Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board summit 7/20

hiked to the summit on 7/20 even though a bear had gotten to my pack (carefully locked in a bear box). i am amazed at the dexterity of the bear, who opened my bag of food (he loved the luna bars) but apparently did not need an allergy med, or a honda. we left portal (after a frantic hour of searching for the pack) at about 3am, summited at 11:00am, and made it back down by 6pm. Awesome!!! next time i would do it as a backpack, sleep at trail camp and summit the next day. the stupidest thing we did was drive back to los angeles the same day. the board and doug helped enormously. many thanks to the people who gave me extra food and gatorade.

My college friend Jennifer and I also hiked to the Summit on 7/20, but we left the portal at 2 a.m.(summiting a little after 11 a.m. and returning at 6 pm). While resting on the 97 switchbacks, I talked to a young couple who had quite a story to tell. The husband asked me at what time had we started our hike. When I told him “at 2:00 a.m.”, he said “oh, then you missed the bear commotion in the portal campground at 2:30 a.m.” As he explained, he and his wife had decided to “sleep under the stars” in their sleeping bags, without a tent. At 2:30 a.m., the husband was awakened by a bear that was just two inches from his face, sniffing him. He wisely did not move at all, and the bear grew bored of him and lumbered off. While this was going on, though, he said that a woman who had opened one of the nearby bear bins got frightened when she saw the bear and she ran back to her car for safety, leaving the bear bin unlatched and wide open. After leaving the couple alone, the bear then proceeded to take several backpacks out of the bin, and ate all of the food contained inside. The husband said the bear even knew how to unzip the packs and did so, rather than just tearing them open with his enormous claws. It sounds like (Jackie 123/member#2151)that your pack was one of the "lucky" ones the bear found when the bear bin was left open by the frightened onlooker. We were just glad that we had left at 2 a.m.

I have been hiking for quite a few years and, although I have seen bears and signs of what they can do to human possessions, I have never had a “bear incident.” With one exception.

In August of 2001, I took my son, who was 11, on a day hike up the main Whitney trail. We stayed in the family campground. I was inclined to get up at about 6 AM, but heard so many stories of hikers setting off at 3 AM, or even earlier, that I adopted a “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” attitude. So, we arose at 4 AM, intending to hit the trail at around 4:30.

I knew all about bears. Our car was as sterile as an operating room and everything remotely edible, even to a bear, was in the bear locker. At 4 AM, I got up and removed our day packs from the bear locker and placed them on the picnic table in our campsite, theoretically without any food in them. I was busy rooting around in the locker for our breakfast and lunches while my son stood next to me watching the packs, which were only a few feet away. When I heard him say “Dad, look! A bear!” I turned around quickly, which means that I was quick enough to see a bear run towards us, grab my pack and take off across the creek and up the hill. I will not attempt to reconstruct what I said at that point, but it is possible that it contained material inappropriate for an 11 year old.

I followed my instincts and took off after the bear. I caught up with it just over the creek. Fortunately, my stupid period ended there, just in time. I realized before I got close that there were only two possibilities. The good one was that the bear would run up the hill and I’d never see him, or my pack, again. The bad one was that I’d get torn to ribbons. The bugle sounded “Retreat.”

While we were contemplating the loss, our ursine friend came around again, evidently intending to join us. When I stood up and expressed myself rather clearly, he ambled away to another campsite and we went off to look for the pack. By a stroke of luck, we found it about ¼ mile up the hill. Of course, the bear had torn it apart. He had even found a Cytomax package or two that were theoretically not in there. He also bit through a plastic water bottle and drenched everything inside. But, except for my hat, which we never found, we recovered everything else.

Fortunately, I had brought a book-bag-type backpack for spare clothes, etc. I made a waist strap (no sternum strap that day) and off we went –- at a few minutes after 6, a civilized time to go for a hike. The rest of the hike was uneventful and we returned to the Portal in plenty of time to grab a couple of Doug’s cheeseburgers.

The destroyed backpack is, so far, the only item on the “wall of shame” in my garage. We all have moments in which we are just plain stupid. I hope mine came at 4:05 AM on a dark August morning in 2001.

in response- I was the woman at the bear box who *****ed out and left it open. but let me explain.. after a completely sleepless nite at the portal, we (6ft 3in brother and i) decided at 2 am to leave. imagine my surprise when i opened the bear box and could not find my pack. i was rummaging through it saying words and even phrases that i was thrilled my 3 kids were not there to hear, when right behind the open bear box door i heard a slight rustling. imagine my even greater surprise when i was staring into the glittery eyes of a large bear. having always been taught that the black bears of california are scared of people i started screaming at him to leave, as i desperatly tried to close the damn box. i shined my light in his eyes and screamed for my brother to help me. the bear hardly blinked and my brother, perhaps calling to mind the many times i beat the h-ll out of him as kids, started walking backwards (to his credit blowing his whistle).the bear, i think enjoyed the serenade, and continued with his quest. i, not wanting other people to have to deal with lost food or packs, threw my hiking stick at him. at that point he started coming towards me and the box, and i started coming to my senses and backed off. thankfully the open bear box held more allure to him than i did, and he went for the gusto. i felt terrible. just then, the hikers that had a bear in their face, told me that they had seen a pack strewn in the distance. it was mine. i guess someone had left it out. bears and all we had a great time. next time i stay in lone pine the night before.