camp cooking in bear country

[maki2]

Just a reminder for the newbies who are not used to Van, RV or car camping in bear country. There will be a temptation to set up your portable stove on a table right next to your vehicle. Don't do that. Instead set up your cooking and dish washing site well away from where you are parking and sleeping. This is even more critical if you are sleeping in a tent. But even with a vehicle who wants to have a bear trying to get inside of it?

The practice of cooking and eating away from the vehicle whenever possible will also reduce incidences of mice and ants. 

If you are on the road stop, cook and eat and cleanup close to your van and then drive away to a different spot for sleeping but not adjacent to a picnic table where someone else has left their food crumbs and smells.  A campsite in bear county that has a picnic table adjacent to the parking space is not a great camp site for sleeping next to.  Choose the ones where the picnic table is further away down a path from the parking area. I see videos on youtube where the poster of the video is complaining about the distance to the table and fire pit never realizing that situation is actually a terrific setup. Those are the prime spots, grab one if you find it realizing how smart you are to recognize great campsite designing.

 

[highdesertranger]

obviously you missed my post in the YARC thread. LOL highdesertranger

 

[gwave]

This is something I've been meaning to ask! When you're at a campground with bear boxes, or in an area where campgrounds provide them, do you move all your food out of the van into the boxes?

 

[Qxxx]

When you're at a campground with bear boxes, or in an area where campgrounds provide them, do you move all your food out of the van into the boxes?

It actually depends on where you are at, and what they say on the signs.

California has something like 30,000 black bears, and in the Sierra they provide metal bear boxes in the campgrounds and the signs say to move your food out of the vehicles and into the bear boxes. Last year, I was at Whitney Portal CG, and the neighbors forgot to lock the bear box, and the bears came in the night and cleaned them out. Food scattered all over the place. What fun.

But strangely, I camped in Montana this summer, where they have grizzly bears which are generally much worse than blacks, and there were no bear boxes, and the signs said "lock your food in your vehicle". And of course I was sleeping in my van.

Go figure. I don't cook anything but boiled water in my van. For good measure, of all things, never cook bacon in your RV.

 

[Qxxx]

..

 

[highdesertranger]

this story got me a badge in the YARC,

https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=25130&pid=311103&highlight=bacon#pid311103

highdesertranger

 

[MeiraNomadRN]

this story got me a badge in the YARC,

Yup, you ain't right.  Bacon all over the site?! Really?!  LMAO

 

[highdesertranger]

thank you. highdesertranger

 

[Qxxx]

"when I was young and dumb ...". FWIW, I wouldn't have awarded a prize for that, it's 100% normal.

Speaking more on bears, I am going to estimate that this was back in the 1970s +/- 10 years. Back then I backpacked quite a lot in the Sierra, north and south. People were cognizant about bear issues, and generally hung their food in bags from high tree limbs.

I remember the estimates back then were "only" about 5,000 black bears in California, whereas now the bear estimate is 6 or 8 times greater. If you look at a map of California and think about spreading 30 or 40,000 bears over the forest ala mountain areas, you see they about blacken the whole darn place. They are everywhere today. In contrast, there are only about 1,500 grizzlies in the lower 48 today.

https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Black-Bear/Population
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_bear

 

[maki2]

Fortunately I have never had a near encounter with a bear, I have only seen them in the distance other than at a zoo.

 

[Qxxx]

maki, I already read your original post about eating bear meat in alaska. Good but fatal story. In a lifetime of camping and hiking and backpacking, I've never seen a bear in the wild. Believe it or not, back in those backpacking days of the 70s, we'd keep a "sierra cup", tin-aluminum, and a metal knife handy to bang on the cup, in case we ran across a bear :angel: . That may be a better story than HDR smearing bacon grease on his chin and going to sleep on a bench top.

 

[Dingfelder]

I never thought much about bears, rightly or wrongly, around where I am now. After watching Back Country, I am practically looking for them under the bed at night.

 

[Qxxx]

Ding, if you're in black bear country, probably not much to worry about being eaten (although there have been black attacks), but if you're in grizzly country, they'll more likely be on top the bed rather than under it. Just saying.

 

[maki2]

There are a lot more bears around in the last few years due to various wildlife "repatriation" policies. You can look at the statistics for yourself. Taking precautions is just being sensible when in bear country.

I don't lose sleep at night over it. I have never seen one up close on the road or at a camp site. But some of the national parks now have quite a few in their wildlife populations. Of course camp sites for vehicles in those national parks that have a lot of bears are very much limited to certain areas in those parks and they have lots of signs reminding you of what to do.