The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

apology in advance for my dickhead response to your query. the best 'countermeasure' is to not visit the region.

 

No apology necessary. An understandable response. But at least I'm trying to gather info on best practices for the area before venturing up there.

 

Just be smart and you'll be fine. The bears around here are fairly wild. They have not had much interaction with people thereby associating food with coolers. I'd like to keep it that way but with the amount of increased visitation recently I doubt it will last much longer. Do your part to help the cause. Asking is already doing that. Practice normal bear measures and you're golden. It's not the Valley. Yet. lol

 

Another thought regarding camping in bear country, in addition to being careful with food storage...

Be careful where you set up camp. There are sadly too many selfish idiots who visit the back country as if they're tailgating at Nascar. They'll grill 2x more food than they need, carve their names in a tree, hand-feed anything that moves, shit everywhere, then toss their leftovers and still-hot mini grill down the hill and head home just a few minutes before you arrive to what looks like a great campsite.

So take a stroll around before setting up camp, and be prepared to move on if you are tripping over used diapers and half eaten birthday cakes. Also be weary if you have squirrels and foxes begging at your feet come dinner time.

And although some people might disagree, consider bringing a gun. Not for the bears, of course, but in case you see any of those ass holes tossing their kids used diapers around our favorite camp sites.

 

LOL. Well the bears at Camp High Sierra and Lone Pine Campground don't care for Modelos or Mammoth Brewery beers.

 

My approach regarding California black bears, successful so far, is to keep a clean camp and not bring food in or near the tent. I’ve never had one do more than sniff around my car, even with bins and coolers only hidden by my soft tonneau, and they can usually be scared off with some noise. And this only in developed campgrounds where there’s almost always someone else with easier pickings. My worst experience was with raccoons who figured out how to get into my pack until I finally brought it in my tent (not in bear habitat). Backpacking or motorcycle camping I use a bear canister. Now I’d feel a lot less comfortable in grizzly country, and I do have bear spray at hand, but even then I’ve never seen one in camp. Though that doesn’t mean they didn’t visit …

 

I've been up to Mt Paterson on quad also and from both directions in my truck. Going down the west face was scary as hell as the road was super narrow, had the passenger side wheels hanging off the edge.

 

What type of grill are you using? Personally, leaving it out in the open, even away from camp, is a bad idea. Keep the grill clean and pack it with the rest of your kitchen stuff.

When camping in bear country, bear spray is never a bad idea.

 

I got one of those older coleman grill/stoves with one burner and small grill. I do a wipe down and clean the grease trap. Wipes go with my trash in the bear vault. It works for me and from my 30+ years of camping in bear country tells me my precautions are sound. The bears have recognized coolers and trash cans as food and will gravitate towards those easy pickings. Of course if you leave a hot dog or pieces of steak on the grill the bears will go after it. Like you said, keep the grill clean. From there it's a personal preference of weather to keep outside or pack it with the kitchen gear.

 

We tried it a couple weeks ago, but ran into snow and had to retreat. Will be attempting again in a week.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...n-the-mountains.229415/page-128#post-25780078

 

Inyo Mountains, 8500'

 

that place is so good. but I had pretty rough experience there one time, we got in line and it took literally 1.5 hours to get the window, and there were only about 20 people in front of us. as we got to the window we realized why. the lady working was alternating between chatting with the customers, and falling asleep. it was apparent she out of her mind somehow... she was taking literally 5-10 min to take each persons order.

I left a review about it, and the owner responded about how they were short staffed so he had his wife cover the register, and she has some condition or disease (that I don't remember the name of now) but she was hopped up on her medication so she could work. I felt bad for her, and changed my review... but still.

I'll definitely go back, even with that experience there. I've had several great visits, so the one bad time isn't enough to turn me off of that place.

 

1.5 hours??
You have more patience than I do…

 

yea I'm not sure why we stayed after we realized how long it was taking. i guess once you're in line for a while, you feel committed, lol. we definitely could have left and got food somewhere else, and still been on our way faster. but oh well.

 

A lot of those places are like that. Slow service, decent food. I think I've experienced that kind of service (maybe not to that extent) from Walker Burger to the BBQ place and even Whoa Nelli.

 

A little further south but here's another great place for burgers ...



I can recommend it if you're going over Sherman Pass. Or hiking PCT.

 

Part of the fun of Whoa Nelli, other then your eating decent food from a Mobile station, is seeing how many beers you can put down before your food is ready. lol

 

Whoa Nelli is more than just slow service. It's an adventure. The one great thing about eating there is you get to meet a lot of great people from all over the world.