Wilderness Experience Can Be a Real Bear

The man, his wife and their infant daughter were on their first trip to the Eastern Sierra, and had picked a lovely spot: Silver Lake Resort, nestled amid the pines on the scenic June Lake Loop.

Not so lovely was the noise they heard in the living room at about 3 a.m. on their first night.

Not sure what to expect, the man opened the bedroom door and found himself face to face with a black bear.

The man immediately shut the door, told his wife to keep still, then climbed out the window to find help. He flagged down a policeman, but when they returned the bear was gone.

The wife and daughter, still huddled in the bedroom, were unharmed. But it was too wild in this wilderness. The family packed their bags and hit the highway, checking out by phone the next day.

About the same time, deep in the Yosemite back country, three hikers decided to cut their trip short after one had failed to store his food properly. It was stolen by a lumbering bruin, who enjoyed the meal under a starry sky.

“Me and the other guy had bear-proof [food] canisters, my father-in-law did not,” one of the hikers said. “I bought him a bear canister for his birthday and he grudgingly accepted it.”

Farther south, in a campsite along the South Fork of Bishop Creek, another man and his family were awakened by a bear knocking over garbage cans just outside their tent.

The man pulled out a Swiss Army knife.

“I knew I couldn’t stop a bear with the knife, but I could cut an escape route in the back of the tent,” he said.

He broke a fingernail trying unsuccessfully to open the blade, then chipped a tooth after trying with his mouth.

He also had a small-caliber handgun, “but I knew that would only [irritate] him,” he said. “Next time I’m going to bring my .357.”

Two of these stories came from co-workers, another from my barber, but there undoubtedly are many others going around.

“I’ve heard so many I could bore you with ‘em,” said Ron Thomas, a Department of Fish and Game biologist who monitors problem-bear activity in Mono County. “It’s same-old same-old. Sometimes I say to myself that this is the worst year, but it’s really no different than last year.

“I just thank God we don’t have grizzlies because, genetically, black bears are much more docile and fairly easy to get along with.”

But they’re also extremely powerful, Thomas added, and the potential for danger is certainly there when they interact with people, which has become a rite of late summer, when the animals start fattening up for winter.

And what better way to do that than with bacon grease, peanut butter or mayonnaise?

“What they really love is chocolate,” said Mickie Frederickson, who runs the concession at June Lake Marina, just down the road from Silver Lake Resort. “And they’ll do anything to get it. They have amazing dexterity. I’ve heard of them opening beer cans, back doors on camper shells, and even getting into vehicles. They come to my store all the time and I’m sure they’d love to get our Almond Joys and Snickers bars.”

Unfortunately, bears that become junk-food addicts and lose their fear of humans sometimes pay the ultimate price: a bullet to the brain.

Thomas said two adult bears making frequent visits at cabins and housing tracts on the June Lake Loop are close to being deemed a threat to public safety, at which point they will be killed.

He’s hopeful, however, that the berry bloom in the surrounding forest will keep their interest until winter sets in.

“The problem seems to be tapering off some,” he said. “Or at least it’s not escalating.”

In the Lake Tahoe area recently, a 500-pound black bear that entered a resident’s home was killed by DFG wildlife experts, triggering an angry response from animal-rights advocates, who charged that the bear could have been dealt with in a nonlethal manner.

The DFG no longer relocates problem bears, reasoning that they would merely be moving the problem elsewhere.

The bear they killed was believed to be the one that had entered the garage at the same home last fall, eating several five-pound bags of sugar, three tubs of Cool Whip, frozen waffles, pumpkin pies and a turkey.

Thomas said wardens do not like killing the animals and stress that citizens should act more responsibly by not feeding them, using bear-proof canisters in the wilderness (required by law in some areas) and by not making their garbage available to bears. Because once the bears get a taste for human food, that’s all they want and they become troublesome.

“They get programmed to [digging through trash] and start associating people with food,” he said. “Unfortunately, people encourage it by feeding them and not taking care of their garbage. It’s a pretty simple story: Just don’t feed them and maybe they’ll go back to eating berries.”

UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT

The tide has been turned on a Northern California man the DFG says had been keeping a bear in a steel culvert trap “as ready quarry for bear season.”

Fortunately, wardens received a tip, the bear was found and freed, and the man put behind bars, where he’s awaiting trial next month.

Thomas Leroy Bishop, 47, of Shasta Lake City, is charged with cruelty to animals and being a felon in possession of firearms.

The 200-pound black bear reportedly spent eight days living in its own filth in a trap not much bigger than it was, in temperatures that reached 100 degrees, near a remote cabin Bishop had occupied when the bear was found.

“The trap was so full of feces and urine that we actually smelled it before we discovered it,” DFG warden Dan Fehr said.

The bear, given the name “Yogi” by wardens, drank four gallons of water before it was released.

Bishop pleaded not guilty during his arraignment. His trial is scheduled

Oct. 26 in Redding.

SALTWATER

* The San Diego long-range season began with a bang, and anyone planning a trip to Guadalupe Island had better bring along a bang-stick.

Capt. Tommy Rothery, reached by satellite phone Thursday aboard the Polaris Supreme, said his passengers were being worked over by 70- to 150-pound yellowfin at Alijos Rocks off southern Baja. Already in the hold were scores of yellowtail dorado, pargo and grouper.

The bad news was that the water temperatures dropped from 71-plus degrees on his previous trip (when he had a 203-wahoo day) to 68.6, driving the wahoo away.

The scary news, for spear-fishermen who like to hunt off Guadalupe Island to the north, is that at least five great white sharks have been spotted daily for the last few days by crews and passengers of sportfishing boats.

Rothery said the usually phantomlike sharks--one estimated at 18 feet--have been swimming boldly up to the boats and being enticed to stay with whole tuna and yellowtail. Asked if divers were present, Rothery chuckled, and said, “I don’t know, but that could get pretty gnarly.”

* Albacore score: There’s nothing to indicate a waning season, but most of the fast-moving tuna remain at the outermost reach of San Diego’s overnight boats, and for the most part just beyond reach of the Los Angeles-area fleet. That’s not to say you won’t catch any, but be prepared for a boat ride of at least 90 miles. The 1 1/2- and two-day trips will improve your chances. Off Morro Bay, the bite seems to be back on. The Admiral, Princess and Fiesta were bobbing around in heavy chop at 50-plus miles on Thursday, and by 2 p.m. had between 25 and 40 fish aboard.

* Two of the best days of his life were spent battling 1,000-pound Atlantic blue marlin, a year to the day apart at the remote island, Madeira, west of Morocco. But Toluca Lake’s Ken Corday, producer of NBC’s “Days of Our Lives” wasn’t complaining after his most recent angling adventure, a trip to Hawaii, where he caught a 414-pound Pacific blue marlin and won $25,000 in the World Billfish Challenge, then followed that up with a 746-pounder after a five-hour struggle aboard Chiripa.

“Everything that could have gone wrong, didn’t, thank goodness,” Corday said.

BAJA BEAT

* There have been fly-in surfing operations featuring the remote breaks of southern Baja, but Capt. Mike Diamond is trying something a little different: fishing-surfing live-aboard trips to the Magdalena Bay area aboard the 75-foot Champ. His first journey, a 10-day adventure, begins Nov. 3 and costs $1,499, which includes meals and permits. If successful, he plans to offer a series of five-day trips each fall. Details: (619) 225-8969.

* For the record: Abelardo L. “Rod” Rodriguez, who opened the first hotel in southern Baja California and was a pioneer of tourism on the desert peninsula, was misidentified in this column two weeks ago.

WINDING UP

The United Anglers of Southern California’s annual fund-raising dinner and C.A.S.T tournament awards ceremony will be held Tuesday night at the Grand in Long Beach, with doors opening at 5:30 and dinner at 7. Guest speakers are Don Kent, president of Hubbs-Sea World Research Center, and Jim Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. Cost is $25 with reservations and $30 at the door. Proceeds go to UASC conservation efforts. Details: (714) 840-0227.