Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board bears at the portal

Just to let you know if you will be camping at the portal, there were two bears prowling around foraging through the camp, searching and finding carelessly left open food containers on the night of 10/6. They were not aggressive, but they seemed very determined to find food. Campers beware!

Those bears were also around at the trail head the night before. A group of hikers had carelessly left their backpacks outside their car while getting ready for the hike around 2.30am. The bears "stole" one of the packs and had their fun with it 20 yards from the trail. After waiting some minutes we decided to walk past them.
The night of the 6th, they "broke" into one of our tents at the portal campground, luckily it was empty and everything was locked in the bear containers.

I'm shocked, I tell you shocked there are bears in Whitney Portal.

Last weekend, there was truck parked on Whitney Portal Rd. with a piece of fruit on the dashboard and McDonald's trash strewn about the front seats.

When asked why he robs banks Willie Sutton said, "Because that is where the money is."

the lockers at each site in the campground need their locks replaced with the ones they use in Yosemite. The ones you use your own lock. We came back down from the summit to find someone had broke in for our booze (post summit celibration) well, the turds didnt shut the locker door after they were done & the bears got everything else. If we were able to use our own lock this wouldnt happen.

Nice Casa Blanca reference wbtravis - Capt. Renault.

Your winnings, sirs.

kim fin wrote, "the lockers at each site in the campground need their locks replaced with the ones they use in Yosemite. The ones you use your own lock. We came back down from the summit to find someone had broke in for our booze (post summit celibration) well, the turds didnt shut the locker door after they were done & the bears got everything else. If we were able to use our own lock this wouldnt happen."

Edit: On second thought, maybe using one's own lock on the bear box would cause more trouble than not using one's own lock so I deleted my original suggestion in this message for how to lock it.

The problem with private locks is that people do forget to remove them and leave them locked when they checkout. That would now require campground hosts to have some large lock clippers to remove them. Generally, I have not heard of any major problems with theft but I guess it can be a problem.

Theft can be a problem. On my June 07 summit I left a special coffee mug and coffee thermos in the bear box only to have them stolen while on my 3 day trip. I just wrote it off to the fact there are some bad people in this world who live only for themselves.

Hi I don't recall a restriction on locking your property in the bear proof container that you bring,And that would allow each person to then bring as much stuff as they want to protect. Thanks Doug

I edited out my previous suggestion for how to use a personal lock on a Portal campsite bear box. If anyone is interested in using their own lock, it may be best to check with the Forest Service first.

I hike out of the portal about 10 times per year. During the busy season the bear boxes are always completely full and I resort to putting food in my trunk or just throw it away. Seems like we need to have some more boxes built, at least one or two more. If money is the issue Id be glad to help out. Just curious about this.

I've got some photos of the paw prints on someone's Toyota truck. An REI bag with goodies was shredded by the bears. Someone scared it and it pee'd all over the trash on the ground. Luckily, there wasn't any wind and cleanup (using surgical gloves) was easy.

I usually just don't bring any food that I'm not taking on my walk. No cooler, no food, nothing. Then I don't have to worry about storing it at the trailhead and have more excuses for WPS burgers. On the way home I pick up a drink or two at the gas station or fast food.

While were on the subject of bears, I have a question. I haven't had any problems yet but I keep my truck clean/free of food or food wrappers and any miscellaneous items such as water bottles out of sight. I've thought of getting a camper shell for the future. Most camper shells have the tinted glass which still allows you to see inside. Naturally the bed of the truck is where I would keep my gear, so if a bear sees my stuff back there, of course no food or other delicasies like toothpaste, would it likely break in to rumage through my gear in search for food/water bottles or whatever? I currently have a tonneau cover so all my gear is out of sight. I've heard that visible items in a vehicle that might be mistaken for goodies/food can trigger a bear's couriosity.

Rafael...

Raphael, Maybe just cover your stuff with something like a tarp/blanket/etc. to be on the safe side.

BTW, I never see anyone with a car cover at Whitney Portal. Seems like that would be a way too. It also keeps tree sap off the car.

Maybe they can make an Ursack cover for your car!

We saw at least one car with a car cover when we at the Portal last month. In the past, we've used a tarp to cover our vehicle's contents, which seemed to work well.

CaT

If they can't smell any food AND can't >SEE< anything they associate with food ( like ice chests, backpacks, bottles, cans, etc ) you're likely safe from being broken into. I always make sure to totally clear out the car so that there's nothing visible.

I've seen cars in Yosemite broken into just because they were filled with stuff. I think the bears see a bunch of stuff and decide to break in to check it out.

For my car I want a Garcia cannister.