BEAR UPDATE: My brother-in-law and his sons are avid hikers and are attempting to walk the Pacific Crest Trail from Canada to Mexico but only have four or five days to take the hike, so they are doing it in bits and pieces each year.
Last year they checked into the Ranger Station a bit north of Yosemite Valley before hiking off to the Mammouth region.
ANd one major requirement was to carry a bear-proof container which they provided so that hungry bears would not 'intrude' during the hike.
One of the sons had forgotten that there was still a small package of oatmeal in the bottom of his pack, so it was not inserted into the bear-proof container.
That first nite while all were sleeping ,,, he was using his pack as a headrest and was woken up by a strong tug on his 'pillow' ... only then to realize that a bear was running off with his entire pack.
So he woke everyone up and persued that bear in an attempt to get his pack back which contained all the necessities to survive for the next few days.
About 500 yards or so they saw the bear rummaging through his pack (it was a relatively small bear .... I think they are called Brown Bears up there in the High Sierra) and realized that he had found that small pack of oatmeal and that was all he was interested in .... so they waited until the bear took off and then retrieved that pack
They are all avid campers but until then, none of them realized how sensitive a b ear's "smeller' really is.
AND ...
When I was a kid I had a job in a restaurant in Yosemite Valley (Degnan's) and my first day's job consisted of emptying the garbage when the place closed down for the evening.
The garbage had to be thrown into a big bear proof Dempsy Dumpster in the back and I though it was kind of strange that the restaurant crew was showing an interest on my first night's job of "garbage dumping".
Most of them followed me to the dumpster while I proceeded to do the 'dumping' and as I was doing my dumping job, I felt somethiing like a warm wind around my neck ...... and I turned to find a huge bear (his name was BRUNO) waiting for his evening meal.
I dropped everything and ran and all the crew laughed and explained that this introduction to BRUNO was an initiation for all the newbees and I was now accepted as part of he Degnan crew.
But I was always leery about dumping that garbage and looked forward to a new kid getting hired.
ANd when that happened I became the doughnut chef, which was only a one day assignment because my doughnuts would flatten out like a pancake once they went into the display case .... and the drunk baker finally returned and made them so they didn't get flat.
Sorry .... reminising.
