On Wed, 8 Jan 2020 22:57:37 -0800 (PST),
[email protected]
wrote:
Jan 9, 2020
I=E2=80=99m not sure if anyone in this group will see this. But, tonight f= >or the first time in all these years I looked up this tragic story. I was = >the first of 3 people who encountered the Scouts after this happened. As I=
hiked with my backpack up the the Halfdome cables, someone passed me and s=
aid, some Boy Scouts stones to death a bear.=20
Horrified I kept going up the trail and it wasn=E2=80=99t long before I cam= >e across 2 Rangers. It was a somber morning hearing what happened. Being = >that it was before smart phones and social media, no one took pictures to d= >ocument. I had my 35mm but never even thought it because back then we were=
so in the moment, angered & sad that this happened. =20
I had not been very far away camping. And I know I had a bear visit my ca=
mpsite also. The thing is...if you make loud noise they will go away. All=
the times I had been there, I had never felt the need to pick up a stone. =
It was always clang pans & yell.=20
This incident has kind of haunted me over the years. It could have turned = >out even worse if the mother bear turned on these people. But to me...this = >was needless. There was no doubt that morning, to me, the leaders overacte= >d and did not do what in my opinion was the proper thing. While I=E2=80=99= >m thankful I didn=E2=80=99t walk up on a person dead. I certainly do not t= >hink that would have happened. And it is I=E2=80=99m embedded in my head pi= >cturing a small bear was needlessly stoned. =20
Hopefully the Scouts are taught better skills for wilderness camping. And = >I really hope those Leaders & Scouts are now working in the forestry, Natio= >nal Parks or in life doing something worthwhile giving back to humanity. If=
nobody reads this...I=E2=80=99m good with that. But it=E2=80=99s been som=
ething I=E2=80=99ve thought about all these years and it=E2=80=99s good to = >release it. Nothing could be done.
I was at Philmont in 1976 with my 2 sons. We knew to hang anything
with a good scent in a tree at night and that clanging on pots and
pans were supposed to scare the bears away. Fortunately we never had a
problem.
As for your story, Tater diagnosed the problem, "You can't cure
stupid!"
Hugh
Eagle 1943
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