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  1. #1
    Registered User ldsailor's Avatar
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    Default Think that tree limb is too thin for a bear to climb?

    I'm going to have to rethink the tree limbs I deem too thin for a bear to climb and steal my food bag.

    Trail Name - Slapshot
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  2. #2
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    They have been know to break smaller limbs that are too small and topple saplings.

  3. #3
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    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

  4. #4
    Registered User MAD777's Avatar
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    Now that's funny Sarcasm the elf!
    Gives new meaning to "bear canister"


    Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

  5. #5
    Wanna-be hiker trash
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    Quote Originally Posted by MAD777 View Post
    Now that's funny Sarcasm the elf!
    Gives new meaning to "bear canister"


    Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
    My only regret is that I didn’t have access to an actual bear cub to use for the photo.
    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

  6. #6

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    They will climb anything that doesnt bend like spaghetti.
    The can chew off anything under 3" or so too

  7. #7

  8. #8

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    There used to bear family near a construction site I worked on. I had to hang around there keeping an eye on the construction and had a good view of momma bear and babies climbing up Poplar trees and sitting in a crotch where they could pull in branches and eat the poplar buds in the spring as they are about the earliest thing they can eat in the spring while there may still be snow on the ground. They would hang out for hours as long as the sun was out.

  9. #9
    Registered User ldsailor's Avatar
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    That video of the bear climbing across a line to get at food is eye opening. Might just be time for a bear keg.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by ldsailor View Post
    That video of the bear climbing across a line to get at food is eye opening. Might just be time for a bear keg.
    Eye opening indeed. Imagine a bear competing on American Ninja Warrior. He'd win.

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  12. #12
    Registered User ldsailor's Avatar
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    Ok, I get it. Hanging food is an illusion of safety for the food. Time for a bear keg.
    Trail Name - Slapshot
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  13. #13
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    I think there's a definite tendency to forget that climbing in general, and spending lots of time in trees in particular, was a huge part of the natural selection process for black bears. I don't suppose they're truly arboreal, but they're darned close. They are uncannily good climbers. In forty years of backpacking I've only seen bears three times, and every time was when I was looking up.

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Paleolith54 View Post
    I think there's a definite tendency to forget that climbing in general, and spending lots of time in trees in particular, was a huge part of the natural selection process for black bears. I don't suppose they're truly arboreal, but they're darned close. They are uncannily good climbers. In forty years of backpacking I've only seen bears three times, and every time was when I was looking up.
    Small bears are as much at home in a tree as a squirrell.

  15. #15
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    That video of the bear climbing across a line to get at food is eye opening. Might just be time for a bear keg.



    this happens in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as well...

    down at Cataloochee-----they have (or had) pictures of bears doing the same thing to get over to food bags...

    bears have also learned to shake the cables to knock the bags down....

    that why i hate the open hook system that the cables have.....need to carabiner it on the cable and not rely on the hook....

  16. #16
    Registered User MAD777's Avatar
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    I use the PCT method, which i believe makes it more challenging for a bear, but not infallible. I recently moved to New Hampshire from Florida and find bear bagging much more difficult in New England because of different tree structure. I'm contemplating a change to a canister, but don't want the weight or bulk.

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  17. #17
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    Can't wait to see all the terrible hangs at the start of the trail this year

  18. #18
    GSMNP 900 Miler rmitchell's Avatar
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    Late summer a few years ago I was doing loop hike in GSMNP using Chestnut Branch, AT, Balsam Mt., Mt. Sterling and Baxter Creek. Going southbound on the AT near Mt. Cammerer I passed by a black cherry tree that was below the trail with the canopy almost level with the trail.

    I could hear limbs breaking and see the foliage moving. I was close enough to see the cherries in the tree but couldn't clearly see the bear through the leaves. It had to have heard me or more likely smelled me. However it continued to break limbs in the tree as if I wasn't even there. I guess it was zoned in on the cherries.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Crushed Grapes View Post
    Can't wait to see all the terrible hangs at the start of the trail this year
    I wish this calender had become a real thing:

    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

  20. #20
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    I always loved seeing people who excitedly "hung" their bear bag by sliding it onto a branch about head high. If you can reach it that easily, then...

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