[Philmont] Black Bear Attack

FWIW

The advisor for a neighboring crew was the first responder in the 2001
bear attack. He was the ASM in the Troop I had been SM with and is an
MD so he knew what to do. His story of the event is pretty awesome.
One of the older Scouts who was with the group that went for assistance
had been on a trek with me in 1999 and was disappointed we didn't see
any bears. He changed his mind after this incident.

There had been food involved, apparently left on the ground by a prior
crew and the tent was over it. There were mixed reports of food inside
the tent with the campers that were attacked. In any event, the bear
was destroyed, and the crew did not finish their trek (understandably).

There were links to the reports on Selden's website, but they have
expired/been archived.

Mark Jaffry wrote:

On our more recent trek, #21, this past summer, we were also awakened in
the middle of the night while we slept at Ute Meadows. The crew in the
site next to us was vigorously banging pops and such in an effort to
chase away a bear which had torn the fabric on a tent, but had not yet
entered. The "after story" for this one was that a scout had purchased
several candy bars at the Baldy Town store, but hadn't eaten them all
yet. He apparently intended to, but forgot they were in the side pocket
of his hiking pants, or at least one wrapper and one candy bar were in
there. Yep, you guessed it, the bear smelled the candy residue on the
wrapper and was coming to check it out.

Must have brought them with him. This is precisely why they don't sell
candy bars or other junk food in the backcountry trading posts any more
and haven't for several years.

Happy Trails,

Roy Fisher

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Received on Tue Jun 19 22:06:03 2007