what do you do in bear country?

[Addie]

Personal experience is that some animals will go absolutely nuts around a menstruating female. Do not go near pigs that time of the month. Goats, even horses smell the difference and act differently. So yeah bears would be able to smell it. And plainly camping, and other stuff like that while menstruating is a PITA and not very sanitary. The the trash from this can attract all kinds of nasties..

 

[DonC]

Personal experience is that some animals will go absolutely nuts around a menstruating female. Do not go near pigs that time of the month. Goats, even horses smell the difference and act differently. So yeah bears would be able to smell it. And plainly camping, and other stuff like that while menstruating is a PITA and not very sanitary. The the trash from this can attract all kinds of nasties..


talk about thread drift! my question was about leaving food in the camper, not a menstruating female...

gotta love the internet, you learn all kinds of stuff!

 

[ski3pin]

I've never had a camper or RV, and am doing the research for a FWC. One question - if you are in a place like Yosemite where you need to put your food in a bear locker, what do you do with all the food in your fridge? With my current truck/shell combo I always have an ice chest that I can just put in the bear locker. Do you need to carry an empty ice chest just for this purpose, which would not help if you have frozen food in your frig?


DonC, we spent last weekend in a Yosemite Valley campground. Each site has bear lockers. We were instructed to be extremely careful about having any food/scented items or evidence of food items inside the cab of our truck. We were told to remove all food items and put them in our camper. We were given a sheet with the instructions concerning bears/food storage, required to initial it, and place it on so it was visible through our windshield. That exercise is also so any citations issued will be clean and stand up before the magistrate.

 

[MarkBC]

DonC, we spent last weekend in a Yosemite Valley campground. Each site has bear lockers. We were instructed to be extremely careful about having any food/scented items or evidence of food items inside the cab of our truck. We were told to remove all food items and put them in our camper. We were given a sheet with the instructions concerning bears/food storage, required to initial it, and place it on so it was visible through our windshield. That exercise is also so any citations issued will be clean and stand up before the magistrate.

So, this means that a pop-up semi-soft-side camper is "OK" with Yosemite authorities for food storage? That is, they don't consider it as vulnerable as a tent? Makes sense to me, but it's hard to guess what the "official" view would be.
Thanks.

 

[ski3pin]

So, this means that a pop-up semi-soft-side camper is "OK" with Yosemite authorities for food storage? That is, they don't consider it as vulnerable as a tent? Makes sense to me, but it's hard to guess what the "official" view would be.
Thanks.


The fellow was sitting there looking at our unit in broad daylight. There were several other pop-up slide ins in the campground - but no other ATC/FWCs

 

[Hittheroad]

talk about thread drift! my question was about leaving food in the camper, not a menstruating female...

gotta love the internet, you learn all kinds of stuff!


Yes, but this is not off the subject. Food usually creates a non fatal interactions. The really serious problems often involve menstruation. One advantage of not being young.

 

[bike4mee]

Great topic! A few years back I was building a cabin in the Colorado woods. I was using my slide-in pop-up camper mounted on a wooden frame for my living quarters. There had been bears visiting on occasion all at night with no breakins. One saturday I spent the night in town and came home the next day. When I drove up to the site I knew something was amiss. I saw the camper door laying next to it. The camper was still on the frame. I couldn't believe it wasn't off the frame in pieces. As I inspected there was no damage to the inside. It seemed the bear had torn the door off and left. Then I saw on the ground my bear spray. It had a hole in it. I kept it by the door. I guess the bear tore the door off and the first thing it saw as it was heading in for the feast was the spray. It bit it and got a mouth full. Saved!! Bears love soda pop and will bite into cans for the sweet. There is no safe camper from bears if nobody is around

 

[MarkBC]

I guess the bear tore the door off and the first thing it saw as it was heading in for the feast was the spray. It bit it and got a mouth full. Saved!!

Great story -- thanks!