RE: [Philmont]: Bears

> From: Rick Tyler
> I grew up backpacking in the Sierra Nevada, where bears are numerous
> and talented.

Being from So. Calif, we've had quite a few bear encounters in our troop
over the years, including, about 12 years ago, a mauling that included
having a huge flap of a lad's scalp hanging down. During the time I've
been with our troop, we've had three bear encounters that resulted in
damage (a water bottle that got bitten, a trekking pole that got bitten
and an unopened can that got bitten), none involving a smellable.
We are very bear aware and have to deal with aggressive bears.
>
> So, the question is, how many bear sightings does the typical crew
> usually have?

Our 2003 crew didn't see a bear, but saw evidence of bears having sniffed
around at three campsites come morning. They followed our usual protocols
and had no incidents.

When I was at PTC in 2002, a bear had been captured after having raided
a few camps. The mini-bears at Philmont were more of a problem, but
they pale in comparison to the mini-bears at Mineral King :-). The worst
problem I ever had was with a Raven at Grand Canyon that poked a bunch of
holes in my water bladder inside my pack.

> have been there. I already understand the argument, "It's a good
> practice and it certainly doesn't hurt anything."
>
The problem at Philmont is numbers. When we backpack along the John
Muir Trail, we share the wilderness with maybe 300 other souls (except
the section that goes near Half-Dome where we are sharing the area
with about 5,000,000 other people, or at least it seems that way). When
we backpack Philmont, on any given day, we share an area a quarter
the size of the John Muir Trail area with about 3000 other souls.

That means there is quite probably 10 times the chances of a bear
encounter at Philmont than in the High Sierras. The other problem
with Philmont is they still require bear bags, and since those are
more of a pain to put your smellables in and get to, having to put
them up and take them down, people can get pretty careless. It's
too bad Philmont doesn't seem to want to switch to bear cannisters.
Solve the chair problem in the other thread, that would :-).

Let's face it, we've all heard the stories of the "problem" crews
that refuse to take the rules seriously. Even those that want to
follow the rules may not be as well-versed with bear awareness when
they don't come from bear country.
>
> So, is Northern New Mexico really like the high Sierra, or are we just
> being properly cautious?
>
IMHO, Northern NM is not nearly as bad, bear for bear, as the High Sierras.
However, the population density of the visitors is such that the
problems with any one bear are greatly magnified. The beasties are,
as nature has bred them, opportunists. The fact is the opportunities
for a beast to have an encounter with people are simply far more
numerous at PSR than in most of the High Sierra. Except maybe at Yosemite,
where there are even more people than at Philmont. But then, the bears
there seems to get themselves very quickly re-located.

Regards
Don Roberts
Philtrek 808-K I2

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Received on Wed Jun 1 12:00:38 2005