# This Is Why I Could Never Camp In Bear Country



## Brad1 (Jan 21, 2007)

http://www.wlwt.com/news/13520705/detail.html

I cannot even imagine the horror that little boy felt and then the parents hearing the scream. How awful.


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

WOW !!!

*
TAWNYA - DON'T READ THIS THREAD!!!!!*


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

I'm at a loss for words. Simply horrible.


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

wolfwood said:


> WOW !!!
> 
> *
> TAWNYA - DON'T READ THIS THREAD!!!!!*


Too late...............man, I just can't handle it...my heart is racing at the thought. How sad...
And by the way, what happened to what some people have said about bears not attacking without reason??a sleeping boy was threatening???


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

California Jim said:


> I'm at a loss for words. Simply horrible.


Thanks Jim... That's more than I could come up with.
I can't even imagine.

Doug


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## Scoutr2 (Aug 21, 2006)

This story just goes to illustrate why Yellowstone and other NPs out west do not allow pop-up trailers to camp in the RV campgrounds and why they have such stringent "Bear Country" rules. Most "hard side" campers don't worry about keeping food odors to a minimum, so they attract bears. If a pop-up were mixed in there, they would be easy pickings for a bear.

I can tell you from experience that pop-up camping at Yellowstone, etc. is a RPITA. You must lock up everything with an odor (except my shoes) in a vehicle or in a bear-proof locker and you cannot keep ANYTHING in your trailer - dishes, pots/pans, food, stove, toiletries, water jug, etc.

Water Jug? I asked a Park Ranger about this one, and he replied, "Well, let's say you're having hamburgers for supper. You press out those patties with your hands and they are now covered with grease. So you grab your water jug to pour some water for washing off that hamburger grease. When you do that, you leave 'meat scent' on your water jug handle. The bear doesn't know that - he just smells 'meat' and he will come looking for it!"

Enough said.

We still use caution, even in the Outback, because I suspect that a bear could rip right through the fiberglass sidewalls, if he's hungry or mean enough. But more importantly, we don't want to inadvertantly put someone else in danger due to our oversight. I know that is a pretty foriegn concept these days (in a society that only worries about me, Me, ME!), but that's the way I was raised - whatever you do, consider the consequences for ALL concerned.

My heart goes out to that family. I can only imagine how I would feel if that were my 12 year old DD. Especially since we were just camping in our pop-up one year ago in Moab, UT - not too far from where this happened.

Mike


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

With bear's expanding their range in the Northeast every year, this is not just for area's we all consider to be "bear country".

I try to mop up before bed no matter where we are camping.

Tim


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## mollyp (Aug 10, 2005)

This is just too horrible for words. I can't imagine how that family must be dealing with this.

Unfortunately, you can never predict how a wild animal is going to react. It appears they don't always need a reason to do what they do. We are in black bear country. Our very good friends and neighbors who live about 1/4 mi away, had a black bear break into their camper and absolutely trash it while it was parked in their driveway, and the only food item they had in it was flour. Ours was parked right beside our house, and he never came near it. You just never know, and cannot affort to take chances.


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## BlueWedge (Sep 11, 2005)

Horrible thing to have happen.

Reminds me when we flew in by float plane to a remote lake on a fishing trip when I was kid. I had to have an armed body guard with me when fishing, just in case. Got to watch out for those brownies.

Bears do usually run when they see you out in the wild. I imagine the bear had lost its fear of humans, was starving or sick. They should know soon from what I have read they were tracking it down. Sounds like they don't have issues like this very often in Utah.

They recently had a problem bear on one of the islands in puget sound. It swam puget sound wandered through populated ares in south seattle and ended up making it to the cascades if I remember correctly.


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## skippershe (May 22, 2006)

How tragic! That poor little boy...My heart aches for his family


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## JonesFamily (May 15, 2007)

Absolutely horrible! My heart breaks for those parents!!


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

How Sad..

