September 20, 2024
Santa Rita Mountains -- Bears
By far, I have seen more bears in the Santa Ritas than in any other
southern Arizona mountains. Of course I have spent a lot of time in
the Santa Ritas -- but I have spent equal or even greater time in
the Catalinas with no bear encounters whatsoever.
All told, I think I have met up with bears on 5 occasions -- that
might boil down to one encounter per 12 or 15 hikes. All of these
have been along or close to one of the west side trails.
In other words ether the Super Trail or Old baldy trail.
A "normal" bear encounter is to briefly see a bear that runs off as
soon as it realizes you are present. However 3 of my 5 encounters
in the Santa Ritas have been with "bold" bears.
I will skip over my encounters from
years gone by and describe several recent encounters.
September 14, 2024
It was around 5 PM and three of us were hiking down the Old Baldy trail.
We were about 1/2 mile above Josephine Saddle at 7500 feet elevation.
The bear was on the trail and not particularly concerned that we were
getting closer. The bear finally ran up the hillside and we hiked on.
Then perhaps 5 minutes later, we had gone around a ridge and apparently
the bear had gone over. It was again on the trail and in no hurry to
get out of the way. I tossed a couple of good sized rocks towards it
(no at it) and made loud bossy noises. The bear went uphill off the
trail and we passed by below it (15 or 20 feet from the bear) while
it calmly watched us go by. We checked behind us several times, but
it did not follow us.
September 19, 2024
It was around 6 PM. I was alone on Rogers Rock, planning to spend the
night. I was tending a stove heating some water to make tea.
Rogers Rock is at about 6500 feet elevation, about 2 miles up
the "Super trail" and to the east of it. I heard some small noise
and looked to see, not 10 feet away from me, a good sized bear
pawing through things I had just removed from my pack!
I crossed my arms and scolded him, and he looked at me attentively.
Ignoring a Cliff bar just under his nose (good call!), he grabbed
my down quilt (in a stuff sack) and headed up the hill with it.
I followed. He dropped it, I recovered it and returned to the
rock. He returned also, but after examining my stove and two
fuel canisters (I had moved everything else to my immediate presence)
he decided to leave apparently for good.
I finished my tea, watched the last bit of the sunset, then
packed up and left. I used a headlamp to hike down to a level
spot over a mile away along the "pipeline trail". I had no
further visits or trouble, but it was a windy night.
Even if the bear had not returned to Rogers rock, I would have
had a hard time sleeping peacefully if I had stayed.
September 30, 2024
I hiked up to Baldy Saddle, getting to Bellows Spring at sunset and
using a flashlight for an hour hiking up the switchbacks. It was
very windy and cold and was short on warm stuff, so at 10PM, I hiked
back down to 7900 feet and camped at the "saddle" there, no bears.
At about 7AM two people passed me, heading for the summit. I hiked
out. Just before I got to the parking lot they caught up to me and
told me their bear story. They ran into a small bear (maybe 3 feet)
up in a brush section of the switchbacks. It climbed a tree, but
they decided they weren't comfortable heading on with all the brush,
expecting to have a close encounter with "mama", so they turned back.
A wise call I think.
Have any comments? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org