Corey
OverCamping Specialist
That would have been priceless if it was caught on video.
Did the elk run off after your woke up?
Bear safety in RTT's and soft sided campers/tents
- Thread starter upcruiser
- Start date
Did the elk run off after your woke up?
Fireman78
Expedition Leader
After I woke up screaming bloody murder. and thrashing about. You betcha!!!
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calicamper
Expedition Leader
Mmmm human salt lick a rare novelty. I bet that Elk was bragging up a storm back at the herd
grogie
Like to Camp
That is an awesome camping story! Whatever are the odds... lol?!
One time while camping in complete isolation, my wife got up in the middle of the night. When she came back to the tent, she told me, "Something is out there." "Okay," I said. "Now go back to sleep." It never occured to me that it could have just been a face licking elk?! I was thinking Bigfoot? Haha!!
Unless you're in a sleeping bag. Then to a bear you're just a soft taco.
scott7022
Nobody
I have tossed the idea of a RTT because the level of rain we get on the Wet Coast of BC. Not because of the Grizzles we have. If it wants in, it is getting into ANY production camper made.
99% of the time you have a shower in the morning without incident. 1% of the time you slip, brain yourself with the tap and your wife finds you blue and wrinkled.
Now we all try to avoid adding to the 1% by taking precautions but when was the last time you thought about it? Never! It is only when you step into the tub do you realize whoever cleaned it used a product that makes the basin as slippery as wet waxed cardboard and lube. Same goes for bear camping.
Be clean, and by clean I mean eat in one set of cloths and change to sleep in a different set, with the first set not in your tent.
It hasn't been said, and it may be indelicate. Ladies should be aware of cycles and if it is a good idea to be in a fabric enclosure.
Bears scare people. Scared people try to overcome their fear by using their best weapon, the brain. The plan of what I am going to do to Mr or Mrs Horriblis, provides us with a very false sense of security and allows us to be calm. Secure in the knowledge I can now protect myself. Like airport screening procedures. But like Tyson said "A plan is only good till you get punched in the face."
The reality of camping with the most dangerous animal in North America is just like the tub. 99% of the time he will see you long before you know he is around and he will leave. RTT work in Africa because the wildlife have become so accustomed to vehicles they kind of ignore them. Open 120 with seats for game drive viewing deters a lion why? Not so in North America. Vehicle is hunter=BAD Vehicle is food=GOOD Depends on the bears state of being. Starving, injured, protecting young,= YOU GONNA HAVE A BAD DAY.
Camping with a buddy in Tweedsmuir National Park. We have an argument about tent placement as it is raining and miserable, and he goes to his camp and I go to mine. I pitched my tent near some scrub pine and in the shadow of larger trees. He argued the potential for water accumulation was to great and went to higher ground. We were not happy campers. Early night for all.
Something moves my tent and I wake up. I immediately think it is my buddy screwing with me, grab my three cell Mag light. (before the days of expedition weight thinking)
I plan to blind him, as it is a moonless night and pitch black out.
He moves around my tent. Slowly making little noises. A cup falls, twig snap, huffing sounds. I think he is doing a good job.
10 minutes later I think I might have a problem.
"KEEIITTH!!! Are you messing (I used a different word) with me. I swear I will stab your stupid ***."
I hear movement away from the tent and then Keith. "****** I am sleeping. Are you flooding like I told you?" His voice is too far away.
BEAR!! Goes through my head, and I yell it. I have a plan, calming down slightly, (pre bear spray days) I have this big knife and my flashlight.
"I am coming." I hear Keith yell. Gripping both my knife and flashlight, and attempting to open the tents zipper was impossible so I slipped the knife into the mesh fly at the top and ran it like a zipper to the bottom and flipped on my light.
Black nose!
Big brown head with silver white eyes!!
For some stupid reason my hand was moving, bringing the flashlight off my shoulder in a arc. An arc that ended on that BIG BLACK NOSE!
SPULOTCH!!!
I was running, in my underwear, and I no longer had my flashlight or my knife. It was dark, except for a beacon of white light that was moving in sweeping arcs to my left.
TREE!!
I slammed face first into my savior and like a twerking beaver on methamphetamine I dry humped my way up that tree.
Keith entered my campsite and swung the light around. "What the hell are you doing?" He said, as his light reached me.
I was about 15 feet up a young pine, it's diameter a little larger than a flag pole. Swaying and sprinkling blood from my ravaged thighs, I couldn't answer anything past bear.
Keith looked around, found my flashlight, knife, and the tracks of a very large brown bear. He hadn't seen it leave and, when I joined him on the ground, we only found prints to the creek.
The take away is most of the time you'll be just fine.
