At 06:14 AM 07/05/2000 -0700, Doug Lloyd wrote: >I had meant to mention last night that over the years, I've noticed that >while out paddling with other kayak campers, there as been a wide >disparity amongst those who do and don't take proper precautions around >the camp site. > >Many don't seem to care much about food in their tents, placement of >tent spot, where they cook, etc. I learned about this, first hand, at Bull Lake, Montana in 1985. I did a good job of policing my camp before nightfall. I noticed an old stump with many claw marks but did not pay much attention to it. Then, shortly before retiring, I got out a bag of peanuts. I ate half the bag, and left them on the table. Later that night, a bear woke me by tearing apart the ant-infested stump just outside my camp. Looking out from the fly of my tiny tent the bear looked about 100 feet tall. (You try it!) After savagely ripping chunks off the stump the bear wandered over to the picnic table and helped himself to my peanuts. Now the scary part. The bear turned back toward me and sniffed around the perimeter of my little tent. My first thought was of a Gary Larson cartoon which has the bear, seeing someone in my situation, saying "Sandwiches!" My next thought was simply that the bear would piss on my tent, which would have ended my trip instantly. The bear got bored with me and moved on into the Cub Scout camp nearby. They did the beating on pots and pans thing (I couldn't, all mine were stowed away with all the food except the d**n peanuts) and the bear ran from their camp, back through mine, and crashed off into the woods. Will I take proper bear precautions, and stick to them, next time out? You better believe it. jerry. ps. The mosquitos were worse than the bears at Bull Lake. Ain't goin' back there again. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jul 05 2000 - 09:19:56 PDT
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