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Bear?
#59125 08/01/21 07:52 PM
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Wiff Offline OP
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Was up this past week and there were several stories of an aggressive bear, including someone getting swatted and bloodied by him at four in the morning Thursday in the parking lot. Anybody hear this?

Re: Bear?
Wiff #59127 08/01/21 08:27 PM
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We stayed at Whitney Portal campground 7/25-7/27 and there was a bear every night. People did not realize they should not cook after sunset, even if the sky is still light.
At one point the bear pushed the campers out of the way so he could feast on everything in there open locker on on their table. When they tried to close the locker, he charged them.
As far as I know, nobody actually came into contact with him.
Cook your food early...that bacon smell at night carries a long way.
We had no food in our camp, but camp sites on both sides of us got hit.

Re: Bear?
RCrockett #59133 08/02/21 10:30 PM
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Thanks for the info. Aggressive bears like that get euthanized sooner or later. Too bad.

Re: Bear?
Steve C #59138 08/04/21 05:42 PM
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We slept in the car on Saturday night 07/31 in the overflow parking lot. Woke up at 2 am, got the pre packed food out of the bear locker and put it in our packs. I was at the back of the car with my pack, my son with his in the passenger seat. He walked away for a second and then shouted "Dad, there`s a bear in the car"! She was sitting on his pack, trying to get the food out. I made some noise and banged my poles together trying to get her out, she lunged at me so I slammed the door shut and she jumped into the back, and out of the tailgate, grabbing my backpack as she went. She ran up the hill with my pack containing everything for the hike, including my wallet! We watched in disbelief as a year of planning, permits etc. vanished before our eyes.
She didn`t go too far, and we could just see her emptying the pack, and sharing it with baby bear! About 20 mins. later she came back down and tried to get into a pickup with a camper shell on the back. ( i think there were people sleeping inside). We took the opportunity to retrieve the backpack, and fortunately it was still useable, and my wallet was still there. We had some more food in the bear locker, water and a filter, so we packed up again, moved the car up to the top car park and set off. As we were leaving we heard breaking glass as another car across from the trailhead was broken into.
We made it to the top, It was an epic day we will never forget!
Please be extra vigilant, a buddy of mine had a 2am. ' visit' when he hiked 2 weeks ago, so we were aware there could be problems, though didn`t expect the bear to be quite so fearless.

Re: Bear?
BillC #59140 08/05/21 06:37 AM
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Wow, what a harrowing experience! I'm sorry to hear that your trip came that close to being ruined.

That bear will likely need to be put down. That's super dangerous. Have you reached out to the Forest Service?


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Re: Bear?
Wiff #59141 08/05/21 11:52 AM
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Same experience - Woke up at 12:30am Saturday 7/30 - I was packing up my truck to clear the campsite and thought my hiking partner was the one going through a bag on the opposite door (they had left for bathroom) looked over and realized it was a bear. I shouted at it and it walked away. After that we realized a bag with extra snacks was missing from our campsite. All within the 10 minutes we took it out of the bear box and got ready to leave.

Re: Bear?
Snacking Bear #59143 08/05/21 01:44 PM
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I did contact the Forest service so they are aware of the situation.
Ive been to the Portal several times and not had any problems before. Always wanted to see bears in the wild, just not in the car!!

Re: Bear?
BillC #59144 08/05/21 01:48 PM
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Wow, congratulations on surviving that and making it to the summit. We were there the week before, fortunately no bear attacks, rockslides or thunderstorms. It was still hard, but feel very lucky in hindsight.

Re: Bear?
Wiff #59150 08/08/21 08:29 AM
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We stayed in the portal campground 8/3. At 10 pm as we were getting ready for bed and this hungry "camphost" came to visit. I was at the bear box and fortunately all of our food was inside. It came around the back and approached me directly. I was able to close the door and had to back away as the bear was intent on checking the box. It left my night bag alone which was on top. As he left our campsite he headed right for me, not aggressively, but I had to move out of its way. I banged on some pots which bothered it Not. At 345am was round 2, not with us but at several other sites people were honking their horns at him or his cousin? One car drove away - scared to hell I bet. This bear is definitely not afraid of people and could be dangerous if you tried to protect you food with it around. It was posts on this site that prompted us to be extra cautious and not to have anything out of the box at anytime after dark ... thus I felt I needed to contribute back.

[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iVS5fLcb1zs2qrQEaQ4jOGA54n8ToSa_/view?usp=sharing[/img]

Re: Bear?
drTFL #59152 08/08/21 01:49 PM
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These pictures were posted by the Whitney Portal Campground host on facebook.

Quote
Hello everyone BEARS, BEARS, BEARS are out each night in the campground and up by the parking lots. They have broken into one car each night. PLEASE USE THE BEAR LOCKERS!!! IF YOU ARE CAMPING IN THE WHITNEY PORTAL CAMPGROUND PLEASE EAT BEFORE DUSK 🐻🐻🐻 Thank You.






Last edited by Steve C; 08/08/21 01:53 PM.
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Re: Bear?
Steve C #59154 08/09/21 10:27 AM
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Originally Posted by Steve C
These pictures were posted by the Whitney Portal Campground host on facebook.
>

A good example of what not to do while parking in areas with lots of human traffic and active bears. Bears do not solely rely on olfactory cues. They also learn how to associate backpacks and other bulky items as potential sources of food. Perhaps this car would not be broken into if the owners did not leave multiple items to be clearly visible from the outside. Of course, it also helps to vacuum and wipe the interior to eliminate any residual scents as much as possible.

Re: Bear?
Anton #59170 08/16/21 08:22 AM
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One more bear report from few weeks ago. We got to the campsite late at around 9:45pm and in the few moments that we had the bear locker open, a bear and cub managed to get into it. It is almost like it was either waiting or knew the sound of the locker opening. Very fast. Did not want to mess with it due to bear cub present. Be ware.


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