Critter attacks in camp

[87TT]

I was backpacking once and was in the tent sitting out a fast moving snow storm in the middle of the day when I heard what I thought was a voice. I swear it sounded like a person calling to the camp. I even answered it. I had my dog with me and she was part lab and ridgeback. That dog started going nuts. She was about a year old and at tem months had already run bears out of camp twice before. I grabbed my pistol and opened the tent door keeping her back. Well two bears were fighting over my Ursack bear bag. I fired a warning shot over "the bow". The bears left Dodge in a big hurry and never came back.
I've had knock down drag out fights over my friends pack by raccoons because he left some uncooked pasta in it.

I have woke up one night while cowboy camping with a group of horseback riders thinking the horses had broke loose. I hear what sounded like a horse walking down the hill right towards me thinking "this will be easy to catch him". I was laying in my bag with an old mini mag light and a buck knife. No gun. When "the horse " was about five feet from me, I turned on the light and looked right into the face of a large black bear. I didn't know what else to do so I yelled in the biggest big boy voice I could muster "GIT!". The bear turned and ran back about 30 or 40 feet and stopped a started blowing. I started yelling and throwing rocks and sticks and anything I could until it eventually left camp.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Once had a guest pee on a grizz. Guest cabins are on stilts, decks are four or five feet off the ground. One morning one of the guys cuddles up to the railing to piss on the tundra. Bear was right under him, took exception, stood up and they were eyeball to eyeball with just the railing between. That’s when the shrieking started. We came running from the main lodge, passed the bear running the other way like his tail was on fire.

 

[blackdawg]

My hunting partner stepped out to do his morning constitution, dropped his drawers, begin his business, heard a noise, looked up with his headlight and a bear was staring him in the face,,said he didn’t poo his pants, but left a world class curler!


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[CHAD PEZZLE]

Just last month my wife and I took our toddler camping for the first time, it was a disaster trying to get her to sleep. Finally, around 1 am she's snoozing between the wife and I on the air mattress, and the wife shakes my arm to wake me up. We've placed our tent up against the tree/brush line of our Camp site near a creek.

As I wake up and get my wits about me I can hear something right outside the tent wall, shrugged it off as a deer and told the wife to go back to bed. A minute later it's sniffing the side of the tent, and purring. Not purring like a house cat, but a deep gravely purr. I tell the wife not to worry, a few minutes later it's backed off a few feet but I can still hear it breathing/purring. This time it let's out a scream/growl, after promising the wife it was just a deer, I think to myself crap. Definitely a Mountain Lion.

I can't get up and yell to scare it away, and risk waking the baby, so we just laid there and listened to it for a few hours. It eventually ran off and I got a couple hours of sleep, I doubt the wife got any.

Wandered around the tent the next morning and found tracks in the mud near the creek about 10 yards behind the tent that confirmed it was mountain lion. We promptly packed up camped and moved to a more open area. Don't need that kind trouble with a toddler running around.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I’ve had bears come through camp on many occasions while I was fishing, but never had a problem bear. About 15 years ago we had two bears in our deer camp, on Kodiak, 3 nights in a row. The first night they took our 5 deer, the second night they shredded our camp, and the third night we killed them.


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[rayporter]

had a moose trip over guy lines. that woke us up

the worst was a pine martin scuffling around. it was similar to the skunk story above. it was a long night since we had killed a moose and everything was covered with moose.

 

[Still Hunter]

Had some guided archery hunters camped about a mile from us in Colorado. Ran into them in the field. They had a rogue big black bear that went thru their camp twice. Tore up the food and tents. Would not let them into their camp the second night. The next morning after we spoke, I had a encounter with a absolutely huge black bear sniffing around my camp probably smelling the elk head hanging in the tree about 40 yards. I walked out of the tent and he was maybe 20 feet away. I yelled and hollered, waved my arms and he just looked at me like "are you kidding me". He was close enough that I did not think I could get to my pistol before he would get to me, so we had about a 25-30 second stare down. He sort of shrugged his shoulders and decided I was not worth fooling with and he just slowly ambled off. He was in no hurry and he was in no way scared on intimidated by me. I bowed up and yelled, ran back in and grabbed my pistol and watched him slowly wander away looking back at me nonchalantly. Glad I had a fresh change of underwear.

 

[jmez]

Twice on the same trip. Terrace Mountain in WY. Second night of camp we woke up in the am to about 2 inches of snow. Grizzly bear had come into our camp, walked around the tent several times, checked out everything in our camp. No one knew it was there till we saw the tracks.

Few nights later three of us were cowboy camped on the edge of a meadow. Awake in the middle of the night to heavy footsteps, close and all around. One of the guys racks a shell and no one is talking. Keep listening and I can hear grass being pulled from the ground and chewing. Large herd of elk were on the meadow and grazing about 15 yards from us.

Have had mice chew the bite valve off of my water bladder twice. I now hang my pack off a tree branch every night.

