Grayson Highlands / Mt Rogers Bear advisory May 2019

[TallPaul]

My daughter was looking to do a trip here and I said better check for any alerts. Sure enough they had posted one recently for the areas.

The good news is the trails are still open but there have been some bear encounters reported per the link below (from the ATC).
I bet it won’t be long they’ll require bear canisters or require people to camp at places with the metal boxes for food storage.



http://www.appalachiantrail.org/home...ail-updates#VA

[ferret]

I was just there a couple weeks ago. We stayed at Old Orchard and had a bear walk through our campsite overnight. They just sniffed around, bit a friend's Smartwater bottle, and moved on. The next night was at Thomas Knob and a nearby site said they had to fend off a bear three times. We were left alone that night and we stored everything in the bear lockers at both places.

[TrailSlug]

Consider yourself lucky if you get to see a bear hiking this time of year with the swarms of other hikers. If your worried carry bear spray.

[TallPaul]

Consider yourself lucky if you get to see a bear hiking this time of year with the swarms of other hikers. If your worried carry bear spray.

Generally I’d agree but they have some problem bears that have been habituated to getting food from poorly hung food bags. I’m not interested in bears that show no fear of people.

[TallPaul]

I was just there a couple weeks ago. We stayed at Old Orchard and had a bear walk through our campsite overnight. They just sniffed around, bit a friend's Smartwater bottle, and moved on. The next night was at Thomas Knob and a nearby site said they had to fend off a bear three times. We were left alone that night and we stored everything in the bear lockers at both places.

Thanks for the report. I’m impressed they got the bear lockers installed. Those are handy.

[Gqgeek81]

The lockers must be new.
I feel like there are always warnings of recent bear encounters at Thomas Knob or Wise.
A canister requirement would be awkward to enforce since there are multiple administrative areas adjacent to each other across the Mt. Rogers/Whitetop/Stone mountain massif.

[Trambo]

I have a feeling that the bags were inproperly hung, and they didn't use any odor proofing either. The ones I have heard about this year was not hung PCT style, and just had a sil dry bag. Of course the bear can smell it, and has figured out that the rope tied to the tree is the weak point.

[chknbone]

Sooo...the latest alert I'm finding is from May 23rd. Me and the wife are supposed to heading up to do a small loop between the State Park, Thomas Knob, and Wise. Anyone got some more current information on the bear activity going on up there? Thanks.

[TallPaul]

Sooo...the latest alert I'm finding is from May 23rd. Me and the wife are supposed to heading up to do a small loop between the State Park, Thomas Knob, and Wise. Anyone got some more current information on the bear activity going on up there? Thanks.

I’m not seeing anything else. No warnings / alerts on the Mt Rogers National Rec Area website. Seems like we’d see something if they had the number of problems they did last fall.

[Dvankirk]

I think that as the thru hiking bubble has moved through, bear reports have declined. I was up a couple weeks ago and stayed at Thomas Knob one night and Wise the next and didn't have any encounters (or I slept through them). I always use the PCT method to hang my bag, but I amazed at the number of yahoos I see cooking hot dogs next to their tent and just leave their food lying around. I wish that there was a better way to educate hikers that they are signing the death warrant for these bears by letting them get their food. I'm not a big fan of permits, but if it included a brief education on best practices then maybe it would be worth it. Hopefully people will use the lockers that were installed.