Your plans are a copping mechanism.
You will likely be surprised so your PLAN should be safe enough that if you screw up everyone survives YOU and just ends up tasting like Juan's Taco Truck.
99% of the time you have a shower in the morning without incident. 1% of the time you slip, brain yourself with the tap and your wife finds you blue and wrinkled.
Now we all try to avoid adding to the 1% by taking precautions but when was the last time you thought about it? Never! It is only when you step into the tub do you realize whoever cleaned it used a product that makes the basin as slippery as wet waxed cardboard and lube. Same goes for bear camping.
Be clean, and by clean I mean eat in one set of cloths and change to sleep in a different set, with the first set not in your tent.
It hasn't been said, and it may be indelicate. Ladies should be aware of cycles and if it is a good idea to be in a fabric enclosure.
Bears scare people. Scared people try to overcome their fear by using their best weapon, the brain. The plan of what I am going to do to Mr or Mrs Horriblis, provides us with a very false sense of security and allows us to be calm. Secure in the knowledge I can now protect myself. Like airport screening procedures. But like Tyson said "A plan is only good till you get punched in the face."
The reality of camping with the most dangerous animal in North America is just like the tub. 99% of the time he will see you long before you know he is around and he will leave. RTT work in Africa because the wildlife have become so accustomed to vehicles they kind of ignore them. Open 120 with seats for game drive viewing deters a lion why? Not so in North America. Vehicle is hunter=BAD Vehicle is food=GOOD Depends on the bears state of being. Starving, injured, protecting young,= YOU GONNA HAVE A BAD DAY.
Camping with a buddy in Tweedsmuir National Park. We have an argument about tent placement as it is raining and miserable, and he goes to his camp and I go to mine. I pitched my tent near some scrub pine and in the shadow of larger trees. He argued the potential for water accumulation was to great and went to higher ground. We were not happy campers. Early night for all.
Something moves my tent and I wake up. I immediately think it is my buddy screwing with me, grab my three cell Mag light. (before the days of expedition weight thinking)
I plan to blind him, as it is a moonless night and pitch black out.
He moves around my tent. Slowly making little noises. A cup falls, twig snap, huffing sounds. I think he is doing a good job.
10 minutes later I think I might have a problem.
"KEEIITTH!!! Are you messing (I used a different word) with me. I swear I will stab your stupid ***."
I hear movement away from the tent and then Keith. "****** I am sleeping. Are you flooding like I told you?" His voice is too far away.
BEAR!! Goes through my head, and I yell it. I have a plan, calming down slightly, (pre bear spray days) I have this big knife and my flashlight.
"I am coming." I hear Keith yell. Gripping both my knife and flashlight, and attempting to open the tents zipper was impossible so I slipped the knife into the mesh fly at the top and ran it like a zipper to the bottom and flipped on my light.
Black nose!
Big brown head with silver white eyes!!
For some stupid reason my hand was moving, bringing the flashlight off my shoulder in a arc. An arc that ended on that BIG BLACK NOSE!
SPULOTCH!!!
I was running, in my underwear, and I no longer had my flashlight or my knife. It was dark, except for a beacon of white light that was moving in sweeping arcs to my left.
TREE!!
I slammed face first into my savior and like a twerking beaver on methamphetamine I dry humped my way up that tree.
Keith entered my campsite and swung the light around. "What the hell are you doing?" He said, as his light reached me.
I was about 15 feet up a young pine, it's diameter a little larger than a flag pole. Swaying and sprinkling blood from my ravaged thighs, I couldn't answer anything past bear.
Keith looked around, found my flashlight, knife, and the tracks of a very large brown bear. He hadn't seen it leave and, when I joined him on the ground, we only found prints to the creek.
The take away is most of the time you'll be just fine.
Your plans are a copping mechanism.
You will likely be surprised so your PLAN should be safe enough that if you screw up everyone survives YOU and just ends up tasting like Juan's Taco Truck.
Peneumbra2
Badger Wrangler
You want to keep bears away?
Play Barry Manilow records all night.
That'll keep everyone away...
Play Barry Manilow records all night.
That'll keep everyone away...
I still don't see how an RTT offers protection from large animals? What would stop a bear/lion/jaguar to just climb on the hood then on the roof to get to the RTT?..
java
Expedition Leader
It really doesn't.... It kinda keep you out of sight unless you smell nice and tasty
scott7022
Nobody
As I said in my post. Developed in Africa to keep you off the ground and away from scorpions and the like people found that because the animals had been habituated to vehicles they pretty much ignored them. Game drives are conducted in open 110's and 120's, passengers open to the environment, no roof or the like. Usually never a problem. This is not the case in North America.