 

[black dawg]

Twice on the same trip. Terrace Mountain in WY. Second night of camp we woke up in the am to about 2 inches of snow. Grizzly bear had come into our camp, walked around the tent several times, checked out everything in our camp. No one knew it was there till we saw the tracks

Bears are so quiet, I think this happens more often than people really want to know. I have been woke up by bears twice in my life, but will look for tracks (can be really hard to find without snow or soft ground) around camp, and often find tracks within about 15- 20 yards of camp.....usually circling.

I usually tell people who think every little noise in the night......just has to be a bear...…... not to worry, bears are almost always nearly silent. lol

Had one sniff the tent last summer, actually bumped my head that was up against the side of the tent and that's what woke me up. It took off as soon as I moved. Was camped with my little girls that night...….never told them a thing. lol

 

[BuckSnort]

We've had more bear problems in camp than I can count.. Some of them were a real pain in the ass, they used to relocate Yosemite problem bears into our area..

 

[Northernpiker]

I had a mountain goat try and come into my tent. I punched it as it was rubbing up against the side. It ran off. Woke up the next morning and he was bedded down 15ft away.
Maybe you knocked it out!

I've had all sorts of scary things in my camps...usually just the wind!

 

[FLAK]

Had a Brown Bear sniff my face through the tent in the pitch black early on AM. Literally in my Face.
Other than that, mice and spiders.

 

[Randle]

Does a rabid, ravenous, , mangy, half bald pack rat count. I would rather be in between a cow moose and her bawling calves then face that thing again. It tried to take my 15 yr old sons leg off,, but in the end he gave it a stick beatin

 

[positivepete!]

I have woken up to cows sniffing my tent multiple times in the middle of the night but never any predators. I am always worried about moose more than bears here in Colorado.

 

[yeti14]

Backpacking base camp at an alpine lake in montana we had a bunch of deer sleep multiple nights in camp. Sometimes curled up right against the tent. They would also follow us around like a walking salt lick and mow down whatever plant we happen to pee on.

 

[carsonmcdonald]

I had a mountain goat try and come into my tent. I punched it as it was rubbing up against the side. It ran off. Woke up the next morning and he was bedded down 15ft away.

Sleeping under a tarp one night, felt a weird feeling, popped my headlamp on and looked at my feet, there was doe with her head under my tarp just seeing what was going on.

Not hunting at the time but rock climbing in the Washington alpine and had a fair number of mountain goat encounters. They will sniff your bag and try to steal your lunch, but mostly they are all about licking spots where you go to relieve yourself.. must be the sodium.

 

[Ridge Ghost]

Had a bull moose stomping and raking a tree 20 yards from my tarp one night. I was afraid he was going to take a few steps my direction and trample me. I stood up with bear spray ready to go, turned on my headlamp and yelled at him. Thankfully he ran the other way, trotting off about 100 yards before stopping to rake another tree. I didn't sleep at all the rest of the night.

 

[Mike 338]

You hear about it but it's probably safer than being hit by a car when checking your mailbox.

 

[FlyGuy]

Closest encounter I’ve had was with a moose, but it was mostly the fault of two hunting partners. We’d split up into 2 pairs that day to hunt that day and me and my partner were the first back to camp that night. This was a truck camp, just off the dead end road next to a beautiful creek and meadow.

I was sitting by the fire and my buddy was bent over digging through an ice chest looking for his dinner when I hear the Diesel engine slowly approaching and start to turn off the road to park at camp. At about the same time I become aware of another sound from behind and right of me. No idea what it is, but just over the sound of the engine I can make out these intense footsteps. Like I can feel them as much as hear them - kinda like the water glass scene on Jurassic Park!

I look back towards it and into the firelight this giant bull moose explodes into view out of the darkness with its semi-slow motion run. Sitting down on that little stump it looked like it was 20 ft tall. He took out all the guy lines from a canopy and literally ran 12” behind my buddy who’s head was in the icechest. He never knew the bull was there until it hit that creek like a car crash.

Then I can here my other two buddies screaming laughing. They had unintentionally pushed the bull into camp with a spotlight and thought it was so funny. I was pretty pissed, could have turned out real bad for the one guy. But, I will never in my life forget looking up at the image of that giant moose stepping into the warm firelight from 6’ away!






You can’t cheat the mountain

 

[87TT]

Not really a critter or attack but I ran into a couple of guys who talked some girls into a weekend backpacking trip. They were camped on a knob above the trail. One of the guys went down to a small creek/spring to filter water and found a dead body. It was a man who had been reported missing the year before and not found. It is unknown how he died but he had been covered with bark, wood and dirt. It looked like a lion cache. I guess a bear or coyotes had dragged him out and apart. Anyway, after quick discussion between the guys it was agreed not to tell the girls as they didn't want to pack up and leave that night and knew if they told, they would be doing just that. After they got back to the trailhead, they bid good bye to the girls and then called the authorities. The girls never knew.