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CAMPING RULE- NEVER keep food in your tent.

5K views 26 replies 20 participants last post by  OldCorps 
#1 ·
 
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#23 ·
I think they are really called bearitos. :D:

As for food in the tent. When a bear bites through the tent and grabs you, he's not there for the food in your pack that you have in the tent. He knows exactly what he's biting into. He's not there for your toothpaste or coffee. If he was, he would grab that first and you might have a chance to leave.

When a pine needle falls in the forest, the eagle sees it, the deer hear it and the bear smells it.

At a mile a bear knows what you ate for dinner, at half a mile what you had for lunch and at a quarter mile what you ate for breakfast.
 
#4 ·
When I visited Banff in Alberta the rule was don't even cook in your campsite. Unlike in the states they let you know you are entering the bears territory when entering the park we were required to watch a video about the bears before camping their. We did have bears walk through our campsite within ten feet of our tent. We ate our meals on the campground cookhouse.
 
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#6 ·
Food in the tent is a bad idea even where their are no bears. You don't want to wake up with a racoon, opossum or a skunk in your tent. You don't want to be caught like the bunch of girls I saw in a campground once running half naked from the skunk in their tent.
 
#7 ·
Any chance their pheromones were stimulating to the skunk?
 
#9 ·
LOL. One night in the Smokies, I had a rather humongous black bear sit on me while I was already inside of my sleeping bag (and inside of a little two hoop, 2-person, Early Winters single-walled Goretex tent). He just snuffled up to the tent, leaned in, and planted about half his weight on me through the tent fabric. Nothing between me and the bear but a few layers of nylon fabric and compressed goose down.

I had a little stainless 5-shot Smith Model 60 (.38 Special) inside of the bag with me. I froze in place and held my breath for an hour or three. I considered using the gun on the bear (and thought better of it), then thought about using it on myself if he started to devour me (and thought better of it). Eventually the adrenaline and sleepiness got to be too much. I crashed hard and woke up hours later, little peashooter still clutched in my hand. Bear was long gone.

Turns out some previous camper had buried shelled peanuts under my National Park camp ground tent pad. The bear was busy rooting through that dirt looking for peanuts. He just used me as a butt pad.

I could feel his pulse as he used the tent sidewall for a recliner. I don't think a long gun would have been maneuverable enough to have made a difference. It's hilarious remembering the event today, but at the time, it weren't so funny...

I became a life long fan of .41 Remington Magnum revolvers at about that time. ;)
 
#10 ·
It's hilarious remembering the event today, but at the time, it weren't so funny...
I'm sure at the moment, a little disconcerting, but that is quite funny. We've been up and down the AT from GA to VA and have run into several bears with zero issues. While it's common sense about no food in the tent or a hammock (think bear burrito), many forget to clean up after cooking, hanging their food, and making sure you pack doesn't have any snack wrappers in the hip pockets.

Bears are lazy, but they're not stupid. Given them an easy meal, and they'll shred your tent and pack to root it out. I ran into a group of three ladies who had their food pilfered by a bear just across the GA/NC border. I didn't ask how or if they hung their food, but I take my bear hangs serious and double check to make sure no food/wrappers in my pack and wipe all the peanut butter off my toes before climbing in my bear burrito:D:

ROCK6
 
#11 ·
I did a lot of camping in bear country over years. There are several rules that may help spare you an "up close and personal" meeting with a bear.

I know of two attacks on campers. Both lived but one will never have hair on his head again. The bear scalped him. YES: Ripped his scalp off! :)-( Both had food in their tents. It was years apart and in a different area miles away.

Don't cook or eat anywhere near or in your tent.

Never put food in your tent.

Don't sleep in the clothes you ate meals in. Do change into clean clothes before going to bed clean. Clean yourself first also.
I cannot stress this enough: Don't eat in your campsite EVER.

Bear bag your food and "smellables".
SMELLABLES: toothpaste and brush; suntan lotions; soap and shampoo; deodorants; camera film: for some reason bears like camera film. Yes, some people still use cameras and film to record their big adventures; don't put your pack in the tent because it has or had your food in it. ***Bears have a sense of smell of food from miles away***; first aid supplies; prescription drugs; dirty clothes; your trash and the list continues......

Just because you cannot smell it doesn't mean a bear cannot smell it. Refer to: *** above.

Look up BEAR BAGGING on the net.
 
#14 ·
There are a few other considerations I take into account when hiking in grizzly bear country here in Wyoming.

I stay out of the drainage's the cutthroat trout are spawning in as they are a preferred bear food.

I stay away from the bigger huckleberry patches as those are a preferred bear food.

I avoid the white bark pine forests as those pine nuts are a preferred bear food.

