Fifty Mountain Closed for bears. 🐻

[FuzzySideDown]

Hey gang. They closed Fifty Mountain a couple days ago. Just a day or two after we were there. A mom and 3 cubs just to the granite park side of Fifty were hanging out while we were there. The 3 cubs were quite unique. One was pitch black. One was very light… almost white looking, and the other was traditionally brown. The whole camp stayed up watching them from a distance for quite a while the night we were there.

One of the hikers we talked to coming in to camp said they had been in the food prep area when they were there.

Stay safe and don’t have food in your tent.
Cheers!
Kyle.

[paul]

It seems like this year has a lot more bear activity near back country camps! I hope that's not a new trend.

[orin]

Looking at the availability maps, three of the most popular backcountry routes are currently closed. Dawson-Pitamakin is closed due to bears. Not just the Old Man Lake camp but the entire Dry Fork. Glad I got my trip in early in the summer while it was still open. Gunsight-Sperry is also closed although not due to bears. Sperry is closed due to "human waste". Not sure what that means but it doesn't sound good. The North Circle may not be officially closed but with both Mokowanis Junction and Fifty Mountain closed it would be hard to do a loop. As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say: "There's always something".

[Ear Mountain]

I believe Gunsight Lake is closed because the park is doing non native fish control in the lake.

[zozeppelin]

Looking at the availability maps, three of the most popular backcountry routes are currently closed. Dawson-Pitamakin is closed due to bears. Not just the Old Man Lake camp but the entire Dry Fork. Glad I got my trip in early in the summer while it was still open. Gunsight-Sperry is also closed although not due to bears. Sperry is closed due to "human waste". Not sure what that means but it doesn't sound good. The North Circle may not be officially closed but with both Mokowanis Junction and Fifty Mountain closed it would be hard to do a loop. As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say: "There's always something".

Yes I was noticing similar! Thankfully it looks like Dawson Pass is still open, so those doing CDT / inner trail have a way.

Either way, pretty disruptive closures at this point after a nice early opening. I’d hope that after Labor Day the closures are relaxed as the summer season is over. Let’s face it, there are always bears around some areas (Fifty and Ptarmigan/Iceberg) and closing trails is catastrophic for itineraries months in the making.