you'll need the bear resistant sleeping tube then... solid can of ABS plastic with breathing holes and stainless steel fitttings. lets you sleep anywhere - but carrying it around is a real pain. can be doubled as a flotation device if you plug the holes.Originally Posted by nogods
momma and 2 cubs from Oct 20th along the AT in VA. we'd been dodging bear scat all afternoon so I was keeping an eye out and spotted them a mere 40' off the trail. of course i had a handful of gorp when we encountered them which i quickly downed.
neat picture. But I'll bet if she charged it wouldn't have been over food. did you walk past them or wait until they left?
While I was doing my AT hike this summer between hiawasse and albert mtn. several of us camped a quarter mile short of the shelter down by a creek. It was really nice out so we had a little fire and several people just crashed in their bivies and I decided to ditch the tarp for some ventilation. I woke up at about three in the morning feeling someone pushing on the side of my hammock and then I really woke up because I should have been able to see somebodies head and there was a smell that reminded me of a dirty wet dog... all I had was my normal belt knife and all that kept going through my head was that my girlfriend was going to kill me.
After a few more nudges as it tried to rock me to sleep one of the guy's sleeping alfresco let out a long whistling fart with a sort of tremelo at the end,(I would have laughed except I was too scared) and the thing took off across the creek and went crashing up the hill on the otherside. That woke everybody up and so we checked out the tracks all around the camp and the snot marks on my hammock. I did feel a lot safer though knowing that thru hiker flatulence was enough to scare off a bear
i looked around carefully and they were all on one side of the trail so we slowly walked by keeping an eye on them. There were 7 of us so that probably helped.
I don't know depends on the age of the lady in my bed at the time.Hey, I'd be up for a cool scar and a good story.hehe I'd rather die by bear attack than sleeping in bed at 92. .
Back on Subject...I do recall hearing about one hiker who got the trail name of Bearbag because of a bear coming into camp and checking his butt hanging down in the hammock like it was a foodbag sniffing at it I guess when he nudged the hiker and the hiker began to move it suprised the bear and it made a bit of noise and ran off. Now out west in griz country this would most likely have ended very diffrently.
I saw where someone was talking about the hump being a good way to tell black bear from brown bear. This can be tough and a bit to close for my comfort. they say that wearing little bells on shoe laces whill help alert bears to your presence. I also believe that scat is one of the best ways to tell the diffrence. In black bear scat you will often see the seeds of berries that the bear has eaten. In brown bear scat you will often see little bells.
Been trying to figure out your Avatar....what is it?While I was doing my AT hike this summer between hiawasse and albert mtn. several of us camped a quarter mile short of the shelter down by a creek. It was really nice out so we had a little fire and several people just crashed in their bivies and I decided to ditch the tarp for some ventilation. I woke up at about three in the morning feeling someone pushing on the side of my hammock and then I really woke up because I should have been able to see somebodies head and there was a smell that reminded me of a dirty wet dog... all I had was my normal belt knife and all that kept going through my head was that my girlfriend was going to kill me.
After a few more nudges as it tried to rock me to sleep one of the guy's sleeping alfresco let out a long whistling fart with a sort of tremelo at the end,(I would have laughed except I was too scared) and the thing took off across the creek and went crashing up the hill on the otherside. That woke everybody up and so we checked out the tracks all around the camp and the snot marks on my hammock. I did feel a lot safer though knowing that thru hiker flatulence was enough to scare off a bear
"Every day above ground is a good day"
A bear tag can be helpful when it is in season, if worse case scenario happens.
Andre
To Fanatic Fringer, the avatar is a flying monkey(or a close stuffed representation of one)
I've been thinking about hammocks and animal related trouble that I've had camping and I've got to say the more I think about it the more positives I come up with beyond simply comfort...
no more mice chewing holes in my shoes and gear
no more praying that wild pigs will just ignore me when I'm in/around the smokies I just hang a little higher
no more picking ticks and slugs off my tent before packing up
no more trying to decide if it's a mock watersnake or a real pitviper curled up close to the body of my tent those cool spring nights beside streams
So in the end if I have to put up with the small probability of being nudged or worse in the middle of the night by a black bear it doesn't seem nearly so bad. Now if I could just remember to buy some earplugs so that my buddie's talking and yelling in his sleep doesn't wake me up I'd be doing great
i had a friend in college who I could hear yelling in his sleep through the concrete wall. i started using a rubber mallet to wake him up.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks