Well, the black bears at Yosemite NP certainly know how to get into cars by breaking windows and even breaking into trunks to get to food. At Yosemite no vehicle is considered bear proof, and all food must be stored in approved bear proof containers. But to my knowledge, that is the only U.S. bear population that regularly breaks into vehicles. I think that the practice has declined considerably now that there has been 20 years of current policy, but I haven't been to Yosemite in a while. mcneely

---- Richard Smith <richard_smith@gnwc.ca> wrote: > The bracket for the rear table on my westy is in a non-standard location - screws had to be re-done - because a bear broke in via the sliding window and reached his paw in and tried to get into the food bins, tearing the table off its moorings - ripped the screws right out of the particle board. This was in Whistler, BC. I am pretty sure it was a black bear, not even a grizzly. So, I’d side with those rangers at Yellowstone… > > Whistler bears also learned that the old Dodge Caravans, with the flat rear window, had a vulnerability - if you (being a bear) climbed on top of the vehicle and bashed down hard on the rear window with both paws, the window would pop and you could scoop up all the juicy lunch that skiers had left in their van. A wily bear is a formidable scrounger. A wily and experienced bear is even more of an adversary. > > All that said, we camp near bears all the time, keep our food in the van, and don’t worry (too) much. Mostly they don’t want to be anywhere near you. > > …r > > > On Aug 30, 2015, at 10:19 PM, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET> wrote: > > > > In Yellowstone we were told that our Volkswagen Vanagon GL Campmobile was not counted as a hard sided vehicle, and food could not be stored in it. Instead, we were required to store food in the campground boxes. However, we were told that cooking was ok. In Grand Teton NP we were told that the same vehicle, in the same summer, was a hard sided vehicle, and food storage and cooking in it were allowed. > > > > However, in Teton, we were "back country" camping (toilet, food box and table at the camping spot, which was supposed to accommodate two parties but we were without company at a choice spot beside the Snake River). We elected to store food and cook in the van, given that we had good, open site lines for a hundred yards or so in any direction. But, we put the top down for sleeping, and used a container inside the van when we had to get up in the night. Trees at the camp site had bear marks, but they were not recent. It was interesting to think about the height of the marks on the trees, though. They were just about level with the pop top edge on the camper. Grizzlies don't climb trees, but do they climb vehicles with food inside? Pop top down for sleeping, definitely. > > > > Mountains of the Moon is fantastic. I also thought that driving a wagon through that lava field would have been a bit of a chore, especially for the oxen. Walking to the top of a cinder cone was also a chore for me. Well worth the time spent there. > > > > mcneely > > > > ---- WILLIAM WITZ <pbwitz@SBCGLOBAL.NET> wrote: > >> Two Westy's 2,647 miles, what could go wrong? Turns out not much.One Van a blue Syncro 25 years old. My Van a brown 2 wheel drive 31 years old with no AC.As we left Calif. the predicted high was going to be 106 in Sacramento. By the time we got to Auburn it was really hot but as the Vans climbed out of the valley into the Sierra it got more and more comfortable .We crested the Sierra and wound our way into Reno in was a shock to note that Nevada felt about 15 degrees cooler than Calif. We were in luck with the Weather and this turn out to be the pattern for the whole trip. The other thing that struck me was how much green their was along I-80 east bound across Nevada. Calif. has been gripped with a drought as has much of the far west. After 5 hours we stopped to camp in Winnemucca. We did not cook in or around the vans but went out to eat instead. We came back to the camp site and watched the sky turn as night fell. We would need a good nights rest for our trip tomorrow. Day 2 We drove from Winnemucca to Wells on Hwy 80 East. At Wells we drove North on 93 to Idaho (we wanted to see Craters Of The Moon in Idaho) drove to Arco Idaho and camped for two nights.The large pool of Magma under Yellowstone was once under Craters Of The Moon. Just an amazing about of Lava an worth the effort. Don't know how anyone ever managed to drive a wagon train through it.Day 3 We drove from Acro to Moran Wyoming crashing for the night. Day 4 We drove through Grand Tetons to Yellowstone from Yellowstone we drove Through to Gardiner Montana where we rented a house for the week as a base camp. Our party was perhaps or perhaps not, overly concerned about bears viewing our Westy's as a lunch box and all the drama that could intail. more to Follow....Bill Witz 84 Westy Tiico > > > > -- > > David McNeely >

-- David McNeely