bears in camp......

[tony.latham]

b-b-b-b-b-b-bear?



T

[vegask]

Left the rear tailgate of my 4runner open this past summer for an hour or so while camping in Tahoe. Around 7:30 at night when the sun was just beginning to set I decided I would walk the 20 ft back to my truck and get my flash light for later. As I approached a very large ball of fur jumped from the back of my suv and just stood there and stared at me for what seemed like forever. A buddy of mine shined his high powered flashlight at it and another friend started yelling bear but that did nothing. Finally I reached into the truck and honked my horn twice and he took off. He did leave a few holes in the cover for my engle fridge and ate a bag of tostitos.

Anyways, keep your food locked up, keep your doors closed. Have an air horn handy. I will be purchasing pepper spray for this coming season regardless.

[lrrowe]

Tony, to me it looks like the bear dipped its paws in paint?

[kudzu]

I like the air horn idea. Always have a little one at hand when cycling in case a chasing dog gets too close. It's small enough to slip in the pocket of a jacket. And it's LOUD!!
http://www.amazon.com/Falcon-Safety-Super-Sound-Horn/dp/B0000AXTVF

[lrrowe]

Ok Slow, here is my story.
Back in 2011 after 30 or so years of camping in the same National Forest area in VA, my hunting friend and me saw very few bears and got very complacent with our camping habits.
Simply stated, we left our guard down and left the cooler out at night and garbage incorrectly tied to a tree. We had a visitor that night and it left his calling card.


He took our steaks and new ice bag. Guess he wanted to keep the steaks on ice for awhile.

I guess I knew better, but I tied the garbage up to the tree but apparently did not think about how bears can climb....30 year pros?? No just armatures I guess



Now we do the right thing with our coolers. I carry a large can of bear spray while in the woods and sometimes if they are really showing their presence, I legally carry a .357 or .45.

[tony.latham]

Tony, to me it looks like the bear dipped its paws in paint?

Mud.

T

[lrrowe]

You're lucky you did not get any scratches.
I will be honest, with the galley in the back of my CT, I am concerned about a set of heavy paws like that trying to rip the doors open. From what I have seen that they can do to a vehicle or regular RV, I am sure there would be some damage. I know that in theory I should use a bear box or raise the food up overhead. But not practical for me.

[daveesl77]

I lived in the mountains of Colorado for about 10 years. Do bears sh*t in the woods? No, they did it in my driveway, on my deck, on my backhoe and on the hood of my truck (go figure). But I always appreciated the big cinnamon we had, as I had cut down an old tree that just so happened to contain a gigantic bee hive where it broke. I could not get rid of the bees. About a week later I see the bear standing on the tree and happily eating away and the bees went away. I learned a lot of respect for bears on that one, because she had to be getting stung like crazy, but didn't seem to care.

Actually, it was the local badger that terrified most people. It didn't care or have any fear of anything.

dave

[Treeview]

Family camping in junior high...Superior National Forest, Minnesota...bears made their rounds through camp every night...the shiveree would start up and move from site to site.

After a couple of nights of that my folks got out the powdered laundry detergent and sprinkled a swath around our campsite. Bears came up to that...sniffed...and arced around us!

That is about as 'bear proof' as I've ever seen.

My folks shared the idea with other campers...and it worked!

I guess you could say, my folks 'skunked'... 'da Bears!

True story

Tom

[Cosmo]

[lrrowe]

Let us all hope this one does not leave paw marks around the camP!

[lrrowe]

Duplicate post deleted

[canned o minimum]

Not much help yet... I always carry a .44 magnum AND bear spray. Nobody wants to shoot a bear, so I hope the spray does the trick... The air horn is a nice cheap alternative and I think Imma buy one fer the trailer.

Of course, "bear boxes" are great IF there IS one in camp. Ya really gotta be "bear safe" and use common sense ( If ya have any )

[dales133]

[pete49]

He's safe its his cousin the dropbear you gotta watch for
Pete