Bears

I have searched as best I can to find out how TM perform in bear country. I'm either not knowing where to look or it hasn't been asked.

In Grizzly country, they have bear lockers for food storage. I've seen what the state parks show when people leave a candy bar in the car and bears tear in. I just have visions of being wakened from a sound sleep with a bear clawing in because it smells food through the gaps with Velcro or the slide for the bed.

What has been real experience with this?

B&J from Texas said:

I have searched as best I can to find out how TM perform in bear country. I'm either not knowing where to look or it hasn't been asked.

In Grizzly country, they have bear lockers for food storage. I've seen what the state parks show when people leave a candy bar in the car and bears tear in. I just have visions of being wakened from a sound sleep with a bear clawing in because it smells food through the gaps with Velcro or the slide for the bed.

What has been real experience with this?

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I have never heard of a bear breaking into an RV. I would not doubt that it could or has happened, but I never heard about it.

If one tried to come into mine while I was in there, he would get a little surprise.
Tom

I don't know about grizz, but around here I have seen the Black bears help themselves to food left outside in the coolers, but not inside a camper. If you are camping in a RV park, they usually go for the trash cans if starving, but mostly stay away from all the people and goings ons. Make a lot of noise and they usually move on pretty quickly. Beleive me, there's more bears in town than there are in the mountains....so it seems.

This one was in the back yard this week helping himself to the bird feeder, he moved on as soon as I tapped on the window.

My first major trip w the TM was to Yellowstone. I saw quite a few grizzlies! I even saw a black bear. Follow instructions and you should be alright. There were plenty of tent campers at YS, too. There are risks. I wouldn't let a few bears stop me from enjoying life.

B&J -

We have camped in Yellowstone, and in the high Sierras. In both places, entry was forbidden to tents and to campers with canvas sides, but entry was readily granted to a TrailManor. In Yellowstone, the rules were "no food in the camper, and no food or coolers in the tow vehicles". In the Sierras, bear boxes were provided for each site, and the rangers were VERY insistent that all campers use them, checking every site at least twice as each evening progressed. Did they work? I don't know, but in the week we were there, there were no reported bear incidents in the campground.

My guess is that if a grizzly wants to get into your camper or tow vehicle, he will. A hardside camper makes it harder for him, but not impossible. That is part of the experience of being outside. So make it a point to make your site less attractive than your neighbor's site.

Bill

When I belonged to the group: Outbackers.com someone posted a pic of a keystone outback that that been broken into by at least one bear.

I have googled around tonight and found some reports of campers broken into. I got more hits with travel trailer then camper or rv.

Examples:

http://www.tetonvalleynews.net/news...b0e-c098-11e1-85c0-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm

http://www.tricitynews.com/news/126616193.html

Last August we camped at the WMA in the Ocala National Forest. We always look for bear sign as we drive in ...they love to claw the electric poles etc. We also saw sign on the trails where we compete in 3d traditional archery. Track, scat, logs turned over for grubs etc.
We saw more sign then usual...we slept in out TM and never heard a thing...and we have a very quiet generator. I cooked the first night..we had no problem...the next night...more people had been on site longer...Not only did families cook but their were outdoor food vendors with dining areas at the WMA that served 3 meals a day. We had left the forest to go to a fish house. I was amazed at the mess the bears made throughout the camping areas of the WMA...this includes the bunks houses too.

We never heard a thing that night. We were fine...and had no problem. Now I wonder about not hearing anything...

Bears just add to the "ambiance" of a place, don't you think?

That's my thinking I guess until I have a bad experience...

Bear says he would never tear your place ;up! Honest he is a good little dog.

Dave

Bears don't bother me when I go backpacking. But I don't go backpacking in grizzly country. And, I don't store my food in the tent. Not even tooth paste or chap-stick goes in the tent.

I have never been closer to a bear than 30 feet from momma and her two cubs. Four of us were hiking along the trail.

Deer are interesting when backpacking. I have been surrounded by 20+ deer, the closest less than 15 feet away.

When backpacking in California, I am more concerned with rattle snakes.

Safety is relative. I nearly killed myself in a solo snow skiing accident February 2011. One more neck injury and I am likely dead. So, falling down a flight of stairs in the city could be more dangerous than a wild animal in the woods.

Life is for living, enjoy the ride.

Like all have said, follow the park instructions on food and you should be safe. We have camped in Colter Bay Campground in the Tetons with both a pop-up and our TrailManor. With the pop-up, we moved all the toothpaste, smelly stuff, food and dishes each night into the truck cab.
With the TM, we did not have to move food each night into the truck cab. We never emptied the refrigerator.
We did have a mama bear and her cubs about 100 feet from us in the pop-up during the dinner hour. But, nothing happened that night to food sources.

