ADK HIGH PEAKS BEAR ENCOUNTER #2

The second encounter came in 2005. There were four of us hiking in the ADK high peaks. We had hiked Algonquin on the first day and set up camp at the lean-to on Lake Colden. We  hiked with full packs and our day camps changed every day. This was also before the days of food bear canisters. And so on the first night out in the wilderness we had to be creative in how to securely hide our food. We thought of suspending our two small daffle bags about 40 feet in the air between two tall pines. Conveniently several yards behind our lean-to there was an already existing strong cable that was strung 40-50 feet in the air between 2 trees by previous hikers. Since it was getting dark and there was no better way of hiding the food we decided to utilize the cable. The bags were attached to a rope that we tied to the tree.

We had a restful night, without any furry friend visitors. Therefore, we had thought everything was okay. As we started to to get ready for breakfast, one of the guys went to retrieve the food bags from the tree, only to find nothing there. We then found the rope that held the suspended bags was chewed off. To our dismay we found one of the daffle bags torn to shreds and wrappers of our granola bars and beef jerky scattered on the ground. This was devastating because we had planned to hike for 2 more days, and we needed food in order to continue our trip.

One of the guys decided to look around and see if we could find the remains of the other bag. A few minutes into the search we noticed a trail of food, still unopened, that lead deeper into the woods. In a few yards we found the other bag with more unopened food. After we had collected the scattered food we had enough to feed all four of us for another day.

After a smaller breakfast than anticipated we began hiking Day 2. We ended up hiking with all of our gear to Marcy Dam. As we were nearing Marcy Dam we took a break at one of the lean-tos. There we meet an elderly couple who were packing up and hiking back to their cars. They had some leftover food and after we told them our story they gladly gave us their leftovers. I will never forget that caring couple that gave us enough food to feed all of us for one meal. They ended up giving us some salami, really delicious aged cheese and a few slices of bread. We had a feast later that evening for dinner.