Bears and Pups

[robbie]

We generally camp in northern Ontario; great place to be but it's right smack dab in the middle of black bear country. Our years in a tent have taught us how to keep Yogi and friends away from our site, but being in a trailer raises a couple of questions.

Has anyone had any trouble from campsite bears when it comes to what is stored in your fridge? Is the seal on the fridge enough to mask any food odours?

[CajunCamper]

We generally camp in northern Ontario; great place to be but it's right smack dab in the middle of black bear country. Our years in a tent have taught us how to keep Yogi and friends away from our site, but being in a trailer raises a couple of questions.

Has anyone had any trouble from campsite bears when it comes to what is stored in your fridge? Is the seal on the fridge enough to mask any food odours?

Since, you have experience tent camping in bear country, I would advise you follow the same precautions in your pop up as when you are tent camping in bear country.

[flyfisherman]

I've not experienced problems in western North Carolina's (Smoky Mountains), even in what's considered high density bear populated areas, with food in the 3-way frig or even ice coolers placed inside vehicles at night. The big magnet attraction for black bear has always been the garbage. That's been true for here in the Smokys, or even when I visited your neck of the woods and camped at Algonquin and Chapleau. Same for Colorado and just recently returned from an Alaskan fishing trip, and the same story is the same for black bear ... the garbage.

Of course, bears are smart and when they do find out where other foods are stored, that's where they are headed for. There's been photos and stories posted here, especially for some of the western national parks, of bears taking matters into their own paws and opening a few vehicles that contained something good to eat!  But a lot of public education has brought this point to the forefront of not feeding them, of never letting bears associate people with food (as in getting fed by people). Like the recent sign I saw in Alaska that read "a fed bear is a dead bear". Simply cannot "unteach" the bear and after one re-location and another problem with the bear, it is simply shot.  Also, on the Alaska trip, we hiked back into a remote lake for some cutthroat trout fishing and camped a night in a tent; and this was bear country big time! We built a sperate fire away from the campsite just for burning the garbage; AND hung the fresh caught fish and other food stuffs high in a tree aways from the site. Should note that I saw more bears in the wild there in the back country of Alaska in 5 days than I've seen anywhere else (combined!) in five years!

To be more specific about your post, I've camped a great deal in black bear country and have not had any problems with the 3-way frig or ice coolers that are put away at night. But I sure attend to the garbage before sundown and in bear country C/G's the garbage receptacles are usually bear proof.

And I should add that most of the cooking is done outside - about the only thing that gets heated on the inside cookstove is coffee or tea or dishwater ... and maybe something getting heated up. The bacon and the fish and the grilling and dutch oven cooking are all outside events! Let me add that in one of my favorite C/G's in western North Carolina (right adjacent to a bear preserve!), there are frequent "guests" coming in during the middle of the night to check out the garbage situation and once in awhile they'll discover a frying pan that still has some grease and trapings in it from the supper hour - then there's much banging and clanging at the picnic table and tenderfoot campers becoming teriffied - but it's always a matter of the garbage and a cleaned-up site before dark. Bears, for the most part, are still leery of human folk and will only venture so close; i.e., unless there's unusal circumstance ... and who can predict that?
As for me ... garbage out and properly taken care of, dishes and site cleaned before dark, ice cooler and any opened food stuffs (like donuts, bread) into the tow vehicle. If canoe camping ... food hung in the tree aways off.



Fly

[austinado16]

I'm not an experienced camper, so last weekend in Kings Canyon with bear signs everywhere, bear boxes you park a lawn mower in, and more bear signs, I was a bit worried.

Here they even want child safety seats taken out of the vehicles along with coolers, because the bears have learned to recognize them as a food source.  The signs recommended that it all go in the bear boxes.  

We kept the fridge stocked as normal, but everything else from soaps to toothpaste, the little weber grille and all the pots and pans went in the bear box.  I put the carry-out stove inside the Suburban out of view.

Not sure that I needed to go that far, but I didn't want to wake up to the sound of my PUP being opened like a can of spam.

[ForestCreature]

We've camped in North Ontario a few times. Had no problems with bears and we kept food in the fridge. We always cook outside regardless so no food smells in the camper.  Just keep practicing your usual good bear habits and you should be fine.