Re: Bear on the Happy Isles Trail

I'm glad someone saw a bear and put the vid on youtube. Bear sightings are not at all a common experience.

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Vince
I'm glad someone saw a bear and put the vid on youtube. Bear sightings are not at all a common experience.

If it were anywhere but Yosemite, I'd agree. Been there lately?

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AlmostThere

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Vince
I'm glad someone saw a bear and put the vid on youtube. Bear sightings are not at all a common experience.

If it were anywhere but Yosemite, I'd agree. Been there lately?

Not during a bear sighting.

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Vince

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AlmostThere

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Vince
I'm glad someone saw a bear and put the vid on youtube. Bear sightings are not at all a common experience.

If it were anywhere but Yosemite, I'd agree. Been there lately?

Not during a bear sighting.

So, not much.

I haven't seen a bear in the back country for several years. This excludes the valley and LYV. Prior to heavy use of bear cans, say 5 to 10 years ago, bear sightings in the back country were common.

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Old Dude

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Vince
Bear sightings are not at all a common experience.

I can't agree with that:






And those were just the ones I got video of.






And I've seen lots of bares here:

Billy,
We saw a bear on first day of JMT 2 years ago in Lyell. It wanted to nabbed my Ursuck.
Got a few teethy marks in it and disturbed my TV viewing.
I've seen many bears hiking in the backcountry the last few years. All of them except
in Lyell and Laurel Lake high-tailed it away as fast as they could.
Definitely the number have decreased though.
Moraine Ridge, Jack Main Canyon, Macomb Ridge, Rancheria Mountain, Smith Meadow, ...
This year... haven't seen a bear in the backcountry... ALOT of bear poopy though!

This was above Bear Valley Lake last Oct:
(I like this photo)

I slept through the Ursack attack. You're right about the poop and tracks.

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Old Dude

You sure it wasn't a marmot?

Nice Grizz wideo. That's the porcupine paw Grizz from this spring. Notice he is walking on his right 'wrist' because his paw was full of quills. Wonder how he is doing.

One of the videos above is of a grizzly and not in the Sierra.

Other vid: OK, someone baiting a bear. Not the bear's fault.

Other photos are of bears not afraid to come visit the tourists. I do not frequent Yosemite as often as bears do.

Nor should I.

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Vince
One of the videos above is of a grizzly and not in the Sierra.

You didn't say Sierra.

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Other vid: OK, someone baiting a bear. Not the bear's fault.

Baiting? I was chasing it away from campers. That's hardly baiting and certainly qualifies as a sighting.

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Other photos are of bears not afraid to come visit the tourists. I do not frequent Yosemite as often as bears do.

Nor should I.

So what's your point? You claimed bear sightings are rare. I challenged your claim with video and photos. Bears aren't that hard to sight — hell, I've hit one with a car in Sequoia.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2009 09:00PM by eeek.

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eeek

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Vince
One of the videos above is of a grizzly and not in the Sierra.

You didn't say Sierra.

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Other vid: OK, someone baiting a bear. Not the bear's fault.

Baiting? I was chasing it away from campers. That's hardly baiting and certainly qualifies as a sighting.

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Other photos are of bears not afraid to come visit the tourists. I do not frequent Yosemite as often as bears do.

Nor should I.

So what's your point? You claimed bear sightings are rare. I challenged your claim with video and photos. Bears aren't that hard to sight — hell, I've hit one with a car in Sequoia.

Slow down. There is no excuse for hitting a bear with your car anywhere in the Sierra.

Please do not try to chase bears away from food. They will not give it up.

As far as the Grizzly, please. I was born in '61 not '22.

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Vince
Slow down. There is no excuse for hitting a bear with your car anywhere in the Sierra.

Wrong, Vince. I was going about 30 and in a line of cars. The bear tried to run between the cars (and, no, I wasn't tailgating either). Sometimes these things happen.

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Please do not try to chase bears away from food. They will not give it up.

Wrong again. I've chased bears away from food many times. I've even chased bears away from food they've already stolen.

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As far as the Grizzly, please. I was born in '61 not '22.

So?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2009 09:28PM by eeek.

Sweet. Now I can post this baby:



This is the second time this year I've come across a "dumping grounds".
Bee saw the other one.... it's a site to behold...
And there were a couple of them around this area...

That bear had too many Chick-ons in his diet?

Poopy!!




(sorry about the teensie pic) there were piles and piles of bear poo -- this was the most I have seen this year, and it was at the end of May. As far as "domestic" bears go, just drive by Crane Flat in the late afternoon and prepare to come to a screeching halt, as everyone goes nuts over the "resident" bear.

B

Or go to TM campground, find the ranger with the little dish and the other ranger with the paintball gun, and follow them around. Bring running shoes. The rangers move fast.

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AlmostThere
The rangers move fast.

So do the bears.

I've been to Yosemite about a dozen times this year, and EVERY TIME I've seen at least one bear. I've been calling it "The Year of the Bear".

In past years, I've gone months without spotting a bear, but boy, this year!!!

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sierranomad
I've been to Yosemite about a dozen times this year, and EVERY TIME I've seen at least one bear. I've been calling it "The Year of the Bear".

In past years, I've gone months without spotting a bear, but boy, this year!!!

I saw a couple this year. It was the first time I'd actually seen a tagged/collared bear, and it was doing more of what it did to earn the tag. I'd seen plenty of unmarked bears before. The thought did cross my mind that I should do something about it, but a neighbor watching the show said that he'd tried earlier and the bear charged him. All I tried was banging a metal cup with a spoon. Didn't work. We had to wait for the cavalry to show up.



The other one was on the way back to the valley along the side of the road. I'd estimate it was about 80 lbs with no tag. I didn't think it was worth it to stop for a picture, and there was no place to park.

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y_p_w
The other one was on the way back to the valley along the side of the road. I didn't think it was worth it to stop for a picture, and there was no place to park.

Something that doesn't seem to bother the typical tourist.
Even if there is room to pull over, it doesn't occur to them that perhaps other people would like to use the road for its designed purpose.

Whut?

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Old Dude

Itz okz to stop sometimes:

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chick-on
Itz okz to stop sometimes:

It's that big, long pedal on the right.


Re. "Few things are harder to put up with than a whiney Goat Pack"
Frostline stopped making those things years ago... too hard to strap on those whiney goats.

In all seriousness, I learned the hard way how to protect the bears, and in doing so, wonder if they should just be eaten.

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Vince
In all seriousness, I learned the hard way how to protect the bears, and in doing so, wonder if they should just be eaten.

"Bear on" would be like "fish on"?

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

June 4 at Happy Isles