Had problems with that(or some other) bear at the Portal on Saturday (23rd) afternoon and basically all night. About 7pm, we see bear in our tent in broad daylight not 20 yards from us. The bear dragged one of our packs out and carried it down and crossed the creek/river. We chased the bear and eventually he gave it up. My brother had to go "scrambling/swimming" down stream just to retrieve it! Needless to say everything was soaked! Went to the laundromat in Lone Pine and tried to dry everything out, came back around 10pm to try and sleep and came face to face with bear again once again around the restrooms in the "overflow" parking. The bear made a growl/hissing type sound, but finally backed away into the dark after being yelled out. We decided to just crash in the car to avoid any possible disaster that could occur before take off before a 430am start on the trail, woke up at 2am to the bear banging bear boxes and paw prints on my windows.
P.S. We were meticulous about keeping food/toiletries/etc in bear boxes.
Needless to say, we were relieved to finally get on the trail...made summit later that day (report and pics to come) and despite some setbacks, we had unbelievable weekend!
