Black Bear Bites Camper in Harriman State Park NY

[somers515]

Aside from he himself having some food that he shouldn't have, it sounds like the rest was due to trash left by others. While Scouts do (or should) try to clean up what others failed to do, they likely would have done so when preparing to leave (the next day) and not before going to bed (since they'd have no place to put it overnight anyway that would be a major improvement - it is hard enough to properly store your own supplies and such, without trying to do so for what others didn't take along).

If my comment implied that I was faulting the adults supervising the scouts for not cleaning up other people's trash that is not what I meant. My point was that I wish that adults supervising scouts did a better job of supervising them and making sure they leave a clean camp (ie not leaving their food around and properly storing their food). I'm sure that supervising a lot of scouts is a hard job and its admirable to try to get the scouts out on a backpacking trip. I only have a limited exposure but the couple times I've seen let's just say I haven't been impressed by the adult level of supervision when it came to proper food storage.

[gpburdelljr]

If my comment implied that I was faulting the adults supervising the scouts for not cleaning up other people's trash that is not what I meant. My point was that I wish that adults supervising scouts did a better job of supervising them and making sure they leave a clean camp (ie not leaving their food around and properly storing their food). I'm sure that supervising a lot of scouts is a hard job and its admirable to try to get the scouts out on a backpacking trip. I only have a limited exposure but the couple times I've seen let's just say I haven't been impressed by the adult level of supervision when it came to proper food storage.

It was two Boy Scout leaders that toppled a hoodoo in Utah.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/p...pled-boy-scout

[lucky luke]

must have been a responsible bear trying to educate the boy scouts....


scary stories i read here. my experiences with boyscouts were all very positive, but then that was 30+ years ago.

my bear encounters were all positive too, both on the at and in alaska. but then that was 30+ years ago too.

[HooKooDooKu]

I've slept with my food a few times and was considering doing it more with all the reports of stolen food bags and ursacks, and busted canisters. But this puts a big 'ol check in the "Cons" column.

Based on my social media experience, I would say that it seems like sleeping with your food is OK if you are in an area where the bears have not become conditioned to humans and still have a greater fear of the human than an interest in the smell of the food. But places where bears have become accustomed to people (basically anywhere lots of people go) you have lost the safety of the bears fear and it's no a good idea to sleep with your food

[cmoulder]

It was two Boy Scout leaders that toppled a hoodoo in Utah.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/p...pled-boy-scout

I watched their video and that was truly disgusting. Like the teens that spray painted over Native American petroglyphs.

[LoneStranger]

Based on my social media experience, I would say that it seems like sleeping with your food is OK if you are in an area where the bears have not become conditioned to humans and still have a greater fear of the human than an interest in the smell of the food. But places where bears have become accustomed to people (basically anywhere lots of people go) you have lost the safety of the bears fear and it's no a good idea to sleep with your food

I lived by those rules for years up here in New England where the bears are hunted and scared of people. Things are changing with so many people in the woods the last few years. Haven't had problems. Just looked at it and went from sleeping with my food to using a bear can to be safe. I will leave it home for an overnight. Anything longer it comes along. I'm too old to be wrassling bears

[LazyLightning]

Bears do move around to so always the possibility of a bear that is visiting popular sites, not scared, that moves into some unpopular places where he is still not scared of humans but humans may be assuming 'this site is safe to sleep with my food'. Just saying...

[Slow Trek]

Couple of points I would like to share-as a part time Scout leader,I want to apologize for the campout described above. That is not acceptable nor normal behavior for the Scouts I know,and I find that behavior appalling. We drill LNT over and over in our troop and always remove other peoples trash,no other behavior is allowed. The other point I noticed everyone missed is the death of the bear. A fed bear is a dead bear came true. Sad that this boy's experience led to a dead bear,while I am certainly glad his experience involved a minor injury,it was not minor for the bear. On the bright side,this should settle the sleep with food debate. But I bet it does not...

[Professor Paul]

Wow. That must have been terrifying. It's one of the things I most fear when backpacking (especially when doing so alone). The usual bear safety practices have always worked for me more or less when encountering a bear when hiking, but I hate to imagine what I would do if they were ineffective, as was clearly the case here. I've never had to deal with a genuinely aggressive bear, only the occasional bear who was nonchalant about my presence and wouldn't move/leave. Big difference. Glad it worked out OK for that hiker, but that's a scary situation.

[Professor Paul]

Note: I was replying to Patrickjd's thru hiker story, but it would apply to the cub scout, too. Once you get to the point where you trekking poles are relevant to dealing with a bear, you're in a dangerous place.