Camping in Grizzly Country

[Bulldawg]

I've spent some time in grizzly country and know the precautions to take around them and some people think I'm scared and over estimate the Grizzlies abilities.. Until something like this happens


We had a long day of searching for elk putting about 12 miles on the boots and got back to one flattened and destroyed tent. Talk about the hair on your neck standing up!!

We're pretty sure we scared it off when we walked up even though we never saw it. My partners flip flop was still foaming with saliva.


We tried to figure out what it could have been to provoke that and the best of our knowledge it had to be the bag of clothes he had in the tent (brought way too many for a backpack hunt) that he had cooked and eaten dinner in the night prior. She ripped open the bag and had pulled things out and chewed a flip flop for some reason.

Well we were definitely spooked and couldn't have stayed if we wanted because his pad was destroyed. And his bag had some holes in it with down strewn everywhere.


So after a long day of hunting we got to load camp up and head back to the truck at midnight where my partner lost his quiver full of arrows and didn't notice while we were bushwalking through some thick stuff.

And just to rub salt in the wound we came up on some guys who had just got done packing out a very nice bull and had me wishing that was the type of punishment we were putting ourselves through.

Maybe now all my buddies back home will understand why I go to the lengths to make sure I have a clean camp.

 

[realunlucky]

Man that sucks. What's your strategy to avoid that next year?

 

[COSA]

Glad everything turned out ok. It is a pain in the ass camping and hunting in grizzly country, and very hard not to become lazy as the days pass by or the weather turns sour. Still have not figured out the cooking/eating in your clothes solution.

 

[Ryan R]

Most of my hunting and all of my backpacking is in Grizzly country. In Alberta we don't have a tonne of grizz, but I always see fresh/old sign or a bear. We store food away from camp and usually eat our MH on the trail before we make camp. I always carry camp because of the possibility of a bear messing my stuff up when I'm gone.

They stay out of our way for the most part, but some bears are more curious than others. Be bear smart the best you can and deal with whatever happens.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I live in brown bear country, even had a sow and cub in my yard this summer, needless to say I see brown bear/grizzlies over 50% of the time while camping/hunting. The best thing I did was invest in a electric backpacking bear fence. On night, on a hunt, we had 2 BB's in camp, the fence was only large enough to go around our tent, so the rest of our camp was unprotected. The bears destroyed everything in camp but, stayed out of our tent. Sorry to hear about your stuff, I know how much that sucks. Get a bear fence. Mine weighs 38oz. including batteries and wasn't too expensive, probably a lot less expensive than your gear that got destroyed.

 

[dotman]

Man that sucks.

 

[Bulldawg]

Haha well thankfully it wasn't my stuff! And the stuff that was destroyed my partnered had borrowed from his friend. My shelter and gear was untouched, the bear had to step over the guy lines of my tarp to get to his tent. We eat every dinner 100 yards away from camp and hang everything back up in the tree. Like I said I am pretty anal about being bear aware and but I think that my partner may have gotten a little careless and we paid the price.

 

[airlocksniffer]

Where abouts did this happen? I actually like hunting in griz country-less people.

 

[mtluckydan]

Probably chewing on the flip-flop because they like foam. A bear took down my deer target in my yard one year and my big block target. Chewed on both. Fish & game said they like something in the foam. The griz thing keeps getting worse. I saw six last archery season. This year they are hurting in the food category so maybe that is all it takes. Hopefully you guys are carrying large caliber handguns to cure the problem if they get too close.

 

[kodiakfly]

That sucks big time. Sorry to hear it. And it may not've been anything you could've prevented, other than a bear fence. Bears often act out of blatant curiosity. A lot of issues with young males come from them just being curious about humans, rather than being hungry/aggressive/territorial.

 

[Jaguigui]

I went out on a solo one-nighter in the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana. I guess it was either ignorance or really wanting an elk that made me do it. I saw some wolf poop and grizzly tracks about 1 mile from my camp. Looking back at it now, it probably was not the smartest thing to do. Once i was trying to sleep in my tent, every little noise woke me up because I think my imagination was keeping me up. I'm looking at buying a bear fence to use from now on, especially when I'm solo. Is anyone using the UDAP electric fence? The one that retails for around $299 and weighs about 3 lbs. Any reviews?

 

[belly-deep]

Hard to say if those clothes were what did it. Bears have brains like ever other critter and sometimes curiosity/boredom gets the best of them.

Bear fence is the best way to deal with that I would think.

 

[13bonatter69]

My partner and I hunt is MAJOR Grizzly country in Wyoming and see them every year. Thank god, all run ins have went ok.
I don't know how affective it is, but my partner and I are religious about packing in our bear sauce. We mix a big starch spray bottle before we leave the truck of bleach, ammonia, and cayenne pepper. Every, night before going to bed we spray about a ten foot circle around our tents (which are huddled together side by side). We make very sure that we stake out a string around the camp on the ground and that string is exactly where we spray our sauce every night. When we come and go we do it at the exact same spot every time and are careful to step over the string so that we don't get the smell on our boots or clothes. When we lounge around and hang out, thats about 100 yards from where we sleep. We try to stay away from where we sleep and not use that area for anything BUT sleeping. I hate sleeping in Grizzly country, but its part of it.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I went out on a solo one-nighter in the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana. I guess it was either ignorance or really wanting an elk that made me do it. I saw some wolf poop and grizzly tracks about 1 mile from my camp. Looking back at it now, it probably was not the smartest thing to do. Once i was trying to sleep in my tent, every little noise woke me up because I think my imagination was keeping me up. I'm looking at buying a bear fence to use from now on, especially when I'm solo. Is anyone using the UDAP electric fence? The one that retails for around $299 and weighs about 3 lbs. Any reviews?

http://www.electrobearguard.com/Kit_Content_2.html

This is what I use and have been using for the last 10 years or so. Even when wearing rubber boots, you touch this and you'll experience a very unpleasant shock.

 

[Jaguigui]

Thanks man! Definitely looks legit and only around 2.5lbs sounds good. My credit card needs to recover first after season lol

 

[PredatorX]

I could have shot my 2 hunting buddies. They wanted to head into town to dry off and eat some real food while i stayed in camp. I decided to check their tent (knowing they are slobs) and sure enough a big bag of trail mix and a piece of beef jerkey littered their floor. I also lock up my cooler when it is in camp.