Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Da BEARS!

Last season I encountered the most wiley, sneaky, pesky bears EVER! This includes all the decades I have been coming up to the Portal, Yos Valley, the Meadows...
Bad luck? OR did anyone else get pestered?

Before you ask...Clean cars, cleaner camp sites, Bear aware...Even to the point of brushing teeth away from camp.

Anyone...

highly variable - I have had from zero to 7 bear encounters per trip over 21 trips to Sierras. Usually zero.

The bears of today do not behave they way bears did 20 and 40 years ago. Increased contact with humans and poor human behavior have altered bear behavior. Changing the behavior back will take bear generations (and possibly human generations to fix the cause).

Dale B. Dalrymple

This year's gonna be particularly bad cuz there's no "natural" food for the bears - so they are hungry and possibly grumpy... keep an extra-special watch out!!

I think I've heard a few people who know something about the subject say that the reason there are bears in the Portal area is because of the people. There really isn't a source of food for them in the area.

I love watching them start to head north on the PCT at this time of year. :-)

I've only seen two in all the times I've been up there. More in other places.

I had to post this for all to see. Over the years I have heard of one bear incident after another but this story illustrates the best example of what can happen when a bear gets PO'd while on the hunt for food.

http://www.denverpost.com/boulder/ci_20998368/trapped-bear-tears-up-suv-boulders-flagstaff-road