Bear Encounter Poll

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

The purpose of this poll is to get an idea of just how frequently hikers and backpackers encounter bears. The second part deals with bear behavior - if the bears approach them aggressively, attempt to steal food or just turn and run.

[rafe]

No live encounters, over 30 yrs on the trail. Saw very fresh tracks on my last section, very close to NY-NJ line.

[TJ aka Teej]

No box for "they never see me"?

[Sly]

In my book, seeing bears isn't necessarily an encounter. That said, I've seen quite a few, including 5 griz on the CDT, and never had a problem. I also almost always sleep with my food unless there's a bear pole, box, cable and/or if it's mandated by the NPS to hang or carry a canister.

[Sly]

50 plus bearsTeej? Going to the zoo doesn't count!

[Ridge Rat]

Had a bear destroy my tent at sunfish pond in NJ. Friend I was hiking with left a bunch of snickers bar in tent while we went to go get water and returned to find bear tearing the tent to pieces. Needless to say I was not very happy. I still to this day cant figure out why he would leave food out when there are bear boxes there.

[Sly]

I try not to ever leave my food unattended.

[Spirit Walker]

I've had a lot of bear encounters over the past 20 years. I've seen lots of bears dayhiking in PA and VA and they all either ignored me or ran depending on how far away they were.

On my first AT hike the bears all ran. I saw four bears on my second AT hike - three ran away, the fourth (in NH) came up to us as we cooked and tried to get our food. We tossed stuff at it and it left, but came back later and got our food off the trees (played pinata until the bags broke and then knocked down a tree holding some food at the shelter). The year of my second AT hike there were aggressive bears in New Hampshire, PA and NJ. No one was hurt, but a lot of dinners were lost.

On the JMT the bears at Lyall Canyon knocked down my food but I got to it before they did. (One was standing on the other's shoulders on a big boulder. I was camped below the rock. I was closer to the fallen food than they were, unlike the AT where the bear got there first.) On the PCT - we only saw two bears, both in Northern California near Etna, one ran, the other walked beside us for about 1/2 mile. That was a little scary.

In Alaska, the grizzlies did their own thing - aware of us but not aggressive. We sang quite loudly to let them know where and what we were. Same for the CDT - the first time the griz all ran once they became aware of us, the second hike the grizzly bear ignored us (but was a NP bear) while the black bear ran away.

[ZEKE #2]

I shared a campsite with some gals I didn't know. I put all my goods up the bear pole. They hung their garbage "leftovers" hanging in a tree 4 foot up, about 15 feet from my tent. This apparently happened after I retired. Bear came, bear feasted, bear then rumaged through my backpack damaging my hip belt and side pocket, then quietly left instead of visiting their tent that contained "home-made banana bread". Although the bear was 10-15 feet away from my tent, he did not scare with all my clapping, yelling and whistling. I watched him walk off and laid back down and went to sleep.

[ZEKE #2]

P.S. So much for safety in numbers.

[stumpknocker]

No live encounters, over 30 yrs on the trail. Saw very fresh tracks on my last section, very close to NY-NJ line.

That's too bad you haven't seen any.

Bears are one of the things that I look forward to on the Trail.

Better luck to you in your future walks.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

So far the bear behavior is about what I expected, but the number of bears y'all have seen is surprisingly low.

Perhaps because dinos frolick down the trail rather slowly and have always made time to stop and admire God's handiwork along the way, we see bears that other miss They are often in the trees or off the trail in small clearings or on rocks near water when I see them.

[hopefulhiker]

One time right outside of the NOC i left a candy bar out in my tent. In the middle of the night I woke up with something big leaning on my tent I sat up and pushed against whatever it was with my elbow/arm from inside the tent.. It made a lot of noise taking off.. I talked to some rangers later. They said that it was probably a bear sniffing around.. Anyway by far the majority of my encounters with bears..6-12 was harmless. They would go out of their way to avoid people..

[Chip]

First bear sighting was on the AT coming down from Shuckstack headed for Fontana Dam. My wife saw this bear right after I had walked passed it. The bear was eating some berries. It just watched us walk by. The second sighting was about 3/4 of a mile north of Low Gap Shelter on the Georgia AT on a early morning in May 2004. Very small bear that did a U-turn as soon as it saw us & went straight back in the woods faster than I could blink an eye.

[Sly]

Bears are one of the things that I look forward to on the Trail.

Me too. If you want to see some serious wildlife, you need to hike the CDT!

Moose, elk, deer, black bear, griz, mountain sheep, mountain goat, mountain lion, javelina, rattlesnake, antelope, wild horses!, coyote, bison, marmot, pika, rabbits, eagles, hawks, great heron and cows, lots of cows! Seen 'em all.

It has Ibex too, but I didn't see any of those!

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

::: makes plans to visit portions of CDT :::

[Sly]

::: makes plans to visit portions of CDT :::

Yeah, and if the wildlife doesn't knock your socks off the scenery will. You'll see with Spur and Ready's and Jim and Ginny's slideshows...

[Doctari]

I have been hiking in the smokies for, well since I was 10 or less, have never seen a bear on a trail. Have seen about 10 along side the roads.

Closest I came was very fresh tracks. I made a similar sized impression next to the paw print in a wet spot, it took less than 30 seconds to fill with water to the point the paw print was when I first saw it. The paw print was still filling when I first saw it. SO, I missed seeing a bear by less than 30 seconds, I bet "she" saw me tho.



Doctari.

[wilderness bob]

On my 05 thru I saw a total of 20 Black Bear. I failed to put in the fact that all but one went about their business paying me little mind. The one, just south of or in NJ (can't recall) came in close to the shelter I was at and three of us thru-hikers had to throw stones as a deterrent. Other then that no problems.

My closest encounter with a Black Bear was near my home in the Catskills. I made a fool's mistake of cooking where I intended to sleep and spilled my meal. The Bear came in to camp that night and ate my spilled Ramin. It was about 18 inches from my face when I woke up. Believe me when I tell you that it scared the ba-jesus out of me. My butt was so tight that you could not have put a hot pin up there with a John Deere Tractor.

[RAT]

13 or more for me. Most were running away except for some in the Smokies which were very aggravating and one that walked along beside me for couple miles in between Groundhog creek shelter and Brown Gap. Found some cubs in the backcountry once, two that seemed to not have a mama. They were always there when we came back. We always assumed they survived. Very cute esp. with no mama bear around ;-)

RAT