Posted on 10/04/2021 1:46:11 PM PDT by OldCorps
All, there were no antibear food storage devices. However when I hiked the Appalachian trail, we did hang our food from the cables provided at the shelters.
I’ve got black bear outside my home weekly ex ept late November through April. Closest was about 20’ from the front door. Even the sows with cubs will take off when I walk out and holler which is seldom because we’ll sit on the deck and watch them.
Only one time, a boar with mange was a problem. 4 shots in the air with a 12gauge and nothing. Finally I got about 50’ from him and nailed him in the ass with bird shot. That got him running but I caught him on a trail cam a few days later.
Feral hogs are my main concern. We never walk in the woods or walk down to the mail box without a minimum 9mm or 45.
Wouldn’t trade it for the world. The wildlife is far preferable to humans!
Have yet to see a black bear on our farm but neighbor saw a mountain lion walk across my wife’s horse riding and plop under a tree.
During very hot days my wife puts the horses our at night and brings them in the morning. She now carrie when doing so.
It's them moving into ours. There are fewer farms, since they specialized and moved to the Midwest to get big. The farmers used to shoot everything, especially predators.
What are pastures, sheep pens, chicken houses? To predators, a farm is just a big, warm fridge full of goodies.
That's why the farmers kept the trees cut down to create open spaces for grazing, and so they could see the enemy approach. Habitat for wild critters boomed when the farms moved West in the 1950s and '60s. We got nothing but trees now. All the animals are back, even where they haven't been seen in a century: Deer, moose, bear, bald eagles, some wolves, coyotes (which are actually new here), and even a mountain lion or two. All have been sighted within 50 miles of Midtown Manhattan--and bears are absolutely everywhere. This was unheard-of when I was a kid here a half-century ago. The bears? Unheard of 20 years ago.
You notice the new subdivision houses. But most people don't notice that there are millions more trees and acres of wildlife habitat than there have been since the mid-19th century.
Interesting perspective. Hadnt considered it from the farmers view point.
I apologize for your negative experience, but assure you not all of us treat campers like that.
The bear ate the following from my cooler (in addition to the box of Hershey bars): 1/2 lb of uncooked bacon, 1/3 lb of a mix of turkey and ham lunch meat, swiss cheese slices and a half eaten sub sandwich.
—
That bear had a feast!
You stored the food all wrong. The top bacon should have been infused with some Carolina Reaper powder. After a taste of that the bear would have been long gone.
“The Elks on the other hand live up in the hills and in the spring they come down for their annual convention. It is very interesting to watch them come to the water hole. And you should see them run when they find that it’s only a water hole. What they’re looking for is an Elk-a-hole.”
~Groucho Marx, Animal Crackers
In late 1960 we were in Kings Canyon CA in a camper. I was a kid. Some idiots at the campground area left food out and 2 bears showed up. My parents actually woke us up to look at them. Park Rangers drew them away.
Last time my wife and I rented a cabin in Gatlinburg TN a small black bear walked onto the porch, sniffed around and walked off. It was always trying to get into the garbage bins in the area. Which is why the were in boxes with locks.
Funny thing was the cabin was named Baby Black Bear. We got as advertised. LOL
Or fruit rinds.
I don’t know you and your FR history, but having a cooler by your tent in bear country is an absolute disaster waiting to happen.
“ So I asked her to sing.
There is something seriously wrong with my subconscious.”
Since all you asked her to do was sing, I must agree that there is something seriously wrong with your subconscious!
Summer of 1972 in Baxter State Park in Maine.
GF and I were returning to our tent campsite after a run for vittles which included fresh out of the oven oatmeal raisin cookies...it was about the time the bears came to the park dump after rangers had put out fresh garbage...a real popular attraction, could have been a dozen or so vehicles to watch. We stayed in the Toyota Corona SW as did everyone else.
That time a black bear sow and her 3 cubs were scrounging around when one took a tumble downhill...mama bear jetted to recover the errant cub and continue sniffing and pawing away. A bit a male came onto the scene from the single road from behind us.
Goofy looking due the half finished fur rub which left a large fuzz ball around his hips, funny freaky looking tutu. He approached too close to mama and the cubs and snarling, with bared teeth she was on him. She was fast, very fast and drove him off towards the column of parked cars, right past us.
Well the critters all calmed down but for the male. He was sort of pacing back and forth waiting for his turn. My NYC raised GF had never been camping before...woman had a lot to learn and she was about to receive her first big lesson.
Told you about the fresh hot fragrant oatmeal raisin cookies...they were safely in a paper bag tucked under her seat when Ms PhD candidate decide she would feed the hapless male who by now was pacing alongside my door with my window cracked about 2” or so.
She rummaged in the bag, filling the car with the wonderful fragrance of those cookies and tossed one over the roof to my side. Yogi was on it like Jellystone pic-a-nic basket.
Yogi thought it was the bomb and reared up looking to roof for more manna from bear heaven to rain down upon him.
Did I forget to mention that he hooked his claws onto the edge of my somewhat opened window to brace himself. Well the bear gods weren't sending more oatmeal raisin manna just then. Yogi, no fool caught the aroma of the cookies and knew where the cookies were stashed.
This bear was in the 200-230 lb range, most of which he was applying to pull the window down to get to the baked goods.
The wagon had roll up windows and I was holding the crank down with everything I had, being incentivised in my efforts by the big claws a few inches from my face, all the while shouting to my soon to be ex-GF to toss the bag over the roof to the front of the car. All the while praying that the window rack gear held up.
In my haste I must have shouted something grammatically incorrect which caused the English teacher to pause, a very brief pause but one that gave Yogi enough time to bring his snout to the game...bad breath.
Thank the Lord for those fresh cookies. Yogi took off chasing the paper bag...but mama bear was faster than lightning, gave him a shot and took off with the cookies.
Fun time was had by all...i left the greasy paw print on the window for the rest of the trip.
You were warned. What the hell were you thinking, leaving food just out there for the taking, creating a nuisance bear that will be a problem for others and eventually have to be put down? A fed bear is a dead bear. This one’s blood is on you. How long did you say you’ve been camping? And where? Disney World? Sheesh.
If you miss the bear, you could be shooting into a tent, or some poor soul coming back from the lava. Shooting in a campground is best avoided.
When I was about 7 years old we drove into a camp sight that was completely overrun with black bears. We were on the Tennessee side of the Smoky Mountains. Every campaight had one or more bears. We saw one sitting at a picnic table feasting on the spread the family had prepared. One tore down a tent. We saw a woman hitting a metal pan with a ladle shouting “Shoo beah!!” And the bears were ignoring her. We even saw a bear in a car looking for food.
“She was sitting at the end of my bed without a stitch of clothing and she looked good.”
Sounds like a Succubus.
Camping on the backside of Half Dome 40 years ago me and two others had our bear bag hanging 25’ off the ground with the line thrown over a large Ponderosa Pine and tied off to the trunk.
Around dark two cubs ran right through the camp to the tree which mama bear was already climbing. She walked out on the large limb and pawed at the line.
We tossed a very large pile of dried brush on the fire to get it raging then bombarded mama with firewood. Bear up, cubs down and a rainfall of wood. She scampered down and reared up on hind legs and gave a nice roar while we pelted her some more.
She and cubs left and we moved the bag to a set of cables we didn’t know were in the campground.
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