you're 100% wrong, black bears DO kill and eat people. Examples?
1. After Lavoie didn't return to her cabin following a solo fishing outing, her husband went looking for her. He found a bear dragging her body into the woods.[16]
2. Kochorek was reported missing after mountain biking. A black bear was found near her corpse the morning after her disappearance. The bear was shot on site by The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).[17]
3.Malenfant was attacked in his campsite in the Gaspé region of Quebec.[30][31]
Oh, and all these incidents, just from the 2000s. Read before you speak http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America#Black_ bear
SouthMark
06-16-2011, 11:33
You're an a-hole and you're putting those around you in danger. Whats more, you're 100% wrong, black bears DO kill and eat people. Examples?
1. After Lavoie didn't return to her cabin following a solo fishing outing, her husband went looking for her. He found a bear dragging her body into the woods.[16]
2. Kochorek was reported missing after mountain biking. A black bear was found near her corpse the morning after her disappearance. The bear was shot on site by The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).[17]
3.Malenfant was attacked in his campsite in the Gaspé region of Quebec.[30][31]
Oh, and all these incidents, just from the 2000s. Read before you speak http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America#Black_ bear
Do a little more research. All in Canada. Only three deaths from Black Bears in Eastern US since 1900. I'm not an a-hole, I just didn't drink the kool-aid! Visit www.bear.org and get some information from people who know what they are talking about, not opinions from paranoid people with irrational fears.
SouthMark
06-16-2011, 11:43
Oh and BTW, let me get this straight. I am perfectly safe hiking down the trail with a pack full of food because bears lie in wait until I'm a sleep to get my food. And just why is it that the only hikers that loose their food to bears are the ones who hang their food? And why does the Forest Service in one of their publications say that a black bear will probably not enter a tent with a human in it? But as my signature says "I'm not young enough to know everything".
gregpphoto
06-16-2011, 12:29
Do a little more research. All in Canada. Only three deaths from Black Bears in Eastern US since 1900. I'm not an a-hole, I just didn't drink the kool-aid! Visit www.bear.org and get some information from people who know what they are talking about, not opinions from paranoid people with irrational fears.
Oh really now? Maybe you should go look again. Out of the sixteen deaths from black bears from 2000 to 2009, seven were in the continental United States. And thats just from a ten year period.
Do your own thing, hike your own hike.. But do not endanger those around you because you feel you are above the bears and above the reality of the situation. Have fun when four hundred pounds of fat and muscle wakes you up.
Oh yea, let me trust a website who uses the oldest logical fallacy in the book, a hasty generalization, highlighting ONE town of ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY (thats 170) people has fed bears for a few decades and no one got attacked. Wow, I'm sold! Wait till they stop feeding em. Look at Yellowstone when they closed the dumps to see what will happen when you stop feeding wild animals.
Sarcasm the elf
06-16-2011, 12:37
Oh and BTW, let me get this straight. I am perfectly safe hiking down the trail with a pack full of food because bears lie in wait until I'm a sleep to get my food. And just why is it that the only hikers that loose their food to bears are the ones who hang their food? And why does the Forest Service in one of their publications say that a black bear will probably not enter a tent with a human in it? But as my signature says "I'm not young enough to know everything".
But you are hiking during the day time...you are only supposed to be scared of invisible monsters and things that go bump in the night...
It seems that Ginkgo is more at risk of being attacked by a WB member than being attacked by a bear.
If she made it to Fontana, she can make it through the Smokies, and beyond as long as it's fun for her. She's seen how to do and how not to do it. It's her hike, not ours.
Hanging a bear bag is now known as "bear fishing". The bears have learned that those things in the trees are good to eat, so they come around to see if they can get at them. Some of them have become successful. Smelly, food-saturated shelters are also a big draw, but only when there aren't a lot of people around.
The best solution I've found is to use a bear-resistant food canister (now recommended by rangers in SNP, and soon to become a requirement in other national parks on the East Coast). Cook in one location away from your tent, put the canister in another location (think "triangle") with a rock on top, and wash your dishes where you cook (you can keep them in your tent after you wash them, or put them in the canister if there's room). Canisters weigh 2-3 pounds, so you will have to put up with the extra weight or make changes to your kit to keep the weight constant.
Ginkgo, I'm sorry you got ambushed on this thread. Don't quit on a bad day.
SouthMark
06-16-2011, 14:20
Oh really now? Maybe you should go look again. Out of the sixteen deaths from black bears from 2000 to 2009, seven were in the continental United States. And thats just from a ten year period.
Do your own thing, hike your own hike.. But do not endanger those around you because you feel you are above the bears and above the reality of the situation. Have fun when four hundred pounds of fat and muscle wakes you up.
Oh yea, let me trust a website who uses the oldest logical fallacy in the book, a hasty generalization, highlighting ONE town of ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY (thats 170) people has fed bears for a few decades and no one got attacked. Wow, I'm sold! Wait till they stop feeding em. Look at Yellowstone when they closed the dumps to see what will happen when you stop feeding wild animals.
