Newbie Question

[PineMartyn]

I forget which series it was, but i'm sure i can find it on youtube, a man tries to survive in the canadian forests for 3 months on his own. He use a portable eletric fence around his hammock to keep bears away.

though not sure how well it works on a starving grissly......

The fellow you have in mind is Ed Wardle. His attempt at living alone with minimal equipment in the Yukon for 90 days entirely alone was made into a BBC series called Alone in the the Wild. I rank it among the very best, most realistic, honest, grittiest, and disturbing attempts of this sort that I've ever seen. It's pretty sobering for those who imagine such an experiment would not take a huge psychological toll.

And he did use an electric fence initially.



Hope this helps,
- Martin

[FLRider]

I have had a few sniffs in south Texas... But that's about it... I am also fortunate to be able to be armed in my camping spots... So that helps with any concerns...

I have had an armadillo trip over my tarp lines... Made a neck of a racket and woke me up because the tarp shook so bad, poor guy was at a dead run when he hit it apparently...

Armadillos...yeah...they sound like an whole cub scout troop romping through the bushes at 4 AM. And they're both blind and deaf, it seems; trying to scare one off with your headlamp or by making noise is somewhat futile.

On a more serious note, you should be just fine if you hang your food and don't cook where you sleep. The only problems I've heard about on-trail involved unattended food-smelling items or habituated wildlife (avoid established campgrounds and this shouldn't be a problem). Oh, and if you come on down to FL, avoid getting water at dawn or dusk; you look vaguely like a deer to gators when crouched over in that light, so...

Really, the stuff you have to worry about is both smaller and larger than wildlife: insects (and their diseases) and the weather. Those wind up being more difficult to deal with than large animals, most places in the lower 48. Use bug repellent, keep an eye on your water level, and keep an eye on the skies. Those steps will keep you in good stead.

Hope it helps!

[Resqsarge03]

They are not joking about bear burrito's (uses scary eyes!)

There is a great thread or two on this forum about scariest thing that has happened while hanging. They are a great read while in your home long before actually going outside to sleep amongst the ravenous wildlife and hooligans.

I've been scared awake several times but it never amounted to anything. One of the coolest experiences was during my first real hang (outside the back yard that is) up in the mountains. I awoke in the middle of the night for some weird reason and just lay there looking around trying to figure out what woke me up. I noticed small dots of light moving around in lines on some of the logs and ground nearby and thought I was seeing things. I turned on my headlamp but nothing was visible. I believe it might have been some kind of insect and natural phosphorescence. It reminded me of the time I had to walk back from a friends cabin along an old gravel road and I kept seeing slightly glowing lumps in the woods. Turns out a few of the stumps were rotting and had something that was barely phosphorescent on/in them. It was pretty cool and kinda like what lightning bug tails smeared across your hands looks like.....I'm figuring I am not the only one that did that as a kid.

[bear bag hanger]

In all my years of hanging, I've only had three or four encounters with animals during the night and never with a bear. One encounter was with a deer who moved my gear aside to get at the grass underneath and all the others involved small skunks. As best I can tell, skunks have no fear!