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Sierra bears??

Original Post
Vanilla Drilla From Manila · · Goiter, CO · Joined Mar 2015 · Points: 50

Any folks have any info on car break ins by enterprising Bruins? Planning on renting a car, insurance is an option. Would anybody recommend getting rental insurance for it or is a car relatively safe if everything is locked out of sight from the bastards?

Chris

FrankPS · · Atascadero, CA · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 276

Don't leave food in the car (including the trunk). If a bear breaks into your car, there's a good chance you will get a citation for improper food storage.

lozo bozo · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2015 · Points: 30
Felch wrote:Any folks have any info on car break ins by enterprising Bruins? Planning on renting a car, insurance is an option. Would anybody recommend getting rental insurance for it or is a car relatively safe if everything is locked out of sight from the bastards? Chris
Quite stupid to think of them as bastards... just my opinion.

Hang your food and use your basic commonsense you'll be fine
Fat Dad · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 60

That includes things like cosmetics: toothpaste, deodorant, etc. Also cover things that look like food containers, lest that bears think that they've found your stash.

Benjamin Chapman · · Small Town, USA · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 18,818

Felch...the true bastards are the idiots that think they can just put food items in the trunk or out of sight. YOU had better get the insurance. Those bears are quite intelligent. Obviously, more so than the average car renter and that proboscis will enable the bear to detect ANY food, cosmetic, or scented item left in the rental car. Like Frank and headead indicated...use the bear boxes or YOU will be the bastard that gets the citation and goes to John Muir Jail.

Mathias · · Loveland, CO · Joined Jun 2014 · Points: 306

Myth Busters did an experiment about bear deterrent for cars. I think they found one thing that worked, but it was really messy and I can't remember what it was. Bears have a great sense of smell. I agree, you should hang all your food from a tree limb.

Vanilla Drilla From Manila · · Goiter, CO · Joined Mar 2015 · Points: 50

Everybody chill, I understand ya'll love them bears. Just trying to minimize my negative encounters with them. I dunno, I think that if a bear ripped into your car, you'd potentially feel the same way? I'm not so concerned backcountry, just don't want one ripping apart my rental car. So in interest of hedging my bets considering this car will be base camp per se...
Anything else besides putting food and toiletries in the trailhead parking lot bear boxes that I should know. The bears aren't that bad here, nor were they in the Tetons or cascades.

To headed: you suggest that I hang my food; are you aware that doing so is just very mild deterrent and that bear canisters or storing food in bear boxes is/are required? Maybe you should be less of an armchair quarterback and contribute something intelligent next time? Maybe if I smear other cars with LSD and grilled cheese mine would be safer? Does dousing it in patchouli work? How bout a protective crystal hanging from the rear view mirror?

William Kramer · · Kemmerer, WY · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 935

I've lived in Wyoming with bears all my life, blacks and griz. What we have found best at keeping them out of things, be it a backcountry hunting spike camp or an elk we had to leave overnight before we could pack it out, is to urinate around whatever you want to keep them out of. Always worked for us.

Roots · · Wherever I am · Joined Dec 2010 · Points: 20

I wouldn't buy the additional insurance if you already have car insurance. Storing your food properly will most likely be enough.

^Pissing around your car in the parkinglot will get you a lot of strange looks here in Cali.

Best of luck.

Vanilla Drilla From Manila · · Goiter, CO · Joined Mar 2015 · Points: 50

So if I pee on my car it's all a wash? DONE.

Mathias · · Loveland, CO · Joined Jun 2014 · Points: 306

Actually, I just remembered something about rental car insurance. There's this "loss of use" thing where although *your* insurance may cover repairs to a rental car, the whole time it's being repaired (and so "out of use" to the rental company), you may be paying the rental rate. You should ask about that.

I rented a car for a road trip and paid the extra to insure *their* vehicle. My insurance covered third party, but the insurance I got from them meant if their car was damaged for any reason, I could walk away without paying anything. In fact, if it was damaged beyond a roadworthy point, they would just swap it for a new one for the remainder of my rental period. It's expensive, but worry free.

DesertRat · · Flagstaff, AZ · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 196

Sierra bears, and even more Yosemite Valley bears are notoriously cunning.

Recently, traveling through the Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier, I was astounded to find out that the rangers said food was OK to be left in the car. Spending at least a week in Yosemite every year for the last 20+, cars are like coolers to bears. They peel the doors open like opening a PBR.

