Busy Bears

We’ve been hearing reports of bear activity lately.  The berry picking wasn’t good for the bears either and they are in need of food before they hibernate for the winter. They are looking wherever they can for some good food so it’s super important to keep a clean camp and hang your packs. Someone encountered a sow and cub near the portage from Alpine Lake to Red Rock Lake. A group of ours talked to some people on the south arm of Knife Lake who had a bear come into their camp. On the portage between Duncan and West Bearskin a bear had a torn up pack and another group who had a bear come into their camp said it wasn’t deterred even when the group shot a gun and used air horns.  We received the following information from the USFS.

Two men who guided brown bear hunters in Alaska for ten years were chased off of Seagull after one night.  They were camped on the site at the top of the lake, above Miles Island.   They had 9 visits from 5 DIFFERENT black bears in less than 24 hours.   They said they basically had a packed trail through their campsite and they just kept coming back.   A sow and a cub, a cinnamon colored bear, a huge black bear, and a random medium sized bear.   Then, when they gave up and left, they had a bear in the parking lot by their vehicle in the campground to add insult to injury. They are very bear aware and finally just gave up because they were tired of chasing them out of the site and looking behind their backs.

They are veteran Seagull campers, been doing this for years.  They keep a clean site, even go as far as washing out the freeze dried food bags.  One of the bears kept pulling the rocks away from the fire grate when they went out fishing.  (so there were at least two more visits when they weren’t in the campsite.)  They had their pack and their small bag of trash hung from trees.  They said the big bear was huffing at them and came within 5 feet before running away.