We have several black bear attacks around here yearly. We see prolly 10 a year when we are in the mountains. I never trust them, and we try to go the other way. There are about 2-4 relocated every year cause they are hanging in town here.

This is one reason we got the Outback, but still, the kids ask if we can bring the tent for them.. The kids would rather camp in a tent than a trailer.. So far we havent gave in to there wishes.. I'll have them read this story.

Carey


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## Mgonzo2u (Aug 3, 2004)

If you've never been to Yosemite, its seems like it is a campground ritual when a black bear (only kind in the area) is spotted for campers to scream out for all to hear, "BEAR!"

My stubborn BIL always tells me that Black Bears are harmless, "they don't attack humans!". During their annual camping trip at Yosemite, he is always running towards the black bear sightings in hopes of photographing the bear.

A few years back when we were visiting them at their campsite, when the repeated calls of "BEAR!" kept ringing out, my spouse and I did not run to see the bear(s), we immediately ran to get inside our parked truck or his motorhome.

Chasing a wild bear for photos is senseless and now potentially deadly.

Poor family.


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## fl_diesel (Feb 15, 2006)

skippershe said:


> How tragic! That poor little boy...My heart aches for his family


Ditto, well said...


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## Sluggo54 (Jun 15, 2005)

"what happened to what some people have said about bears not attacking without reason??"

You'll never hear that from me. I am aware of too many attacks similar to this one.

Sluggo
\
an old Yellowstone savage.


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## Scrib (Jun 28, 2005)

AMERICAN FORK, Utah â€" Wildlife officers wounded a bear Monday, hours after an 11-year-old boy was snatched from his family's tent and killed, a rare fatal attack in Utah's Wasatch Mountains.

With 26 dogs assisting them in the search, authorities were confident that the bear that was shot was the same one that ripped through the tent shortly before midnight Sunday.

"The dogs are on the scent. ... We're hopeful this bear will be taken shortly," Jim Karpowitz, director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said at an 11 a.m. MDT news conference.

The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent in a primitive camping area, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

The stepfather heard a scream, and the boy and his sleeping bag were gone. A host from a nearby campground contacted police.

"When we got up there we realized, hey, this looks like a bear. The sleeping bag was pulled out of the tent," said Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County sheriff's office.

He said the boy's body was found about 400 yards away, in the direction of another campsite where a bear was seen earlier in the weekend and pursued by dogs without success. Authorities believe it was the same bear that killed the boy.

"When it's hot and dry like this, bears are short of food," Karpowitz said.

The Utah wildlife agency and the U.S. Forest Service were pursuing the wounded bear with the help of a helicopter. It was described as a male, possibly 300 pounds and "jet black."

Karpowitz said it was the first fatal attack by a black bear in Utah.

American Fork Canyon is a popular camping destination and home to Timpanogos Cave National Monument. Harris said the family was camping about two miles up a dirt road.

"It's shaken everybody up. We're all distraught," said Scott Root, conservation outreach manager at the Utah wildlife agency. "It could put a lot of fear in the public."

It was not known what provoked the bear, though a bear can smell food for miles.

"They stick their nose in the air. It's like radar," said Hal Black, a biologist at Brigham Young University in Provo.

In July 2006, a black bear bit the arm of a 14-year-old Boy Scout while he slept in a tent, also in Utah County. The female bear returned to the campground and was killed. The boy was not seriously injured.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,283834,00.html


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## RizFam (Feb 25, 2006)

Absolutely heartbreaking.







My prayers are with the family.

Tami


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

gave up tent camping years ago due to just exactly this reason. We, the people, are afterall, sleeping in their bedroom.


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## Collinsfam_WY (Nov 9, 2006)

I read about that earlier and what a tragedy, I could not even imagine it. Having witnessed a black bear attack while at a Scouting high adventure base (Philmont), I learned first hand how fast and deadly they can be.

