bear encounters in mass

jstarks188 · Jul 14, 2005

howdy,
i'm section hiking the A.T. in mass. right now,and would like some
guidance on the best ways to handle a bear encounter.
thanks
jack

awf170 · Jul 14, 2005

bears are scared of humans...

Greg · Jul 14, 2005

awf170 said:
bears are scared of humans...

Austin is right. You likely won't even see one. If you're lucky enough to, they'll probably just boogie. I suppose a mother and cub encounter could be dicey, but with black bears you should just hold your ground and they'll eventually leave.

jstarks188 said:
i'm section hiking the A.T. in mass. right now

Right now as in right now? I don't think it's what you meant, but your post sounds like you're logging in from the trail... :lol: Anyway, welcome!

pizza · Jul 14, 2005

Eastern bears are pretty benign. They're not meat-eatin' grizzlies. In fact, I can't remember hearing of any bear encounters. They'll only attack if they feel threatened. So don't appear threatening:

Don't be between a mother and a cub
Don't look them in the eye
don't run away
walk away calmly, keeping the bear in your field of vision.

That's about it.

cbcbd · Jul 14, 2005

Yeah, pizza's got it... no eye contact, drop your backpack or food, back away slowly.
Good link
http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/wildlife/problem_wildlife/pdf/bbear_encounters.pdf

Are you encountering a bear right now?

If anything, in the MA AT the animal you'll mostly encounter are porcupines. Don't leave anything salty accessible to them (shoes, clothes, etc) - they'll chew it right up. I did the MA section a few years back and a porcupine chewed on our shelter all night long (hikers sweating and leaving saltiness on the edge of the shelter floor attracted him).

JimG. · Jul 14, 2005

One last thing...things that humans don't consider food black bears do. These things include soap, lotion, toothpaste, basically anything they could eat and not get too sick from.

If you're smart, keep all these items and food in a bag strung between 2 trees. The bear might climb the tree, but they don't walk tightrope.

Jaytrek57 · Jul 14, 2005

Schools of thoughts on bear encounters are always changing.

Dropping your pack, despite what the link says, is not a good practice. It teaches bears an association between packs/humans and food. It will lead to the bear being more aggressive in encounters because of this association and eventually it will become a "problem" bear and eventually "destroyed" by humans.

There's more but, alas, back to work.

peace.

ctenidae · Jul 14, 2005

I had three run-ins with two bears when I was in Arizona. One bear was just an ass, and charged me twice (on seperate occasions). First time I almost wet myself, second time I said, "Look, we both know you're an ass. Go away." So he did.
The other bearwas roting around for food,a dn was circling my position. He worked in a little close adn got downwind of me just the other side of some brush. I think it scared him when he caught a whiff of me (I'd been out there in a tent for two months) and charged through the brush. I had a spotter scope on a tripod, ready to swing like Sammy Sousa, as if that would have helped. Fortunately,a s soon as he broke through the brush (about 5 feet away from me), he realized what I was and left. I was glad I had an extra pair of underwear back in my tent.

My advice for dealing with bears- be big and obviously human. Make noise, flap your arms, whatever. Do not run.

cbcbd · Jul 14, 2005

Jaytrek57 said:
Schools of thoughts on bear encounters are always changing.

Dropping your pack, despite what the link says, is not a good practice. It teaches bears an association between packs/humans and food. It will lead to the bear being more aggressive in encounters because of this association and eventually it will become a "problem" bear and eventually "destroyed" by humans.

There's more but, alas, back to work.

peace.

Good point, I remember reading about that and had forgotten.

ctenidae · Jul 14, 2005

That pamphlet rocks- They do recommend dropping your pack, but only if the bear is being agressive (I guess in the hope the bear becomes more interested in the pack than you).

Be big and obviously human. That's the key.

dmc · Jul 14, 2005

I always thought you were supposed to leave your pack on as an extra layer of protection from being mauled while in the fetal position...

When we see bears in the Catskills we stand together to look like a bigger thing and make a lot of noise..

This may sound wierd... But I can always smell bears when they are close.. They smell like wet crap..

loafer89 · Jul 14, 2005

I had an encounter with a female black bear and her cub from a chairlift at Mountain Creek in New Jersey in December 1999.

Of course we had nothing to fear being 20' above them on the chairlift, but that was close enough for me.

dmc · Jul 14, 2005

loafer89 said:
I had an encounter with a female black bear and her cub from a chairlift at Mountain Creek in New Jersey in December 1999.

Of course we had nothing to fear being 20' above them on the chairlift, but that was close enough for me.

Ski Patrol at Hunter regularly closes off trails in Spring when the bears travel around foraging...

I like living with bears around... It's cool..
I have one that crusies around outside my house... The neighbors dog is constantly treeing it..

Basic rule is - if you dont want them around - don';t leave food and garbage out..

cbcbd · Jul 14, 2005

ctenidae said:
second time I said, "Look, we both know you're an ass. Go away." So he did.

