Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 23:06:41 -0400
Reply-To: Emmet McGovern <webmaster@BEACHIN.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Emmet McGovern <webmaster@BEACHIN.NET>
Subject: Re: bears and westys
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Most national parks actually DO suggest you hang food. Yosemite is hot
tourist spot and has better facilities than most national parks. I spent 13
month back country across the country and have stayed in alot of national
forests for up to 3 months at a time. Food lockers are a great thing, but
not all spaces or trail heads will have them. In tourist areas is where you
see them most, so it really depends on where you are headed. Plan for no
food locker to be safe. The biggest mistake alot of long tearm campers make
is using their cars as a supply depot. I usually made sure to check in with
the park service every 2 weeks and bear stories from the rangers made good
small talk. Heres a decent link for camping in bear country
http://www.fs.fed.us/ipnf/visit/brochures/bears/ and
http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/bearhang.htm for a simple hanging method. One thing
this guide overlooks is your personal clothes. The clothes you cook in
smell like the food you cooked, so plan on properly storing those outside of
your vehicle as well. Never ever cook inside your van, and clean those
cabinets, stove and fridge up really well before you go. All this info will
prepare you for the worst of situations. Living with bears is pretty simple
and safe if your smart. Now living with moose is another story for another
time :)
Emmet
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Pollard [mailto:poll7356@UIDAHO.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 5:42 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: bears and westys
I've never had problems while camping in my bus in bear country. Just be
sure to keep the food in a bear locker when possible. Hanging? No way.
I've seen full sized black bears climb 30' up, 15' out and chew through a
fat rope, and eventually destroy my food. In most national parks they say
not to hang your food either. I'm careful to keep the food in a box or
quickly removable container so i can slip them into the food locker. Also
watch out for things like your chapstick and candy wrappers. When a
locker is not available, just be wise. Don't wash your dishes anywhere
near your rig, throw out all trash, and keep all coolers covered. THey
know what coolers look like. You may want to invest in bear spray
(hot peper spray)- but bear spray is ILLEGAL in Canada. Silly canadians.
knock on wood... but i've NEVER seen a VW bus (old or new) get broken into
by a bear (and i lived for two summers in yosemite valley).
Cheers!
m
Matthew Pollard "Racing with the wind and flirting with death
Dept. Of Chemistry So have a cup of coffee and catch your breath"
University of Idaho
www.uidaho.edu/~poll7356
On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Bill Kasper wrote:
> on 7/18/01 1:40 PM, Emmet McGovern at webmaster@beachin.net wrote:
>
> > Dont store anything food related in your van. Wash all your dishes away
> > from your site. Haul your food and garbage up in a tree with a rope at
night
> > away from your site. Ive been camping in the grand tetons where bears
where
> > breaking into backcounry campers cars in the middle of the night for
food
> > stored in a tighly lidded cooler. Good luck
>
>
> so, rather than have any food in the cupboards, put it in a plastic tub
with
> a lid, tape it shut, and hang it?
>
> what about any grime on the stove? do they come after that? do we have
to
> keep martha stewart clean while travelling in bear country?
>
> thanks emmet.
>
> bill
> '87 syncro westfalia
> http://www.scruznet.com/~kasper/pics/westy/
>
|