TR - Eastern High Peaks 8/17 - 8/19

http://skiingforme.blogspot.com/2010/09/eastern-high-peaks-817-819.html

How about a SNEAK PEAK?!




We fought a bear!


... or maybe not

THAT is an amazing EPIC!

It's a case where only youth, can overcome ... well ... youth!

Memories for a lifetime. Glad it was a happy ending.

Fuj, I think I met yellow-yellow 15 years ago and on the other side of the continent (Yosemite).  On the first night of a week-long backpacking trip in Yosemite's backcountry, we hung a bear bag and tied off the rope.  We had heard that bears had learned to chew through the rope, and that instead you really needed to counter-balance your bear bag.  But it was late, we were tired, yada yada yada.  We weren't in our sleeping bags for more than 20 minutes before we heard the unmistakable sound of the bear bags hitting the ground.  We charged out of our two tents and chased the bears up the hillside.  As the bears ran up the hillside with our bear bags and a full week's food supply, a few odds and ends of food fell out of the bags.  It was dark, and we yelled, banged pots and pans, shone flashlights and did all we could to chase the bears off and recover our supplies, but in the end all we got was the half of our food that had fallen out of the bags as the bears dragged them up the hillside.  We went back to bed, dejected.  At first light we got up and scouted up the hillside and incredibly, the bear was still up there laying on top of our food sack.  We charged him (her?), screaming, yelling and throwing rocks and he ran off leaving our bag behind.  We probably got back 90% of our food, enough that we were able to continue the trip.  The bear had gorged on a pack or two of snickers and was satisfied with that... probably until the next group of backpackers came through.

Nice report and pics, well done.

I saw this story on the Adirondack Almanack today and immediately remembered Fuj's story from last summer.

Adk Jeff wrote

I saw this story on the Adirondack Almanack today and immediately remembered Fuj's story from last summer.

Cool article.  Yellow Yellow is smarter than the average bear. No BearVault 500 can stop him.

Interesting nugget:

"Forty percent of eastern High Peaks hikers are new to camping..."

I wonder how the numbers for newbies in the High Peaks compares to other parks.