Unexpected visitors in your campsite.

[hvac1877]

Had this gentleman outside my backdoor and the camper. I have outside cats and the wife put cat food outside for them! This is why i dont feed my cats outside at night!!!!

[perterra]

Felt the camper bump around one night about 2am.


No food but he was just making sure.

[bobsienna]

My wife and I learned early on to not leave any coolers outside.  The East Texas coons will open the cooler and help themselves.  One time we borrowed my daughter's new pickup and left the cooler with eggs and bacon sitting in the bed of the truck.  The next morning the bacon was gone and eggs were all over the bed and side of the truck.

After my daughter was married we went camping with her and my son-in-law.  My son-in-law went to the campground early to reserve the sites and we came when my daughter got off work.  My son-in-law set up their tent and unloaded their truck.  He set a cake my daughter made for my wife's birthday sitting on the picnic table.  He went to the bathroom and came back to find a coon sitting on the table eating big pawfuls of the cake.  Needless to say my wife didn't get a cake.

[GeneF]

DW noticed our cat stalking something on the edge of our site.  Thought it was just a geiko.

Then she heard a strange noise, thought it was an insect.

Then she realized it was a rattle snake and our cat was trying to play with it.  Snake was rattling and coiled.

DW managed to get the cat away and the snake went on it's way after DW and some fellow campers took a few pics using zoom lenses.

First snake we have seen  at this park in three years.  Dw is a bit more cautious going outside now.

[Shredder]

Yeah, them Michigan 'coons are tough critters! Around these parts we just shoo at them and they waddle away. One time I was camped up around Mio fishing the AuSable River and managed to catch some trout for dinner. While I was cooking the trout just about time it was getting dark ... had lit the Coleman gas lantern and there was a campfire burning ... and there appeared a racoon out of nowhere, did'nt care about the campfire or ME and came right up to the picnic table where I was cooking. I tried to shoo him away but all he did was hiss at me! He  did'nt back up an inch! He was'nt going anywhere until he got his cut!

I'm kinda used to them, living here and all. One night on the North Branch of the AuSable River I had a coon get into my cooler, it woke me up and I chased it away. In the morning I found where he had torn open a pack of hot dogs. (he bypassed trout and steak, go figure) Not thinking I threw the rest in the woods behind my camper. Later that night I'm stumbling down a path back to my camper with a little goose neck light, I hear what sounds like a lion and a tiger fighting. I snuck into my camper got a bigger flashlight and sneaked up on a coon and bobcat fighting over the old hot dogs. You would not believe the racket these guys made. I have had tons of backpacking close encounters as well with bears, coons, moose, fox, ect right in my camp. On Isle Royale, the moose come into camps with their young to avoid the wolfs, makes for interesting times, and I had a island fox get into my pack, I also actually petted a otter there(not wise)..........Shredder

[ScouterMom]

Felt the camper bump around one night about 2am.


No food but he was just making sure.

What the heck IS that thing, anyway?  we sure don't have THEM in the upper midwest! LOL!

[perterra]

What the heck IS that thing, anyway?  we sure don't have THEM in the upper midwest! LOL!

LOL a javalina.

[Craigtheretired]

Most of my close encounters were during backpacking trips - in Pennsylvania's Kinzua country one late afternoon we came back into camp to find a porcupine decided to have her babies in my sleeping bag.  Made for a cold night.  We have encountered all sorts of critters camping.  Bears, deer, raccoons, skunks, wild turkeys, armadillos, elk, moose, other people's dogs, wolves and tracks of even more critters.  That is one of the reasons we go camping!