Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Stories about bears at whitney portal 100% real.

If you are planning to camp at Whitney, there are bears active at the camp ground. I stayed in an rv at site 10 of the Whitney main campground on august 1st with my wife. 3 daughters age 14 to 20, daughter in law, and grand boys age 4 and 7.
In a tent at adjacent camp site were 28 year old son, 25 year old daughter and here fiance.

I was woken up at about 11:30 p.m. to the sound of banging by the garbage containers and recycle containers. Figured it was just loud day hikers up early but about 11:45 p.m. my daughter and fiance were knocking at the rv window saying that they wanted to use the rv bathroom because they saw a bear by the camp ground odd house. We let them in and they went back to tent.

At about midnight my son, daughter, and fiance were back banging on rv door saying that large bear had walked right up to their tent and was per them sniffing the outside of their tent. By now the whole rv was awake with everyone shining flash lights out the windows. I got my first sight of 2 cub bears.

Then everyone spotted the big bear at the camp site on the other side of us. It was standing right next to the tent on that site.

Right or wrong my son decided they needed to be warned to he started blowing his trail whistle out the window of the rv and beeping the rv horn. This woke up the people in that tent plus some of other people other across campers across the road. Pretty soon there was about small group of campers banging pots and hooting and hollering. Quite a rukus.

Luckily the large bear just slowly walked off up the road. The bear was obviously just looking for food and we had none in our rv or tent and I'm guessing the other campers didn't either.

My son, daughter, and her fiance were going to start their day hike at 2 a.m. so they just decided to head up to the portal early. They went with another solo day hiker from site 9. Larry was a 60 year old experienced hiker from Oakland who had also been woken in the rukus.

My daughter in her 1st hike ever kept pace with Larry and completed the day hike in about 16 hours. My son and daughters fiance had troubles and finished but in 21 hours. My son in the rukus had forgotten water sandals and extra socks. He fell off the logs going into Lone Pine lake and hiked all day with wet feet. Blisters and etc. He also lost his hat in the fall and forgot sun screen in the rukus so he got a pretty nasty sunburn. They were really battered over the 21 hours but they toughed it out. Basically they were not going to let sis and wife show them up.

When my son didn't show up by 6 p.m. that next day, I figured for sure the bear was going to make his nightly round so we drove the rv into town and found a hotel that would let me park the rv out back. I didn't want to go through another night of flash lights and banging pots all night.

I was there to hike white mountain with my 3 daughters so Whitney was just for acclimation for the rv crew.

So the whole purpose of this post is to let everyone know the bears are 100% real at Whitney. Do not keep food or scented items in your tent car and etc.

And the moral of the story is...

Be very beary awarey...

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

> Luckily the large bear just slowly walked off up the road. The bear was obviously just looking for food and we had none in our rv or tent and I'm guessing the other campers didn't either.

It walked up the road hoping the early morning hikers near the trail head would be setting a day pack down and it could grab it and run.

...or sometimes people open the bear lockers at the trail head, and walk off for a minute, so the bear will then do its favorite move: Grab and run.

Bear poop in the woods just behind the portal. I'd say they use this path to make there way down for supper or a late night snack. We (I) made a rookie mistake in my excitement and walked straight up behind the big rock rather than looking first heading up right. This was on the morning of Aug 9th and led my wife and daughter on a good hour detour of the mountains up along to the creek and back. They were going to join me up to Lone Pine Lake before I continued on. Anyway, there was fresh bear scat at two different locations along this trail. Kind of neat to show my daughter but did get us looking around since both seemed to be very recent deposits and assume a well used trail by the Ursus Americanus.

Bears are no joke at the portal.
We cowboy camped on August 10th. Put all our food in a bear locker, but put my pack at my feet when I went to bed. I woke up at midnight with the sound of a bear digging at my pack. I think I startled him as I sat up and he lunged at me; I'm sure it was a bluff, but it scared the crap out of me. I just yelled "bear", and the two guys with me woke up and started yelling at the bear. The bear started to take my pack with him, but ended up dropping and running.

I knew at the time I was supposed to yell and make noise, but I was rattled by the lunge and didn't want to agitate him any more. Live and learn I guess. Ruined my pack but REI membership came through again...

That was a very close encounter...

You are very lucky she or he didn't fight you for possession.

If it were me, I may have had to wash my britches of human scat!

Whoa!!! By "Cowboy camp", does that mean without a tent?

> ...the sound of a bear digging at my pack. ....Ruined my pack but REI membership came through again...

What was in your pack that caused the bear to ruin it?

Did you get any pictures of the pack?


It's been a lot of years now, but I had a similar experience on the JMT. Stored all my food in a locker, but forgot to remove the trail snack bag from the side pocked. I have a pair of hiking pants that have a sewed-up rip in the side of the leg.

Back in 2010 my son and I did a Whitney Portal Store Group hike to Candlelight Peak. We parked my pick up at the Meysan Lake trail head and slept in the back. About 0300 I needed to use the restroom so I walked down the road to the family campground. As I was finishing up I heard an official "rukus", so I opened the door to see what was the matter. I was face to face with the biggest bear I've seen (I've only seen a dozen or so bears out of a zoo), so I made my way back inside the restroom. Seconds later there was screaming and banging sounds so I checked again. The bear had gone over to the nearest camp and was thrashing it. I had nothing to make noise with so I didn't think I could be useful. I walked back to the truck and got a little more sleep before enjoying a fantastic day hike with some great people. That hike led to my son being invited on a MR hike (I got to go because he was too young to drive) and later he got invited to do Thor for his birthday. 2010 was a great year..........DUG

Yes, bears are real.

A buddy and I were at the bear box stuffing our packs at 9:50pm 8/6. We had the door open and we're getting food for the hike when a bear suddenly put its front paws up on the side of the bear box close enough for my buddy to touch. He said bear bear bear! And we ran a bit away. Fortunately the bear did not take our packs, but he did get a good amount of our other food.

We regrouped and scared him off, then started our hike, but we were not as organized as we should have been and forgot a few things.

First time I've been in arm's reach or a wild bear, good thing the apples, tortilla, Nutella, and extra gels smelled tastier than we did! Opening that bear box must be like a dinner bell for the bears. Careful, they are quiet and will walk right up to you.

yeah, "cowboy camping" is just a pad and a bag under the stars. I had food in my pack, but removed the food bag and put it in the locker. I'm assuming he smelled the food scent left behind. No pictures of the pack, but it had the front zip torn out and some claw marks on either side.