Yeti coolers, marketed and tested as Grizzly Resistant, are supposedly no match for the Yosemite Valley bears. At least that is what the rangers in Yosemite have told me the past three years (I call each year to ask if they allow Yetis as supplemental bear boxes in the valley yet). I suspect it actually has more to do with the rangers not wanting to have to check the coolers to make sure they're locked.

I will say, Park Service staff has done a pretty good job at mediating the bears in the valley the last few years. I remember years where I would see multiple bears every night. The last few years, no bears, and significantly less break-ins. I think the rubber bullets and clips on dumpsters are starting to work. I was always astounded watching the bears get into the "bear proof" dumpsters before the clips. They would swat the handle, flipping the dumpster open. Jump on the door and slide in. When they were ready to get out, they would swat the door again and jump right out.

Joy likes trad · · Southern California · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 71

you guys are funny. Bear Cannister kept in the corner of your site (backcountry) or keeping your food in the provided bear lockers in develped campsite is the law. The law is enforced and it works. Don;t leave food in your car in the mountains...why is this even a question?

Fat Dad · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 60

Actually Felch, did you say where you were going? In Yosemite, there is a bear problem and there are bear boxes in many places where you'll leave your car overnight. I've never had a problem parking my car at a trailhead on the Eastside for example, though I probably followed the same procedure without evern thinking about it. Yosemite bears are special adn require extra vigilence. Perhaps the ones around Mineral King, though I don't know that for a fact. It's not like every bear in the Sierra is as cunning as your average Yosemite bear.

Joe Crawford · · Truckee, CA · Joined Jan 2014 · Points: 105




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This just happened to my car in Mammoth Lakes this weekend. The neighbors left their BBQ on the patio about 5' from my car. There was shampoo, lotion, chapstick, toothpaste and about 50 tea bags in the car that attracted him after it messed with their grill. The driver door was unlocked (it tried to open every other door, but they were locked) and after the bear got in the door shut behind it. An hour of thrashing and the bear broke the driver's window and crawled out. The reps from Mammoth PD, bear control and fish & game all said it was the worst they'd seen in Mammoth. Lucky me.

Get the insurance.
Benjamin Chapman · · Small Town, USA · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 18,818

Fetch...it's pretty simple. Put ALL food and scented items in a bear box. Keep a clean camp. Don't keep anything (cooler, candy wrapper, utensils) that resembles food or could be associated with food in your car. Do that... no problem, no need for insurance. DON'T think you can outsmart the Bears.

Vanilla Drilla From Manila · · Goiter, CO · Joined Mar 2015 · Points: 50

Ben, I'll not take your word on it... 20k loss for 200 bucks extra... Peace of mind. So yes this really does happen.

Guy Keesee · · Moorpark, CA · Joined Mar 2008 · Points: 349

Felch..... Hunter S. Thomson advised one to always get the insurance that covers a rental for any and all damages.

I would like to point out that another thing you need to worry about are Marmots.... these little cute furry guys can do a lot more damage than some hungry bear ever can.

My friend just had one eat a hole in his radiator. The damage would have been confined to the Mercedes radiator but my friend tried his best to drive the thing back to Bishop..... Mercedes diesel motors are not cheap.

Joy likes trad · · Southern California · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 71
Guy Keesee wrote:Felch..... Hunter S. Thomson advised one to always get the insurance that covers a rental for any and all damages.
The God of self destruction. I paterned a period of my life after Dr. Thompson.
beensandbagged · · smallest state · Joined Oct 2013 · Points: 0
Greg Petliski wrote:It really comes down to where you are. Every bear has the strength to do it, but not all bears exhibit this behavior. In the Adirondacks, we have lots of problem bears, but auto break ins are next to nonexistent in my experience. Yosemite, of course, is quite different. I would inquire with the local rangers.
In the northeast bear problems are relatively new, I leave my cooler in the car... but perhaps it is just a matter of time before the bears in the northeast figure it out.
lozo bozo · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2015 · Points: 30
Felch wrote:To headed: you suggest that I hang my food; are you aware that doing so is just very mild deterrent and that bear canisters or storing food in bear boxes is/are required? Maybe you should be less of an armchair quarterback and contribute something intelligent next time? Maybe if I smear other cars with LSD and grilled cheese mine would be safer? Does dousing it in patchouli work? How bout a protective crystal hanging from the rear view mirror?
Have you ever been to the Sierra's...? Bear canisters are not required everywherein those mountains and people have been hanging their food for a real long time. Because it works.

First you ask a dumb question, then you fire back like you know whats up... I just don't get it.
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Southern California
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