Camping with bears around?

[tlhdoc]

I have camped for years in the east and have not seen a bear box to store food in yet.

[abbear]

What all this is getting at (and as I have told my daughters many times) is let some other poor fool provided the entertainment for the bears.  Tent camping we have had bears in Yosemite valley look in our car but because the food and ice chest are covered so they can't be seen and we don't save opened food (we buy lots of smaller boxes or cans) we never had a problem with them.  In fact, we had one walk between myself at the campsite table and our tent on its way to visit another site that had left out all their food, ice chest, etc.  Took him an hour to eat his fill.

Bottom line - a clean, odor free camp is a bear free camp.  Food and ice chests stored in your vehicle should be covered (as people who have camped extensively in bear country will tell you - bears can read Nabisco). And there's always some poor sod who won't take the deligent precautions and ends up feeding the bears and providing the entertainment for the rest of us!

And on the subject of bear boxes, on more than one occasion I have used one and the had to get the ranger to come with a pry bar to allow to get our food out!  They must have some kind of bears in those parts :yikes:

[AustinBoston]

Here in MI, there are no bear boxes in the SPs or the State and National Forests. Not even in the UP where the bear population is greater than the lower. We have Black Bear, they aren't as aggressive as the Grizzlies you have out west.

Whoa there!  Even though California has a grizzly bear on it's flag, there are virtually no grizzlies left (I hear conflicting reports, but most say the grizzly is completetely gone from California).

We're talking black bears.

Austin

[flyfisherman]

When I made reservations they told me that all food needed to be stored in your car because sometimes bears wander into the camp ground.  We have never camped where there were bears before....any advice?  We take a small gas grill with us to cook on....is that going to attract the bears at night?  Should I be scared about my middle of the night potty runs?  Help, I'm freaking out here!

There have been photos circulating around for some years of cars (or what was left of them) where bears took a notion to get inside a vehicle (which were locked & closed) and, of course, they (the bear), simply tore off the door or rear hatch or whatever to get at what goodies were inside. But the point is, better they do that to an empty car rather than a popup camper or tent while your in it! Talking with the rangers at the Standing Indian Camp Ground (western North Carolina), they say the bear's #1 objective in raiding a camp is the garbage. There at Standing Indian, as well as other NC national forest C/G's in the bear areas, all have the heavy duty steel trash bins and some of them are really clawed up! I suppose it's the real sophisticated (and experienced) bear that heads for the ice cooler!(LOL)

But care needs to be taken when there's a black bear around. Remember the young woman that was killed in the Smoky Mountain Nat'l Park by a black bear sow in May of 2000? It was determinned later that the woman had tried to run and the bear brought her down. The following July another woman, in northern Ontario, was killed by another black bear while she was running on a path through the woods training for an upcoming biathlon. And the black bears don't just favor women;

http://www.maineguides.org/referendum/bear_attacks03.shtml

plus these are just some of the fatilities ... wonder how many others have been attacked and survived with injuries, serious or minor?

I'm not the least terrified of bears (not yet anyway), as I'm in the woods and streams of North Carolina's mountains on a regular basis. But I do have a healthy respect for black bears and will treat them accordingly.


Fly

[veryolddog]

My wife and I are have a place in North Central New Mexico as a second home. Nothing fancy but a great getaway from Albuquerque where we use to live. We are out there bordering the Carson National Forest. Bears are pretty common and normally do not cause any fuss. However, once in a while a you get a strange one. While walking down to a stream for fly fishing near our cabin, I encountered a bear about 50 feet from me. We stared at each other and I lifted my arms and my fly rod over my head to give my self the appearance that I was bigger than I am, and tried to shoo him away. Bad idea. Now, I always carry a Ruger Super Redhawk 44 Magnum in a shoulder holster while fly fishing in Norhern New Mexico. He stood on his haunches and did the same thing. He wins! He does it better than me. Slowly, I begin to back track on the trail watching him carefully. He begins to approach me on the trail faster than I can walk backward. I think: "Holy Sh*t!". He begins to run towards me and I draw my firearm. I cannot run faster than this bear and I cannot hide or go up a tree. I am not a young man. I am a senior citizen. I fire, and hit the target. He does not stop. He keeps coming at me. I think that I just "p*ssed him off. I fire again. He keeps coming. I do not have time to fire again. He is almost on top of me. When I think, this is it, .... he drops with his head falling two (2) feet in front of my left foot.

After I stopped shaking, I think that after serving my country for 23 years in the USMC Recon, with 20 months in Viet Nam, Granada, Lebanon, Israel, Columbia, etc. and a couple of Purple Hearts, I never expected or anticipated any thing like this. After walking for a half hour back to our cabin, I told my wife about this experience. We got into our vehicle and drove to the Ranger station and reported the incident. They came back to the cabin with a small crew and one of those 4 X 4 ATV vehicles to collect the bear. After a few days, the Ranger came back to our cabin and told us that, after doing an autopsy on this bear, they discovered that it had a brain tumor which probably made it's behavior more aggressive. They would have had to come out and destroy it anyway because other incidents were reported by others in the vicinity.

I do not usually hunt but I am not opposed to hunting. I do not like killing. I believe in "live and let live" especially for our creatures in the wild. And frequently, on our hikes throught the National Forests, my wife and I will simply view Elk, deer, eagles and other wildlife through binoculers. But I feel that I had no choice. At least, I am still here to tell my grandchildren about this experience.

[aw738]

I have camped for years in the east and have not seen a bear box to store food in yet.

There are bear boxes in Big Meadows campground along Skyline Drive. They are in the tent camping sites.

I always carry a Ruger Super Redhawk 44 Magnum in a shoulder holster while fly fishing in Norhern New Mexico.

(This may be getting to close too the limit it should be mentioned on this board and I will not take it any further.) No wonder he kept comming at you a 44 Magnum is a pea shooter compaired to a 454 Casull. A 44 Magnum I will shot one handed a 454 Casull, never one handed.