Hilleberg and gear vs Bear.

[MT_Wyatt]

Gear lost this fight. This sucks big time, but may add a little levity to your day. Below is how you don't want to find your gear after chasing Bulls all morning.....ironically, every single thing in camp had a bite mark in it. Bear even dug into the fire coals, took a nice bite into my paperback, and apparently got in a fight with my Hilleberg. Poles were in about 10 different pieces.

Lesson learned: camp needs to be a little tucked away from main travel corridors. I don't think this bear smelled food and came, I think it happened upon it and got curious. My partner accidentally left a ziplock in his pack bag...had a yeti single, coffee tea bag, and a fruit strip in it. The jetboil has some coffee smell as well, so maybe that needs to be up in the tree with the rest.

Bear track over my boot track....

Stay safe out there. And your gear

 

[PA 5-0]

That SUCKS Brother!! looks costly. I would sit on that for a month to kill that sum by itch so I could stare at his rug on my wall forever. Good luck getting back in the game.

 

[Yellowknife]

Likely wouldn't have mattered if there was food smell or not. When black bears get the urge, they can be highly destructive no doubt!

Looks like a very expensive camp visit. Major bummer.

 

[Bulldawg]

Man been there before! not my gear but my partners got ransacked last year. It was definitely the food items you had in your tent and the stove. No matter how small the item is if it has an odor it will attract the bears. My buddy had an empty yeti wrapper in his last year and just like you everything had a bite into it and everything was destroyed, my tent and gear was completely unscathed and the bear essentially had to step over mine to get to his. Whenever I'm in bad bear country everything thing that may have the smell of food gets hung up, including any clothes I leave at camp that may have the scent of food on it.

So was this black bear country or grizzly bear country?

 

[orionsbrother]

That does suck. I vote bear tag as well.

 

[MThuntr]

Oh man that sucks! Good thing you guys weren't in there wrapped up like burritos in the tent when that bear strolled through. It was most likely that trace amounts of food because bears are going into their hyperphagia stage. I think they are even attracted to the smell of stove fuel. Again I'm glad that nobody got chewed on.

I've heard of campers in national parks having their stuff stripped because of toothpaste and things as simple as chapstick.

Like others said maybe it's worth a hunt up there with a bear tag

 

[MT_Wyatt]

Yeah I've got a bear tag - to be clear, there was no food in the tent. I'm usually pretty careful but didn't dig through my partner's bag (sitting outside). I'm hanging cooking equipment in the future. Haven't considered fuel....thanks for mentioning that.

Both Grizz and Blackies are possible where I'm at.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Yellowknife]

I've heard of campers in national parks having their stuff stripped because of toothpaste and things as simple as chapstick.

I think people are just finding "reasons" for trashed camps. Truth is, black bears will bite anything unusual. I've seem them search out and individually destroy wood survey lathe scattered over miles of dense timber, break off plastic pipes sticking above the grounds, bite fuel cans (very common), chew on wood sign posts, bite treated wood bridge rails, leave teethmarks on sheet metal, eat foam seats, puncture aerosol cans... etc, etc.. My dad even has a very well chewed can of bear spray he found at a camp!

If it's not natural, they will give it a bite just to see. No food taste/smell required.

 

[BRobertson]

I have seen several ( 7 that I can think of right now) aircraft that were chewed on by our brown bears in Alaska. a couple were so damaged
that they were not flyable without major repair. The bears love tearing fabric off of tube and fabric planes. They are very good at smashing
plexiglass.
They take a great amount of joy in popping anything made of hypalon, rafts, folding kayaks, and one time the floats on an Alouet helicopter
that was parked overnight at a logging camp.

As Yellowknife points out , they will chew up plastic gas cans just like gum, even those full of fuel!!
Ken Fanning (Master Guide in Yakutat) even had a bear swim out and destroy an Avon raft that he had anchored 50 ft off the beach at his
bear camp.

 

[orionsbrother]

^^^^^What is it with bears and gas cans? You'd think the first taste after the first bite would be discouraging. I just don't get that. It can be a pain in the azz down here in the lower 48. I can't imagine the suck when your stashed gas is gone in the Alaskan bush.

 

[BRobertson]

Yes, it does make you wonder!?

Years ago, before the Parks Hwy was built, there was an unofficial dump just on the outside of the Park. Some idiot had dumped some old truck batteries. A Trooper friend of mine found where a grizzly had chewed one open . Must have had a weird vitamin deficiency !!!


I have watched the Brown bears in Yakutat at the community dump actually walking in the hot coals created when someone decides to burn their garbage. They will stop occasionally and shake their paw to get the burning coals off their pads, and then continue to hunt for goodies!!
I think that basically they are so tough relative to us puny humans that we just can't understand what they are capable of!!

Another thing they love are 3 wheeler/ 4 wheeler seats and also snow machine seats!!

 

[BroodBuster]

Yikes!

Was that an established camp site or back country off trail site? Pic looks like it could go either way. I'm typically somewhat cautious when using an established site but have down right terrible camp/bear habits when off trail. Probably just a matter of time before I return to a similar sight.

Glad everyone's alright but that definitely sucks!

 

[mtnclimber]

on the bright side i have a nallo 3 i might be looking to part with

 

[MT_Wyatt]

Yikes!

Was that an established camp site or back country off trail site? Pic looks like it could go either way. I'm typically somewhat cautious when using an established site but have down right terrible camp/bear habits when off trail. Probably just a matter of time before I return to a similar sight.

Glad everyone's alright but that definitely sucks!

It's not what I would call established, I've used it 3 times in 2 years, no one else has been in there. I think the Bears were working the creek bottom and just got curious, and went ape shit on my tent.

 

[MT_Wyatt]

on the bright side i have a nallo 3 i might be looking to part with

Ha nice, thanks - I've got a little 1 man (kuiu) on the way to limp through the rest of the season.

I've bad mouthed that apparent copied design quite a bit and have never read a positive review, but it's a glorified trekking pole bivy sack, and I've always wanted to try it, so here I go. It was that or a hille rajd.

 

[archer wapiti]

Glad nobody was hurt, that was a major bummer, but glad you're able to go to your backup gear and keep hunting. Also, thanks for sharing and reaffirming my attempts to keep a clean camp and empty all bits of wrappers, etc from my pack each day. I've not been hanging my cooking pot, but I only boil water in it and it never sees any food.

I shake my head when I see camps with piles of food in and around their tents. I came across a camp mid-day last week that had literally a box of MREs (like 20 pounds' worth) and some Mountain House meals lying on the ground within 10 feet of their tent. Pots on the grate over the fire pit.