That's great! telling it like it is.

ctenidae · Jul 14, 2005

Yeah, that guy charged a couple of other people that summer, and apparently he makes a regular game of it.

There was a Ranger at Apache/Sitgreaves NF in Arizona in the early 80's who was King of Problem Bears- every one he captured and relocated never came back. Everyone thought he was fantastic, until an animal rights group found out his method. He promptly got fired.
Trouble is, his method worked great. Once a bear lost its fear of humans and became a pest in a neighborhood, he'd capture it and drive it way out into the woods, around wherever he was relocating it to. Then he'd tie it to a tree, and procede to kick the crap out of it. No damage, just a good butt-kicking. Then he'd let the bear go, and viola, it had no desire to be anywhere near humans after that.
Once he got fired, the only choice the Rangers had was to kill the problem bears. And that didn't upset the animal groups, because, you know, killing the bear is much better than resetting the natural order of things.

JimG. · Jul 14, 2005

ctenidae said:
Then he'd tie it to a tree, and procede to kick the crap out of it. No damage, just a good butt-kicking. Then he'd let the bear go, and viola, it had no desire to be anywhere near humans after that.

There are alot of black bears in the Catskills; at Waterville Valley campsite, there are a few with radio collars on that frequently steal food, mostly because of stupid people. Of course there are signs warning of bears everywhere, but who reads, right?

On one visit, when my 2 oldest sons were only 4 and 2, our neighbors were kind enough to leave cups with leftover soda in them on their table. I'm setting up our tent when my son David laughs and says "Daddy, look at that funny bear with the cup on his nose". So I look and sure enough, there's a full grown female snorkeling around in the cups.

The next morning I had an amazing conversation with a park ranger. She told me of one guy who left his boots outside his tent "in case he had to pee". At 3am he reaches out for his boots and gets swiped at by a bear. Oh, I'll bet he pee'd!

Another story was 2 ladies who followed all the rules except for leaving a watermelon and a canteloupe in the stream "to keep them cold". They were of course gone in the morning and the ladies approached the ranger to inquire "who they could talk to about the missing fruits". I'm guessing the ranger had to bite her lip to avoid saying that the "missing fruits" were standing in front of her.

My point is that bears just do what they do. If anything, I'm more likely to tie a human to a tree and kick the crap out of them.

ctenidae · Jul 15, 2005

Beating stupid humans would certainly be more satisfying, but teh Ranger's success rate on bears was, apparently, phenomenal. Bears absolutely will do whatever they want- I guess teh key is to keep them from wanting to do the things you don't want them to do.

"Missing fruits" indeed. I think the Ranger found them.

una_dogger · Jul 23, 2005

All good info..

..here's a bit more.
Cook your dinner, eat it and clean up and then hike a few more miles and then make camp for the night.

It takes a few days to get into the swing of it, but it keeps the food odors out of your camp at night.

Black bears are most active at dusk and just after nightfall, when most backpackers are settling into camp and cooking.

Bear proof containers are great. I recently got one because I've been concentrating on the Adks this summer. The more you can do to keep the food and soap odors low, the better chances you'll have at not attracting bears.

The other thing about the AT, is that it passes so close to so many residential areas. Bear encounters in these areas are definately on the rise, bears are always in the papers these days for devouring the contents of garbage cans and emptying bird feeders; so I think you are wise to ask!

Happy Trails,
Sabrina

PS my friends on the AT now had a scary run in down in Shenandoah...

Mike P. · Jul 25, 2005

The Thru-hiker I occasionally hike with saw his only bear on his 99 Thru hike in Mass, near Saddleball. New Jersey has had problesm too more because of development encroaching on the AT in a narrow corrider.

A fed bear is a dead bear, dropping your pack should be a last ditch thing. Good advice on other post, especially scent not necassarily edible food is an issue & idea of eating them walking some more to set up camp. I suppose setting camp & then eating several 100 yards away at a viewpoint or near where you will wash dishes would work okay too, not as effective as walking miles but easier.

While on Mt. Leconte in TN earlier this month I was amazed at how close to the open shelter the food storage poles were, maybe 20 yards away from the shelter, it looked more like an invite to the bear to visit the shelter than doing anythuing short of leaving food in your pack or on top of the shelter.

Saturday when I got to Marcy Dam a chipmunk was going through two bags that looked like they were dropped over the spillway on ropes but someone or some animal had pulled them up. Could a bear do this or was a camper hungry at night & forgot to re-hang his/her food?

una_dogger · Jul 25, 2005

Minor derailment: Marcy Dam Cables

The cables at Marcy Dam are slated to be removed because the bears have figured them out. The new canister regulation went into effect July 1, 2005, I believe.

At Heart Lake, a red squirrel chewed all of the weather stripping off my back seat window to get through a half inch crack and into the back of my Suby. I found him in there munching away on some food, and I was wondering how he got in. I didn't notice the weather stripping until I was driving in the rain! It looks like a zillion tiny bite marks going all the way across the top, he must have sat on the roof gnawing away at it!

Back to regularly scheduled programming....

Sabrina

bear encounters in mass

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