-CC


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## livinthedream (May 15, 2007)

How awful. How unimaginably painful this must be for this little boy's family. I think part of the attraction of camping for all of us is creating good family memories; this is just horrible.

DH and I camp in the Smokies quite a bit. Elkmont campgound is our favorite and it's also popular with tent campers. DH has often said that there is no way he would tent camp in bear country. That said, I've always heard and believed that bears wouldn't bother you if you kept food smells away and if you didn't bother the bear. This sure is a rude awakening that some bears have different ideas.


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

I have camped in many NP's in our tent trailer and have never been told we can not camp in a tent trailer, Yellowstone is one of the parks we spent a week camping at in the tent trailer. When I was a kid I went to Yellowstone and saw bears every where they were on the roads begging for food.

But our last trip there produced no bears, they are still stringent about Bear rules but they don't have the problems now that they use to.

BTW a hard side trailer provides no more protection than a tent trailer.



Scoutr2 said:


> This story just goes to illustrate why Yellowstone and other NPs out west do not allow pop-up trailers to camp in the RV campgrounds and why they have such stringent "Bear Country" rules. Most "hard side" campers don't worry about keeping food odors to a minimum, so they attract bears. If a pop-up were mixed in there, they would be easy pickings for a bear.
> 
> I can tell you from experience that pop-up camping at Yellowstone, etc. is a RPITA. You must lock up everything with an odor (except my shoes) in a vehicle or in a bear-proof locker and you cannot keep ANYTHING in your trailer - dishes, pots/pans, food, stove, toiletries, water jug, etc.
> 
> ...


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

This is really sad and very rare for a black Bear. I camp with Bears all the time and just got back from a trip this weekend where Bears were in camp. We have had them on out table eating my wife"s chicken, finely found something that liked the DW's chicken. I have ran off many Bears camping in the mountains here and in Washington and Idaho. Black bears for the most part are like large rodents but like any wild animals you have to respect them.

We keep a very clean camp, lock food up and don't have any problems but I have listened to other campers yelling and beating pans. My Dw is scared of Bears and hated it when I sleep through Bears in the campground. I'm just not afraid of them, spent to many years camping with them, but have a very health respect for them.


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## NobleEagle (Jul 8, 2006)

First of all I want to say I feel for the family in this extremely rare and sad situation. I could not imagine being there and not being able to do anything.

Second of all, please read my post (#18) to a question on an earlier post that this would be a perfect example. *SEE IT HERE*


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## Swany (Mar 2, 2006)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> gave up tent camping years ago due to just exactly this reason. We, the people, are afterall, sleeping in their bedroom.


And that means they get to eat us?


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## bradnbecca (Feb 12, 2007)

Mgonzo2u said:


> If you've never been to Yosemite, its seems like it is a campground ritual when a black bear (only kind in the area) is spotted for campers to scream out for all to hear, "BEAR!"
> 
> My stubborn BIL always tells me that Black Bears are harmless, "they don't attack humans!". During their annual camping trip at Yosemite, he is always running towards the black bear sightings in hopes of photographing the bear.
> 
> ...


We just got back from the Smokies a couple of weeks ago. We made the Cade's Cove loop a couple of evenings. Each evening, there were the usual bear sightings. The last night, we saw a mother and three cubs. As usual, traffic stopped, and many of the folks got out to see the bears. One enterprising moron decided that looking at them from the road was not enough. He followed them across a meadow, right up to the edge of the woods they disappeared into, snapping pictures all the way. At one point, he was within about 25 feet of the mother. Fortunately, the bears just kept on motoring to wherever it was they were going, so we didn't observe any tourist-munching, but I was silently kind of wishing mama would turn around and scare the fecal matter out of picture dummy. I took pictures of the whole little circus and will post one or two when I can.

It is a shame that the rangers in SMNP don't enforce the rules about harrassing wildlife more stringently. People seem to lose their minds when the bears appear there. It is a wonder that they don't have more incidents than they do . . . .


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