Bear safety?

[JamBandFan]

When you camp in bear county campgrounds there are often bear proof heavy steel containers to put your food.  When you backpack you hang your food from trees.   But boondocking in a van or MH you don't have this.  You sleep where you store your food in a van, and that is what the bear is after your food.   Although a tent when car camping is not hard sided, it almost seems safer in terms of bears, because your food is in your car, and you are sleeping in your tent.  So a bear will try to get in your car to get the food vs. your tent.  What are thoughts on this?   I have tent camped for many years in State/Nat Parks and forests and never had an issue, but I never slept where my food was.

I was reading a post from full time RV blogger who tows a Casita who while boondocking awoke to a bear pounding on her Casita pre dawn!  Not exactly the sound you want to awake to!   Has anyone had any experiences with bears? Bears have been know to break through car windows.  Any thoughts on bear safety while sleeping in the van/MH/trailer where you food is also stored?

 

[John61CT]

They're pretty clever!

 

[cyndi]

There are a number of threads with regards to bears

https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-Sleeping-in-minivan-bear-safety-tips?highlight=Bear+safety

https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-Odor-proof-bags?highlight=Bear+safety

https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-food-safety-in-bear-country?highlight=Bear+safety

 

[JamBandFan]

Thanks I will read these.  But in the mean time can you give me the cliff notes summary?

 

[MrNoodly]

Cliff Notes version: either put all your food, cosmetics and other scented things in bear boxes, or avoid bear country.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Any thoughts on bear safety while sleeping in the van/MH/trailer where you food is also stored?

Make the effort to talk to the rangers in the area (NP, NF, or BLM) you are going to be staying in and take their advice.

They will know how to avoid problems.

 -- Spiff --  55+ years camping in bear country without a problem.

 

[JamBandFan]

I read though the links thanks. I would love to hear from Bob on this since he has spent so much time in his van way out in the mountains and in Alaska.

The thing is when your whole LIFE is in your RV, small trailer, or van....its where you cook, bathe, live...there is going to be no way to get rid of every single scented item, every single evening. And it would be a huge hassle to pack everything up in your van every single night that might have an oder and put it in a bear container or hang it or whatever. My thought is full time RV-ers are just not going to do this.

I grew up in the country and spent a lot of time outdoors (so not exactly a city slicker), but I do admit and I don't really sleep as well in a tent in the wilderness nearly as I do in my bed in my apartment. Even though my odds of a animal trying to get in my tent at night are very, very small. And even though hundreds of thousands of people camp and backpack annually in bear country without incident. And even though native people did this for tens of thousands of years in teepees, etc... when the wildlife populations was many, many times greater than it was today.

So I think at the end of the day, it's just keeping a clean campsite, keep stuff out of sight and just "hoping" the very small odds are in your favor and you don't awake pre-dawn to the sound of a bear paw smashing your vehicle window. RV Sue had this experience, wonder if any other heavy back country boondocking vandwellers have?

Just don't watch the movie Revenant before you go boondocking in bear country!

 

[olddude48]

I lived in Alaska for 45+ years and had more than a few Bear encounters. I always had a gun handy and if yelling at the bear didn't work I would fire a shot in the air and they ran off. Carry a marine air horn and one or two blasts from that should scare them off. Keep food in sealed containers and don't leave garbage outside your RV. For close encounters use bear spray and have a change of underware.

 

[WalkaboutTed]

We often tent camp on Mt.Lemmon in the Coronado National Forest here in southern Arizona, mostly at Spencer Canyon and Rose Canyon Lake.  They just closed Rose Canyon Lake yesterday because of a bear.  The newspaper says that a camper woke up to his trailer shaking and when he looked out the window, he was face to face with a black bear.  The bear was sighted elsewhere in the area, so they closed the campground until the bear is trapped and either relocated or euthanized.

They have bear boxes at every campsite up there. But because the campgrounds are so close to Tucson, many "city folk" don't understand that if a bear gets accustomed to partaking of human food that is left out, they are on much greater danger of attack.

In 2015, Spencer Canyon campground was closed for the remainder of the summer after a mountain lion went after a loaf of bread in a couple's tent. We were the last campers to leave when the campground was closed. We were planning on staying as we practice good camping hygiene, but we had no choice but to leave.

We humans are the cause of bear (and other predator) problems.
Ted

 

[rvpopeye]

There are break ins and careless neighbors with ciggy butts to worry about in an apartment. Every place has risks.

Don't worry , be happy.

If you can't stop the bear thoughts just don't go there . Plenty of campsites elsewhere.

 

[Marie]

In response to the "food in car, sleep in the tent" comment above, I wouldn't like to be sleeping in the tent and have a bear hanging around my only means of escape.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I lived in Alaska for 45+ years and had more than a few Bear encounters. I always had a gun handy and if yelling at the bear didn't work I would fire a shot in the air and they ran off. Carry a marine air horn and one or two blasts from that should scare them off. Keep food in sealed containers and don't leave garbage outside your RV. For close encounters use bear spray and have a change of underware.

This may be acceptable in the middle of North Nowhere, AK; but shooting in the air in most places is just a really bad idea, unless you are talking about birdshot, and if you were worried about bears, birdshot is the LAST thing you want your shotgun loaded with.

http://forensicoutreach.com/library/the-falling-bullet-myths-legends-and-terminal-velocity/

 

[James AKA Lynx]

Always talk to the rangers before heading into forest. Always.
The most danger is not from bears but from humans.
Do not shoot in campgrounds.

 

[LMTLMT]

You can take all the steps and precautions but if a bear wants to investigate, it'll investigate. If you are out in bear country/territory, I suggest get some protection. If you choose to carry a gun, make sure the gun and ammo are suitable to stop a bear. In another words, your 9mm for home protection will not work on a bear. .44 and higher.

Also, a charging bear will probably give you just a few seconds to react so practice your draw and shot in your free time.

 

[lenny flank]

Fewer than 20 people a year are killed by bears in the US, despite the tens of thousands of people who crawl all over bear country every summer.

You have a better chance of becoming a millionaire by winning the lottery.

Sensible precautions and simple safety rules are of course a good idea, but there's no point in peeing one's pants in panic.

 

[Putts]

There's a saying up here where I live in Western Montana: For every 100 bears that see you, you'll only see one. For every 100 bears you see, they'll all just run away but one. For every 100 bears that don't run away, only one will charge. For every 100 bears that charge, only one will attack.

I've only had one bear encounter. It was about 7:30 AM on a crisp Montana spring morning. I was walking along a dirt road. I came to a clearing and a fairly large Cinnamon bear (a black bear with a light colored coat) stood up in the clearing about 30 yards for me and growled. She had a cub with her. Not a good situation. I knew if I turned and ran she would come after me. So....without really thinking about it...I started to sing "Happy Birthday to You" and slowly backed away. She looked at me for a few moments and the took off into the woods with her cub.

I went home to change my underwear.

 

[Cammalu]

Putts! Happy birthday to you???? Bwahahaha


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[John61CT]

Works with muggers too, just show them you're more whacked out than they are. . .

 

[Putts]

Hey, it was the only song I could think of in the moment.

 

[Putts]

This is probably an old wives tale, but I've known quite a few tent campers up here that pee around their tent to keep the bears away.