Crystal Lake Camp Grounds Bear Sightings and Reports

Bear sightings and reports as of 24/Nov/2011

Adult bears and their cubs have been frequently seen all this past year and there have been contacts with humans.

During restoration efforts, volunteers will see bears only on rare occasions when the bears hear and smell us working. At night, however, bears will become more active and on occasion we have had bears check over our tents and such looking for food. Because of it, hanging lines some distance from our sleeping bags are thrown over tree limbs to elevate food stuffs and clothes.

The bears who live in and around the Crystal Lake Camp Grouns are California Black Bears -- which includes bears that are actually brown.

Any of various usually omnivorous mammals of the family Ursidae that have a shaggy coat and a short tail and walk with the entire lower surface of the foot touching the ground. Any of various other animals, such as the koala, that resemble a true bear. -- The American Heritage Dictionary

Since there have been so many fires in the San Gabriels, and since there has been human encroachment into bear habitats, bears are being seen in numbers that are higher than usual. During Summer months when it is extremely hot in the mountains, bears have been known to travel down the mountain in search of swimming pools to cool off in.

The author has spent countless nights camping alone in the wilderness outside of the camp grounds, and over the past year or so the author has been many nights camping alone inside the grounds. Until five weeks ago I've never had any difficulty with bears so presumably the problem was the cooking that the Boy Scouts were doing which made the hungry bears -- getting ready for the Winter -- to be so aggressive.