Originally Posted by
Dedicated Hanger
That story reminds me of one. After tent camping for many years I realized that movement and noises outside the tent, combined with my imagination, made things sound larger than they really were. There was this happy mouse that kept tripping over the tent stakes one year. The tent was moving and until I put a flash light on the little rascal, I thought it had to be a bear. Well, two years ago, when the noise of some thing pounding the ground right beside my ear woke me up, I could tell (and smell) the bear tearing open the packages of hot chocolate I put in a bag and hung in a tree behind the tent. He was stomping on them and tearing them open within a foot of me and was not really frightened when I yelled at him to move along. Once he finished off all the hot chocolate available, he sort of meandered away. The next time (about 45 minutes later) I smelled him before I saw him. He did not make any noise at all when he came back. This time he got my garbage bag (that had used freeze dried bags in it) and walked around licking it while I yelled at him. He looked at me, then dropped the bag and walked away. I feel lucky to have seen him and did not feel like I was in danger. I am a firm believer in not putting any food of any kind any where near my sleeping area. If he can get the food bag hanging in a tree, then he is welcome to it, because there is nothing you can do to stop him. I do like those guys (black bears). They are cute.