A guy hung a trash sack over his tent, six feet off the ground, in the campsite next door - nothing touched it. But a mere 500 feet away the bear dragged away an empty pack and tore it up.

I don't play the odds regardless of where I camp... but I'm like that in most respects simply because I have too many onlookers who (whether I like it or not) tend to look at me as an example, simply because I organize a lot of trips for others. So any thing I do multiplies, and the more you spin a roulette wheel, the more likely the odds play out... I'm like that on internet forums too. Not really interested in encouraging anyone to increase risks that do exist.

ETA: Here is White 90.



His picture is posted at Lake Eleanor, just inside the park boundary and south of Emigrant Wilderness.

He may be the bear that ended one of my group members' first backpacking trip, and likely his backpacking career, since he dragged away his entire pack and ripped up everything searching for food. The gentleman stopped on the first day out to take a pee break, put down his pack, stepped away from it for a moment, and turned back to see the backside of the bear as it raced away from him carrying his loaded backpack into the forest.

Every random encounter tells me consistency and vigilance is important....