SummitPost.org

One of my neighbors up here at St. Mary's Glacier, lives at the back of the sub-division, has had the wires chewed up in 4 different vehicles, and some of his overnight guests cars too. He finally built a garage. Now they have a porcipine chewing on their house and deck posts.

Fred and I were camped in Glacier NP. The marmots were so hungry for salt, that they chewed off the top of one of my boots I had set in the sun to dry and nearly chewed through the shoulder strap of Fred's pack before we caught them at it. We had to throw rocks at them to keep them away and keep everything stashed in the tent and then guard that.

glacierpaul wrote:One of my neighbors up here at St. Mary's Glacier, lives at the back of the sub-division, has had the wires chewed up in 4 different vehicles, and some of his overnight guests cars too. He finally built a garage. Now they have a porcipine chewing on their house and deck posts.

I know this is a slight hijack...

But in the NE, porcupines were a very serious problem. If you didn't carefully close outhouse doors, they would enlarge the seat holes to comical sizes.

MoapaPk wrote:

glacierpaul wrote:One of my neighbors up here at St. Mary's Glacier, lives at the back of the sub-division, has had the wires chewed up in 4 different vehicles, and some of his overnight guests cars too. He finally built a garage. Now they have a porcipine chewing on their house and deck posts.

I know this is a slight hijack...

But in the NE, porcupines were a very serious problem. If you didn't carefully close outhouse doors, they would enlarge the seat holes to comical sizes.

In the higher elevations of the Canadian Rockies, lets just say that if are at a posh enough campsite to have a potty, you better damn sure look before you sit!

After my first ascent of the Grand Teton, I arrived exhausted at my tent in Garnet Canyon. We had been up since midnight. A guy mentioned that he had seen a marmot chew a hole in our tent. Entering the tent, we were unhappy to find that the marmot had peed in both of our sleeping bags.

That marmot up here is dastardly, he knows where your wire harness is and chews that right at the nub, so there is no easy repair, you have to replace the whole wire harness. That varies in cost from hundreds to a thousand dollars a pop. They think it is great they have the garage, but if you are a guest with your own vehicle....... I am a plumber here and property manage for several folks, one day winterizing the folks house I mention, the marmot came into the house. I had a hose draining the water heater, running out the door to outside. Well Mr. Marmot came on in, barking and whistling at me. I yelled at him to no avail, grabbed the broom and gently tried to scoot him out, he attacked the broom, but did make a run for the door. I could not believe how aggresive the little booger was, like he was part wolverine or something. Some of the marmots up here look like they weigh 20+ pounds no problem.

Being out on the east coast we have groundhogs all over the place which are essentially monster Marmots. They are the bane of everything in the vegetable garden.

I saw a 3 legged one on top of Mt. Whitney summer of 2008. I'm sure others here have seen that fellow. He must have been 30 lbs, this sucker was huge! I didn't give him food, but other hikers were sharing food. When I told them it probably wasn't a good idea, they laughed at me. Stupid CA people!

Hotoven wrote:Stupid CA people!

You have no idea.

Space aliens I tell ya!

How does that old tune go...?

"In and around the lake
Marmots come out of the sky
And they stand there...."

squishy wrote:we must fight as California climbers...

With umbrellas? Good luck.

I lived in CA for 10 years. Couldn't wait to shake the dirt from my feet.

State's doing great now from what I hear.

In 1986 my boyfriend and I were camped beneath Snow Creek wall in the Cascades. We climbed Mary Jane Dihedral in scorching heat and came back to camp to find the Marmots had chewed up the shoulder straps and lumbar pad of my backpack. They also ate a gear sling which I'd left behind.
The Marmots in the Cascades seem about three times the size of the ones in the Sierra. They're like little bears!

In 1999 I was car camping at the last gate in the White Mountains before hiking up the peak the next morning. As I sat on the ground and made dinner with my Whisperlite stove, I saw movement in the meadow in front of me. I looked around and noticed they were behind me too. There must have been at least twenty Marmots moving in on me from all sides. They were all staring at me. When they thought I wasn't looking, they'd crawl forward rapidly, hoping to eventually share my dinner. When the Marmots were within about ten feet of me, I stood up, screamed, then burst into laughter as they scurried away. I had company the entire evening.

tigerlilly wrote:Where can I find an outfit like that?!

You mean, the one the marmot's wearing?

Wouldn't you be worried about having a wardrobe malfunction ???