I'm heading up to the San Gabriel mountains next week (near Los
Angeles). The nice ranger man cautioned me about bears and food, the
usual warnings. The bears in those parts are black bears ("All SGM black
bears have descended from 11 black bears that were /introduced/ in the
SGM in 1933, after grizzly bears were exterminated in the SGM in about
1900").

I have camped a lot in bear country, and know how wily, fearless,
clever, and determined those critters can be.

No, packing a firearm and blowing them away is simply not considered
good form in these parts. What one is meant to do is avoid bringing
strongly smelling foods and toiletries, and keep things in the trunk of
the car . . . then hope for the best, as the crafty black bear is
perfectly capable of popping a windshield out and carving an opening
through the rear seat into the trunk.

The nice ranger agreed that keeping food in the Westy at night where I
am sleeping should work fine. Bears do avoid confrontations, being smart
guys and hoping to just get by without too much trouble. But during the
day . . . away from the Westy . . . maybe on a hike or bike ride, Mr.
Ranger didn't know whether bears climb up on Vanagons and brush the
annoying canvas out of the way or not.

So I'd like to hear your black bear vs Westy tales. Not brown bears or
their larger cousins, grizzlies. Those are different critters,
temperamentally.

--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
Carlsbad, CA
KG6RCR