nosaint3
Sioux Falls,SD
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I slowly passed a little black bear in Shenandoah NP this summer, and if eyes could talk, I'd swear he said "Don't bother me boy" as he kept on walking down the road. Kinda like the buffalo at Yellowstone. Gotta love them.
nosaint3
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Deus Ex Machina
Central New Jersey
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I camp where there is a high black bear population. I practice basic campsite cleanliness and have never had an issue with my HTT.
However, I did have a bear stroll right through the middle of my campsite one while I was sitting in my chair. It just gave me a disinterested look and went on it's way.
Paul
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Steveo35
Ohio
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"......while I was sitting in my chair."
I bet the pucker factor was a little high then!
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LEMII
Jonesborough, TN
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Personally, I carry a large calibre handgun whenever and wherever I camp...I hope to never have to use it.
We've not had any bear issues in and round the Appalachian mountains of east TN and west NC; had some coons last weekend, but they went after the campground trash cans; made a lot of noise, but not much mess, at least around our site.
Once when tent camping long ago, we had a couple of skunks that decided to checkout our campsite. We watched from the van and allowed them to take their time...some animals you don't really want to scare!
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eightballsidepocket
San Jose, California, USA
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We no longer us a pop-up and now camp with a TT, but when we did have our Jayco 1406 pop-up, we made a point of never, never using it at major National Parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone etc.... Those are the parks where the bears are too, too friendly or unafraid of humans.
The average black bear in Yosemite will literally tear the metal doors off of a vehicle to get inside. It used to be that the Yosemite black bears strictly wrecked/raided vehicles based on smelling food in the cars, but their habits changed in the last 20 years. Now these Yosemite Black bears will tear open a car based on sight alone. I.E. Sight Alone: Meaning if they see an object of any kind while looking through your windows, they will do any and everything a bear can, to get at that object.
Trunks aren't safe for food items or even the P.U. truck shells, or fiber glass bed covers. You have to put all your foods and noticeable objects in bear proof lockers at your camping sites in Yosemite.
The problem has even extended to the high country of Yosemite; namely the back packer trails such as the John Muir and it's subsidiary trails.
Back when I back packed in the Sierra in the 60-70's, we carried dehydrated food and just needed to suspend a food carrying backpack on a rope that was pulled over a high stout branch of a fir tree.
Now back packers can't even use that method with the back country bears of Yosemite Park. The bears will chew the support ropes, or they even will climb the tree, shake the limb with the support rope, and I heard from a ranger that one one observed occassion a bear literally climbed onto an overhanging branch above the food pack and jumped like Tarzan vertically down and grabbed the backpack on the way down.......tearing the backpack loose.
*****
No.....Me and the wife.....made a decision years ago......our Popup would only be used in the parts of the Sierra, that wasn't National Park areas where the bears have lost their fear of humans.
Surprisingly, the National Forest Campgrounds are usually safe for your tents or popups as the Black Bears in those regions still only do campground raids when humans aren't nearby. Usually their mode of operation is at night.
We camped for years in "bear country" in the National Forests of the California Sierra where the camping population is less dense, and not carnival-like and crowded as in Yosemite, Sequoia, Big Sur National Parks.
We had bears try to raid the main garbage dumpsters and sometimes they'd nose around your campsite at night when you went to bed, but you didn't have to worry about your canvas tent or popup being shredded or your TV being vandalized. We would lock up our coolers with foods and dry foods in the back of the Van or P.U. TV, and the bears never touched them.
That's my advise. If you want to take your popup to a National Park, don't leave it unattended for long, or just rent a cabin at the park and not take a chance.
I've seen some pretty gruesome pictures of destroyed vans, and cars, in Yosemite where black bears just pealed the door window frames downward like they were opening up a can of sardines.
Often the damage happened because the bear just saw a box of Kleenex on the car seat, and curiosity motivated the destructive behavior.
Remember too, that when a black bear is in the process of doing this, he/she basically has laid claim to your car, Popup, cooler, food on your camp table etc... Anything that the bear is working on or is in it's possession instinctively is it's property. Don't try to wrestle it away from them.
******
Regards, Eightballsidepocket
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TheMcCullahs
Arkansas
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Folks, we have camped in a tent and in a popup at Yellowstone without any problems whatsoever.
Sheri and Mick McCullah
Russellville AR
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Chicken McNugget
Colorado
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I have been camping for 20+ years in bear country and have never had a close encounter of the furry kind. This includes numerous nights backpacking in the wilderness areas of CO, WY, CA, WA and MT in a tent, car camping in a tent, in a pop up and now with our hybrid. When in bear country keep your campsite clean and use some common sense and you will not have any problems.
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Steveo35
Ohio
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...I heard from a ranger that one one observed occassion a bear literally climbed onto an overhanging branch above the food pack and jumped.....
LOL, this happened to me in 1980 when I was taking a group of church kids (heck, I was only 20 then) on a backpacking trip in the GSMNP. We were camping in a primitive , backcounty campsite on the SE side of the park near Cabin Flats that had 2 wires strung about 25' off the ground between 3 trees . You used another locking cable pully system to suspend your gear from that.
About dusk, the bear shows up (they always do then). It wanders around the perimeter of our camp checking things out and I'm trying to keep about 12 JHS age boys from throwing everything in sight at the bear. One of the kids even had M80's he had brought along. Anyway, the bear climbs one of the trees, get it's front two paws out on the wire and jumps to make the wire bounce, trying to shake the gear down. All this while enduring a hail of rocks and sticks from the kids. One of the kids hit the bear square in the face with a rock the size of a grapefruit, I figgured we were all gonna be bear poo. (He later was in my wedding).
Eventually the bear leaves, we go to sleep onder a big 30' x 15' tarp. Being on the end, I got to see the bear return, partol through camp again close enough for us to reach out and touch. All he got for his effort was a tube of toothpaste.
Later that week I got "kissed" by a bear at our second campsite, and witnessed a bear climb a bare 4" diameter 12" tall pole to get at some other campers food. Both those stories are for another time.
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sapoc
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
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At the risk of offending a few, this Grizzly Bear warning sign appears to be suitable for the topic at hand. http://www.outdooroddities.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/grizzly_bear_warning_sign.jpg
* This post was
edited 11/04/09 10:22am by sapoc *
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shum02
Burlington ON CDA
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sapoc wrote:At the risk of offending a few, this Grizzly Bear warning sign appears to be suitable for the topic at hand. http://www.outdooroddities.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/grizzly_bear_warning_sign.jpg
No it's not. Grizzly and Black bears are worlds apart in behavour, size, agression etc. Not even on topic.
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