Post History

Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/9624
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<p>I hope the bear experts on the site can shed light on several aspects of a black bear encounter my husband and I had some years ago in the Sierra.</p>

<p>It was mid-May, about 9500 feet, well above timber line, and the ground was almost completely covered with snow, except for a few bare patches.  I concluded: "No bear in his right mind would be here."  So we did not bury our food in a snowbank.  <strong>Mistake.</strong> <strong>Big Mistake.</strong></p>

<p>Shortly after we fell asleep, we were wakened by banging pots.  A bear walked across the campsite, grabbed my pack, which contained all our freeze-dried food, in <strong>her</strong> teeth and disappeared into the darkness.  My husband tracked her by flashlight and moonlight -- the dragging pack left a clear path.  Soon I heard snarls and growls, and went off to rescue my husband.</p>

<p>I came upon my husband, a bear and her yearling cub.  Here is where I would like your input.  It seemed to us both, and I can't tell you why, body language, I suppose, plus something in the snarling, that the cub was saying "Let me at him!" and the mother was saying "Be quiet! I'll handle this!"  We froze.  After what seemed like a long time, the mother and cub turned and went off.  <strong>Q1:  Is this interpretation plausible, or are we just anthropomorphizing?</strong>  </p>

<p>The two bears had ripped open my pack, pulled out stuff, zeroed in on the freeze-dried food, eviscerated five packages of freeze-dried food and had eaten it all.  <strong>Q2: When the food reconstituted in their stomachs, did they get stomach aches, or are their stomachs large enough so the expanding food was no problem?</strong> </p>

<p>The bears stopped at a layer of very dirty clothes near the bottom of my pack, and so missed the last package of freeze-dried food, which was a reserve.  <strong>Q3: Is it plausible that dirty, smelly clothes repelled the bears?</strong>  It could have been that my husband interrupted them, but I'd like to think the smelly clothes stopped them. </p>

<p>We hiked out for two days on one pkg of FD food and tea.  The sugar and all the fresh food were gone. A great experience!</p>

<p><strong>Clarification:</strong>  There were no established bear boxes -- we were far off trail.  This was before the era of portable bear canisters -- or at least before it was common to use them; in any case, they aren't practical for a 14 day trip, which this was.  We <strong>should</strong> have buried our food in a snow-bank; it was a big mistake not to. We have used the snow bank strategy successfully many times; once we saw bear paw-prints going right over our snow-covered cache. For Sierra black bears, the snow bank trick works.  We have no experience with brown bears.     </p>