Bear at Willow Lake

[jeffs]

I was there last night... met several people on the trail as I was hiking in that said their tents got trashed(while they were hiking) even with no food/scent. I had him reach under my rainfly and take a swipe at my shoes at about 10pm. Not much sleep after that. I broke camp in the morning and hung all my gear and left only my bearbox on the ground while I went hiking... he went to town on the box but it served its purpose.... seemed like most of the night was filled various campsites yelling at the bear...

[Scott P]

This is the fault of humans rather than the bear, but has anyone contacted the Forest Service?

If the bear isn't relocated this isn't going to end well.

[CliminDave]

Our group of five backpacked into Willow Lake on Thursday Aug. 2. We set up camp at the lake and had a bear sighting, near the waterfall, at the outlet of the lake, within 90 minutes of arriving. The bear was moving up the waterfall on the Left side. Within an hour we had a second sighting of the bear in the same area with the same pattern of movement. In 40+ years of backpacking and hiking, I've never seen bear activity like this. All of our food is hung on a forest service installed cable between two trees. Many, if not all, folks are using this. There is also a large camp occupied by the Rocky Mountain Field Institute. There is a large bear bag/container hanging cable there as well. Our group, three tents, goes to bed. One tent gets bear activity three times during the night with no food, toothpaste, nothing with an odor. The bear is shooed away twice. The third time, the bear would not leave for several minutes. There were several flashlights and people up and around at approx, 2:30 AM. The bear did stay away from the tents after this event. It did, however, move to the Forest Service installed bear bag cable and was able to get one bag down. At 4:30, our group woke up to prepare for climbing Challenger and Kit Carson. We found the owner of the missing bag looking for the food bag. He found it, along with the bear eating the contents. The gentlemen requested bear spray in order to retrieve his food bag. I respectfully requested that he leave the food bag and avoid a confrontation with the bear. He approached the bear a second time and was able to shoo it and retrieve the bag with just coffee remaining. Our group provided food for the gentleman to still make an attempt at summiting. We then left and climbed Challenger and Kit Carson.

We returned to camp to hear that during the day, a group, assumed to be CO Parks and Wildlife personnel, had put the bear down and hauled it out. This is a very sad ending for all, the bear, hikers, and CO Parks and Wildlife Personnel. We are guests in the backcountry and need to respect the wildlife that lives there year round. Please use proper precautions with food and other bear attractants when in the back country.

[E_A_Marcus_949]

This is very sad to hear the bear was put down. It's the fault of humans for not being careful with belongings. There were other ways this could've ended. Thank you for the update.

[LURE]

Eh, it was bound to happen. There are a few too many bears in CO right now anyway. More bears equals more conflict, no matter how careful people are.

CPW is trying to pull their numbers down with increased tag allocations, and I'm sure they would like some longer seasons if possible, but they just can't keep up.

[jrbren_vt]

Eh, it was bound to happen. There are a few too many people in CO right now anyway. More people equals more conflict, no matter how careful bears are.

CPW is trying to pull their numbers down with increased tag allocations, and I'm sure they would like some longer seasons if possible, but they just can't keep up.

Fixed it for you ...

[LURE]

Eh, it was bound to happen. There are a few too many people in CO right now anyway. More people equals more conflict, no matter how careful bears are.

CPW is trying to pull their numbers down with increased tag allocations, and I'm sure they would like some longer seasons if possible, but they just can't keep up.

Fixed it for you ...

Bears don't know that it's detrimental to their well being to play around with human food and stick noses in empty (or not empty) tents. There is no "bears being careful" in this context - they don't know better.

People being where bears are and bears being where people (now) are = occasional conflict. The least people can do is be a little more careful. But it's inevitable.

I was hoping to get a bear tag for this unit

Edit: though I do agree with you. This state is effed with horrendous numbers of people that don't even know what a bear is.

[Tnesper]

This is very sad to hear the bear was put down. It's the fault of humans for not being careful with belongings. There were other ways this could've ended. Thank you for the update.

Not trying to argue with you at all here. I feel really conflicted about this stuff and see both sides. So with that in mind, could you expand what some of the other options were? Especially considering how aggressive the bear was being? Not physically, but you get my point.

[LURE]

Not trying to argue with you at all here. I feel really conflicted about this stuff and see both sides. So with that in mind, could you expand what some of the other options were? Especially considering how aggressive the bear was being? Not physically, but you get my point.

I wouldn't say this bear was aggressive, just bold and accustomed to humans and the tasty treats they bring with them. We're lucky this bear didn't have more aggression in its bones. But it was a potential injurious conflict waiting to happen. That's why CPW did what they did; combined with the fact that CPW biologists and wardens know that when a bear has reached this point of looking to humans for food, it's likely not gonna make it through the winter, and if they relocate it, it's just gonna look for people. And the result is they just have to kill it.

If food was better hung, better stored in canisters, waste food not left out in the dirt, smelly things not left in tents, etc, this bear may not have really had the opportunity to link food with people so intensely and would have moved on to other things.

It's difficult. These things are going to happen. With more people in the woods and more bears in the woods than I think this state has ever had, conflict is simply going to happen. Let's just be thankful this bear didn't get aggressive with anyone.

This state is gonna have a real wake up call on how to behave in the woods with large predators if over the next decades some of these Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Grizzlies start showing up from Wyoming... it's not all that improbable.

[Ptglhs]

Out of curiosity what would readers of this recommend to people who have to keep food in their tents overnight? I can (and do) hang freezed dried stuff, camp stove, trail snacks, etc when in grizzly country but I have to keep some high sugar food near me at all times, including overnight.

I've never seen a bear near my camp, but I certainly don't wish to contribute to bears being needlessly put down.

[rijaca]

Out of curiosity what would readers of this recommend to people who have to keep food in their tents overnight? I can (and do) hang freezed dried stuff, camp stove, trail snacks, etc when in grizzly country but I have to keep some high sugar food near me at all times, including overnight.

A diabetic hiking partner used hard candy (Jolly Ranchers).

[Conor]

Out of curiosity what would readers of this recommend to people who have to keep food in their tents overnight? I can (and do) hang freezed dried stuff, camp stove, trail snacks, etc when in grizzly country but I have to keep some high sugar food near me at all times, including overnight.

I've never seen a bear near my camp, but I certainly don't wish to contribute to bears being needlessly put down.

odor proof sack for the tent....