That is scary-I really hope the bear stays away-
Once when the cub was about 10, we were camping in the mountains in New Mexico-we had taken our little travel trailer instead of sleeping in a tent, because of so many bears in that forest. We’d unhooked the trailer, set up camp and were getting ready to turn in when my husband asked the cub if she was sure she hadn’t left so much as a crumb of food in the Suburban, and she said she had not. In the wee hours, we were awakened by a commotion outside, and the cub whispering “mommy, daddy-a bear!”
Turns out she had left a half-empty package of Oreo cookies in an ice chest in the back of the Suburban, thinking since it was a closed container, no bear would smell cookies-wrong- as we watched at the window, a big black bear crawled into the open back window after bending the tailgate, squashed the ice chest into pieces growling the whole time, ate the cookies then tore up the carpet and upholstery looking for more before rambling off into the woods-well over $1200 damage to the vehicle. Needless to say, we checked the vehicle for food ourselves when camping in bear country, no matter what the cub said...
What’s really scary is being 3000 miles away when this happens. Wife calls with a bear at the window, not panicked but obviously very scared. told her to get the shotgun and call . I tried to call 911. Try calling 911 when you are out of area. They, the 911 operators, do not know what to do either.
Good thing your cub didn’t lie and take the cookies to bed. Black bears are about 350 lbs. of muscle. Browns are about 1,00 to 1,500. Keep the gun loaded.
We used to camp in Cloudcroft NM quite a bit. Saw a couple bears, but never had any trouble. After we moved out of the area, we took a camping trip there. When we got to the campground in what should have been the busy season, we were the only people there. When we asked the caretaker why, he said a black bear killed a camper in his tent the previous week. We stayed and had a good time until we got rained out.
There are more people killed by lightning than bears, and even more killed by deer. Carrying a decent gun is always a good idea. Bears get acclimated to people pretty quickly, and proximity to food and trash only increases the danger. By the end of summer most bears are pretty docile.
Back in the day some friends and I drove off a bear going after our hanging food bag by throwing logs from the wood pile at it and tossing a pile of brush on the fire to get it blazing.