|Wanderung| Newsletter - bears and food

lulululu

We all know that bears are the ultimate food detectives, sniffing out the
tiniest morsel wherever they go. And we all know the phrase "a fed bear is a
dead bear", and have seen the signs going up to Cypress Bowl. Right?
Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone has got the message.

There have been a number of news reports recently about bear encounters. Perhaps
the saddest is the bear that became habituated to food at the Garibaldi Lake
campground. As a direct result of the careless actions of backpackers, this bear
was killed by conservation officers. Taryn wrote about it on her website:

https://happiestoutdoors.ca/you-killed-a-bear/

Another encounter took place in Capitano River Regional Park last week. A camper
was woken by a bear sniffing round his tent. Alas this camper had committed the
cardinal sin of storing food in his tent, and to make matters worse used that
food to distract the bear so he could get away:

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/north-shore ... lack-bear-1.3023557

The camper recognizes - in retrospect - that it was bad idea, but that may be
too little too late. Other hikers have since reported a bear that appears to be
unafraid of people in the same park:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/br ... vancouver-1.3721571

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/it-was-life ... ore-trail-1.3029426

Please make sure to cook and eat food well away from your tent, preferably 100
m. Your tent pad is *not* a dining table, and you should never store food (or
other scented items) in your tent. And please don't get suckered into doing
something because everyone else is doing it, or because you got away with it
last time. Set a good example, stick to Leave No Trace principles. They will
serve you well in the long run.