Critter attacks in camp

[Idahomnts]

Just curious how many have heard stories or witnessed predators disrupting the peace in the middle of the night while camping or backpacking ,

 

[Salmon River Solutions]

For me its usually a mouse running over my face when im sleeping on a pad out in the open. I have had squirrels try to get in my tents before also.

One time it was a cow elk. For some reason it really wanted to know what I was, it stuck its nose against my tent, close enough for its nose to brush my head and wake me up while it was sniffing me thru the tent. Scared the hell outta me! I jumped up and it barked at me and ran away.

 

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Livetohuntid I had a similar experience once except with a bear I was not excited to spend 4 more nights in that tent.

 

[juan trueno]

Have had brown bears come through camp on the river in Alaska. Almost as many nights as they don’t.

I had a 2 year old brown bear get into the back of my 4 runner with me while I was sleeping. In the back of the 4 runner. This at a popular campground and fishing spot. I basically exited my sleeping bag like toothpaste if you unscrew the cap and put the tube on the ground and stomp on it. I went from encased In the sleeping bag and asleep layinngthe back to out of the sleeping bag in the front seat back against the windshield gear shifter up my ass fumbling for my 45 *instantly* -like I had teleported- it was all happening so fast. The bear grabbed my dog food bag and took off with it. and you could hear people yelling as he ran through the campsites He dropped the dog food and I got it back. A trooper shot him a couple days later.

Another time I had backpacked into a spot that’s fairly popular and when I woke up found a mouse has chewed a hole in the top of my pack and another in an old Dana design rib.

 

[Jacack]

no Big threat but about 2am one night two years ago I had a cow get tangled up in my guy lines and scare the shit out of me tent was down on one side and shit thrashing around outside .

 

[Wellsdw]

Had a pine marten trying to beat me to a mountain house.i was sitting on a rock and my buddy that had never Been to wy said “man there is a giant squirrel thing at your food”

 

[cnelk]

Woke up to a western spotted skunk in the wall tent one night.
When your flashlight shines on something and its small and black and white, there is no mistaking what it is

That tent got real small, real quick.

Edit:
Did you know the western spotted skunk does 'handstands' when its gonna spray?

 

[jmcd22]

No attack but we had 10-12 elk in our camp one year...bulls sounding off left and right for what felt like an hour. It was really cool other than they were the only elk we heard or saw the entire trip.

 

[SoDaky]

Not attacked exactly but had a drunk logger and his girlfriend show up about 3 am one time in the Panhandle.(Idaho)We were only 100 yds off the logging rd.Got to be a very interesting experience.

 

[Wrench]

I've had a mouse walk right on my face and a herd of elk run through camp and stomp the guy lines on my tent. If you've ever listened to Chris Ledoux's "Stampede"......that's how it felt.

 

[Btaylor]

First night on the mountain last year, we had a bear come through camp about 2am. It was my first night hammock camping. Luckily the bear didnt mess with anything and as far as we know didnt come back the rest of the trip. I will say it was a different experience to know a bear was that close and you're just hanging in a hammock like a bear burrito LOL. Shockingly, it didnt interfere with good sleep though.

 

[idahohikker]

We had some deer sniffing at the tent. Once we had a fox that wouldn't leave camp that we thought was a young mountain lion for a while (it was dark).

In the Frank where I hunt(ed) about every year someone gets mixed up with a bear in their camp. The bear usually loses but one guy got his head gnawed on.

 

[LandYacht]

Laying in my bag, while cowboy camping, on a ridge one spring night, while turkey hunting and I hear something coming down the ridge towards me. Certain that the only thing that could turn over the logs and boulders that I’m hearing move is a bear.

After the sun goes down every night, I replace my turkey loads with buckshot just incase, so I am now contemplating getting my shotgun that is leaning against the tree next to my head, but I figure I’ll wait a little longer since the thermals are going down and I’m sure it can’t smell me yet.

As the bear gets closer, I grab my green light because I don’t want my night vision to be disturbed for any shotgun work that might be needed. I ease my shotgun off the tree and point it in the general direction of the bear, that I now estimate to be about 10 yards away.

