Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Bear Canisters in North Fork

Are bear canisters necessary when camping around UBSL or Iceberg Lake?

Personnaly, I have only encountered bears on the western most side of the Sierras such as above Yosemite. I have seen pictures of bears in the Whitney Portal area but never out on the trail. They do help with the smaller animals. We have resigned to carry one for every two hikers. We stuff two peoples food and other scented items in one canister at night. Does anybody have stories of bear encounters with and without canisters in the Whitney wilderness area? Above or below treeline?

Bear cannisters are not required nor are they necessary in the North Fork. There are lots of marmots around though so hang your food carefully.

At Upper Boyscout Lake find a good boulder that is at least about 5 feet high and hang your food off of it so it is at least a couple feet off the ground.

At Iceberg Lake there is one good rock that many people use to hang their food. Unfortunately many people choose to use the rescue litter for this purpose. The rock the litter sits on is good though and you can use nylon cord just fine.

I've never seen a bear in the North Fork Canyon though nor ever heard a story to that effect.

FYI, another option instead of sharing a full size bear canister with a friend is to use one of the new, smaller canisters that we provide called the BearVault Solo. It is only 1 lbs, 14 ounces and is 2/3 the size of our full size model. Details are at http://www.bearvault.com/bearvault_details.php
Happy Hiking, Jamie and Cindy

The litter up at Iceberg was airlifted out a while back. Apparently, the powers that be decided it didn't belong in the wilderness.

Jamie, nice to see you again, it was good talking to you at ADZPCTKO (Rob Mason's assoc)

I still think that your thru hiker mail back program is a great idea, and with the growth you've had, should only get better (wink).

Hi Several bears live in the North Fork Drainage and many hikers will see them crossing the main trail in the North Fork area, also climbers see them in the North Frok Drainage all the time, I have found scat around LBSL .
When the food source at the Portal is gone the North Fork will be the next target area for a food source, again it's not a question of if- it's - when the problem starts so cans up the North Fork on extended climbing trips should be considered.
Also Bear tracks and scat are around the Portal now so watch you cars and food storage habits .What people do now sets the feeding pattern for the rest of the summer.
Still major snow in the area and very little melt as storms about every 3-5 days
The County needs to remove several large rocks from the road so expect the upper part of the road to close again,
Check Bob R's Trip report for photos of the main trail to Outpost camp area..... Hint try to find their path and follow it , I found tracks last week that went nowhere near the main trail or the North fork.
The Permit season started Today Expect no trail, high winds snow and ice and if we get some warm weather ROCK fall starting slides in both canyons This is not a hike now it's Full winter mountaineering .If you need to rent the gear a trip to Trail camp may be a good goal to set, In the next month we will see several snow blindness
victims some slide injuries and many people lost before reaching Lone Pine Lake.
We plan to start to open the Store on MAY 9 but until we have warm days no water we be at the Portal.BE SAFE Thanks Doug