I stand corrected. I did not realize that the AT was in the Western US. I have just never hike that section, especially the section in Yellowstone.
gregpphoto
06-16-2011, 14:39
I stand corrected. I did not realize that the AT was in the Western US. I have just never hike that section, especially the section in Yellowstone.
I guess Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and New York are nowhere near the AT either. Look, you can split hairs all you want, at the end of the day, you're flat out insane if you think keeping food in your tent is a safe idea in bear country. Sure, you may get away with it a few times, maybe a few hundreds times. But how bout that one time you screw up? God forbid there are other people camping near you and you attract a bear to the campsite because you don't want to take the time to show respect and hang your food, how would you feel then?
gregpphoto
06-16-2011, 14:45
And I used Yellowstone as a counter example to your bear propaganda website known as bears.org. If that town in Minnesota of, again, only 170 people continues to feed the bears, there probably wont be an incident, much like how there were few incidents in Yellowstone when feeding the bears was allowed. But what happened when they outlawed this practice and also closed the garbage dumps? The bears became quite feisty around humans as they now had to hunt and forage for themselves again. People were mauled, some killed. The same would probably happen in Minnesota or anywhere else where bears become habituated to human presence and become reliant on humans for food.
Lastly, all those attacks I pointed out? Those are just the FATAL attacks. That does not include attacks where people survived! So its not unheard of to be attacked by a black bear, so why further your chances by not taking the proper precautions such as keeping a clean campsite and not cooking or storing food at the campsite?
Sarcasm the elf
06-16-2011, 16:21
At the risk of being rational, I'm no going to worry too much about a hazard
that has killed less than one person a year in the U.S. Over the last century. I would be much more worried about being run over at a road crossing (The Pallisades parkway comes to mind) than I ever will be about east coast black bears.
I do take precautions with my food in bear country, but only because I don't want to be responsible for helping to create a habituated bear that ends up being destroyed. That's something I do worry about.
travelgnome88
06-16-2011, 16:45
I carry a rolled up newspaper and smack the bear in the nose and say "bad bear" and if they get in my food I rub there nose in it and say "bad bear" again
With what you are doing already, your chances of having "trouble with bears" or "being attacked by a bear" are very remote. You are right to take it seriously because there are some bears in the woods. But keep in mind, it's a big woods! If you keep your camp pretty clean then you just don't attract the notice. In my opinion, it's not something to lose sleep about at night. But continue your routine. Hike on.
Blissful
06-16-2011, 19:57
The best solution I've found is to use a bear-resistant food canister (now recommended by rangers in SNP,
Really? I'm unaware of that, as they have the famous bear poles at each shelter and tenting area.
Hi Blissful. Congratulations on finishing your hike!
Mea culpa. I've been using the term canister, where the NPS uses the term container. Not sure if a bear bag on a pole qualifies as a container, but here goes...
Here is the web page: http://www.nps.gov/shen/naturescience/bear_safety.htm
Here is the text, although some might say "If possible," refers to all of the methods described in this paragraph:
"If possible, use a bear resistant food container (BRFC)..."
sharon2010
06-16-2011, 22:53
I don:t think I would be eating in my tent,if a bear does come in to camp, they have very good noses and may just be curios of the smell and scare you. but don:t think you would be on the menu.most of the time they are just very noses animals.and likes to checkout anything that smell like food to them,thats all they think about food,sounds like a through hiker:eek: uhh
First of all, I apologize for some of the rude answers. It's just part of the internet. It's extremely common to fear bears. But there is no need to lose sleep or worry about it. It's like the fear of flying, flying is safe but those who fear it will give examples of planes crashing to scare themselves and others.
Statistically, a randomly chosen person is about 10 times as dangerous as a randomly chose bear (http://bucktrack.blogspot.com/2011/02/bears-should-you-be-afraid.html). As far as I know, out of millions of people who have hiked all or part of the A.T. nobody has been killed by bear along the trail.
Along with most AT hikers, I commonly ate in my tent. I slept with my food almost every night. I would use bear poles or hang food where required.
In Stephen Herrero's bear book he says this: Bear attacks are rare events...Each year there are millions of times in which each species is close to people and no threat or injury results... I hate to see people's lives crippled by fear based on ignorance.
You will be fine. For sure. Many people are afraid of bears at first. Hang in there and the fear will ease. Have fun!
WingedMonkey
06-17-2011, 14:25
This post was two months ago. A supposed thru hiker had already went through the area that was constantly talked about as a problem area with bears, and was eventually for a short time closed to over night camping. If you have hiked as far as Fontana Dam and have not read any shelter logs or talked to any other hikers or been stuck listening to a ridge runner about safe bear procedidures and then go online and say "should I cook in my tent?" you should go home.