I hit my light, ready for what’s about to come next as I sit up in my bag, but I freeze as still as can be when I see that I have severely underestimated the distance between me and the ridge ransacker. Less than five feet away a skunk blinks at my green light, as confused as I am, but for many different reasons, I am sure.

For a tense six or seven seconds he debates what the green light that has so suddenly appeared just in front of him is, while I dread the certain aroma that is sure to befall me and my new WM bag. Luckily he shuffles off the ridge to my right and out of my life without leaving me with more story than I already had.

Skunks are predators too.


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[DenverCountryBoy]

Last fall a gray Jay landed on my hand to steal a bite of my breakfast burrito.

Year before had cattle come through camp.

 

[LongWayAround]

I left my pack open one night and had a mouse chew through a pocket and we'll into one of my bagel sandwiches. That little fella must have thought he hit the jackpot. I was so angry that morning... mostly at myself, but I also found some humor in it.

Not camping but in a house we we're renting. One night in bed, I'm about half asleep in that kind of strange state where you are aware but at a reduced alertness. I'm laying facing towards the closet, which had full sliding door mirrors, when my girlfriend explodes out of bed and starts freaking of out that a mouse just ran over her. I saw the mouse but I didn't want to deal with it so I convinced her it was just a dream and to go back to sleep.

About a week goes by and one night I wake up. Again facing the mirrors. She is sleep-walking ON me, like tap dancing on my back standing on the bed! That was pretty frightening to see in the mirror! I'm pretty sure she was dreaming about mice.

 

[jmcd22]

First night on the mountain last year, we had a bear come through camp about 2am. It was my first night hammock camping. Luckily the bear didnt mess with anything and as far as we know didnt come back the rest of the trip. I will say it was a different experience to know a bear was that close and you're just hanging in a hammock like a bear burrito LOL. Shockingly, it didnt interfere with good sleep though.

This is legitimately the one reason that I wont sleep in a hammock HAHA!

One trip my dad packed the wrong tent and his cot wouldnt fit so he just set it up outside and went to sleep. He scared the hell out of me by yelling "GET OUT OF HERE"...naturally I grabbed my pistol and started to open my tent and to my surprise, he had a doe sticking her nose into him and his sleeping bag. I've never seen that one before haha.

 

[juan trueno]

Laying in my bag, while cowboy camping, on a ridge one spring night, while turkey hunting and I hear something coming down the ridge towards me. Certain that the only thing that could turn over the logs and boulders that I’m hearing move is a bear.

After the sun goes down every night, I replace my turkey loads with buckshot just incase, so I am now contemplating getting my shotgun that is leaning against the tree next to my head, but I figure I’ll wait a little longer since the thermals are going down and I’m sure it can’t smell me yet.

As the bear gets closer, I grab my green light because I don’t want my night vision to be disturbed for any shotgun work that might be needed. I ease my shotgun off the tree and point it in the general direction of the bear, that I now estimate to be about 10 yards away.

I hit my light, ready for what’s about to come next as I sit up in my bag, but I freeze as still as can be when I see that I have severely underestimated the distance between me and the ridge ransacker. Less than five feet away a skunk blinks at my green light, as confused as I am, but for many different reasons, I am sure.

For a tense six or seven seconds he debates what the green light that has so suddenly appeared just in front of him is, while I dread the certain aroma that is sure to befall me and my new WM bag. Luckily he shuffles off the ridge to my right and out of my life without leaving me with more story than I already had.

Skunks are predators too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m not sure what the properties are that allow a sleeping bag to both muffle and amplify a sound- but more than once I’ve woken up certain I had a bear just outside the range of my light only to find ground squirrel or mouse etc rustling aroundin the leaves 2 feet away

 

[Runningwater]

Had issues with black bear, mice, and porcupines. Have seen a camp destroyed by a grizzly. Have have moose in camp the scare the crap out of me while peeing at night......

 

[adrock456]

Filtered water and filled my water bladder one night for the pack out in the morning. All night a mouse kept scratching on the tent so I would wake up and slap the tent to scare it off. Well I just left my bladder laying on a rock beside the tent and when I awoke the mouse had chewed a hole in my bladder and drained all of my water. Man I was pissed.

 

[Brock A]

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.