Really? A lot of folks believe bears are just a big mindless predator looking for something to kill.
Bears are actually very intelligent. An adult bear has a territory they consider "theirs".
They know every square inch of it and they will know you are there too.

I carry a large caliber sidearm like my G40 or Super Blackhawk.
 
#15 ·
ALL the food I carry when I am backpacking is left in the original wrap then placed inside another seal-able plastic bag and then ALL food is placed inside another bigger plastic bag that is also sealed and kept that way until used. Even trail snacks are double bagged into the pack.

Then when I take it out to consume it I consume all of whatever it is, no leftovers, then the wrap goes into the big plastic bag. IF I am using my little cook pot, after washing, it and the food bag go back into the pack after the tent is set up and I have everything I want from the pack then the whole pack goes up into a tree about 20-30 yds from the tent about 15 feet into the air.

I have never had a bear problem when following that procedure.
 
#17 ·
Once on a hike around a high Mtn lake ran into a backpackers little camp. Next to his tent was a sleeping bag hanging up, with multiple baseball sized holes running down the center of the bag.

I asked him. What's up with that?

He said, he had a couple candy bars in it, forgot about them & rolled his bag up with them in it, then went fishing. When he returned, he discovered some small critter had gnawed into the bag, ate the candy bars, which perforated his sleeping bag.
 
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#19 ·
I prospect for placer gold deposits. Many of those old gold rush & depression era gold miners planted APPLE TREES around their cabin or camp sites, that are still producing apples today.

Productive apple trees are BEAR MAGNETS.

Wise NOT to camp in close proximity to producing apple trees.





Unless you want to end up in a bear poop pile like this?

 
#20 ·
Armor all on your car will attract bear as well, Years ago when vinyl tops were the thing ,bear were ripping the tops off cars all the time, as well as motorcycle seats and tires , any thing with a smelll=food.
It is best Not to have any scent on you while in the woods.
I was wearing doe in heat scent while hunting pig and a mountain loin dropped on the trail 4-5 feet in front of me, it was a mexican stand off. I could have shot him point blank, but at the time they were protected and he was not actually posing a threat, though he was facing me.
He turned and left and I was fine with that .
All strong sents attract animals, the possibility of food is alway of interest.
avoid colognes and scented deodorants .
The body emits pheromones when radical changes occur , that chill you get when suddenly surprised or something lethal is on the approach.
Animals depend on both the smells of fear and body language.
It is not bad to be afraid, but it is bad to show it.
The wide eyed deer in headlights expanding preifereal vision is the first mistake ,natural but a mistake never the less.
Narrowing the eyes like a cat does hunting, this is confidence .
Secondly , if the confrontation may lead to a fight fight the dirtiest you can with all your might . the predator's intention is to kill you. not make nice. This is what I much prefer a fighting knife over a little table knife most carry.
A mountain lion or bear kill with no less than 20 knives claws and teeth.and you got?
 
#21 ·
Heard of bears eating axle grease, or ATV seats. Knew a guy that was attacked 5 times IIRC. They figured that his aftershave combined with his natural pheromones simulated a bear pheromone. There is a cologne or eu du toilette (a Calvin Klein fragrance, I believe) that contains "civet". Not sure what aspect or what gland, but it's theorized that it may attract cats, or other predators being that you are wearing "cat".
 
#22 ·
Going on a long multi day hike, I've double bagged stuff similar to NW Guy. But I know I've smelled like food while hiking. Sometimes you might not be in a spot where you could suspend things, or sometimes not adequately. Your typical camp ground which is more like a social club at the lake, rather than an outdoors experience, will have bears all around it, and though it. Some people even end up feeding the things.

Looks like the coolers were and food sources were outside the tents in those pictures, and looked like camping from a vehicle in at least one picture. I'd just keep the food in the cab.

I'm not going to dissuade anyone from keeping a clean camp, but I also think that it's a crap shoot. You might do everything right and still run into a problem bear, and maybe he doesn't even care so much about your food suspended or in a bear proof container. Some of my habits and many hunters in the area tend to encourage bear encounters. Hunting ungulates and having gut piles, scraps of upland birds, baiting bears on purpose where it's allowed. Picking berries, and tapping trees also put you at a certain higher risk. I'm not about to stop hunting or look for worse spots to pick berries.

I think it's all a lot more dependent on the bear. If the bears been habituated, or has gotten a food reward from human interaction or dwellings, then you're likely to have more problems. Honestly, most of the time, I'm not going to stress whether the bear can smell something. I'm not likely to walk to have a separate cook fire far away from my camp. Probably not going to fool the bear, they can likely smell a drop of grease that landed on my boot, (or the dubbin!), or the sugar or maple syrup in my coffee when I open a thermos or sip it by the fire.

I depend on a good knife, good gun, and probably more on the bear not being bad news (get it?? bad news bears!).
 
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