One thing to remember is that most cars have a remote key fob with an alarm. Have that near you in bed and if something starts to happen, push the panic button! You will have lots of help in a short time.

We had no problems when we camped at Yosemite, but I was paranoid so I put the cosmetics and other smelly items into the bear box, plus sprayed the area around the velcro seals with ammonia. They tell you to hide things that the bears recognize, such as coolers and soda bottles, bags of chips, etc. When we left during the day we closed the curtains on the TM. While driving around, we covered the cooler with towels to disguise it.

Then only close encounter we've ever had with a bear was when we camped one year at Lake Almanor, Rocky Point campground. Our neighbors were 3 or 4 20-something guys, tent camping, they were good camping neighbors. One night a bear ripped into their cooler and ate their steaks, hamburgers and bacon. You should have seen the size of the claw marks on that cooler, and the bear footprints. That was one big bear! We didn't even wake up when it happened.

We've seen them around, at Mammoth Pool and other parts of Yosemite, but that's the only time we've had one come so close to the campsite. I keep pepper spray in the camper, but haven't had to use it yet.

We have camped in Yellowstone, and in the high Sierras. In both places, entry was forbidden to tents and to campers with canvas sides, but entry was readily granted to a TrailManor.

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I hear people say this from time to time and I hear of salesmen at RV dealers telling people this. I can't understand where it comes from or why it persists because it is just plain incorrect. Yellowstone, Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon do NOT deny entry to people in tents and canvas pop-up tent trailers. I know this because I have camped at all of those places in tents and pop-up tent trailers. In fact, the last time I was at Yellowstone (last summer) those two types of camping rigs accounted for more than 50% of all camping rigs in the park.

Yellowstone has 12 campgrounds and only one requires a hard-sided camping vehicle. This is the Fishing Bridge RV Park. Some people claim that is because the stream there is a place bears like to come for fish. Other say it's just that Xanterra, the concessionaire, wants to save the utility sites for the big rigs and cram as many of them in there as possible. (It's a horrible place to "camp." It's like being in a mall parking lot at Christmas time.) The bottom line is that people can camp in the other 11 CGs, whether park- or concessionaire-operated, in sleeping bags on the ground with no tent, in a tent or in any kind of mobile rig with or without canvas.

The park rule is that no food, cooking/eating equipment or toiletries may be stored in a tent or soft-sided camping vehicle such as a pop-up tent trailer. It has to be locked in a bear box or in the tow vehicle out of sight whenever it is not being actually used. Such items can be stored in hard-sided vehicles and the TrailManor qualifies as a hard-sided vehicle.

If anyone doubts me on these points please call these parks and find out the truth for yourself.

Like you, I can only report my own experiences. But you are right, my hurried response was not specific enough to avoid unintended interpretations. In each case, what I should have said was "I have camped in Yellowstone and the High Sierras, and in the specific campgrounds I chose, entry was forbidden to canvas ...". It never occurred to me that anyone would interpret my statements to say that entry to all of Yellowstone was fordibben, or entry to all of the High Sierras was forbidden - but I should have been more specific.

At the bottom line, the best idea is, as you said, to check with the specific campground in which you plan to stay.

Bill

I have backpacked in Yosemite 3 times. For the first two times we used the classic technique of storing food on a rope between two trees. On the last trip bear proof canisters were required for all backpackers. I have 2.

Somewhere I read that the way they certify a new product is they take it to a local zoo. At the zoo is one of the particularly nasty bears that has been permanently removed from Yosemite.

They allow the bear to watch them put his favorite snack inside the canister and then seal it and drop it near him. If it survives an hour then it has passed the test and is certified.

This might be an urban legend.

Bears have learned to see the rope between the trees and send the cubs up to chew through the rope. A friend of mine has had good success by using fishing line instead of rope. In the dark, fishing line is invisible. If there are only two trees then a very smart bear might figure this out. But if there are many trees then it becomes a guessing game, or the bear just gets confused.

The reason we bought the TM in the first place is that we wanted to feel comfortable cooking in our camper. And living in Colorado, I didn't feel that way about a canvas sided pop-up. Like others have said, if a bear really wants in, a camper is not going to stop him, BUT it seems to be the general opinion that the TM, even with the canvas velcro, is seen as a hard-sided trailer, and you can expect to have the same liberties and restrictions as you would in any other hard-sided trailer. I don't think we have ever stayed at a place WITHOUT bear boxes, and we have never had any trouble or felt timid about storing food and cooking in our TM.