View Full Version : What would you do?
You're sound asleep in your tent (or otherwise fully enclosed shelter so you are unable to see out). You are awoken by the sound of shuffled footsteps outside. It's a bear! Do you either lay quiet pretending to be asleep and hoping it will just go away, or make a sudden loud noise hoping to scare it off? What would you do?
Footslogger
02-25-2008, 18:15
Actually ...that happened to me once. My first thought was to just go back to sleep. But the bear kept pacing around my tent and scratching at the ground. I finally started to talk to the bear and encourage it with my best soft spoken insults to leave. The bear eventually either lost interest or didn't like the sound of my voice. Either way I was REALLY glad it walked away cuz I had to take a pee.
'Slogger
Almost There
02-25-2008, 18:28
Turn on my head lamp and make a bunch of noise, hope to startle it in order to get it to leave!
Fart (or just soil myself(more so than normal)).Seriously, bears have a good sense of smell.
Appalachian Tater
02-25-2008, 18:43
Roll over and go back to sleep.
In the Smokeys coyotes came into camp in the middle of the night howling and woke me up. You could hear their footsteps. I was so tired that I thought in the fog of sleep that the younger guys were cutting up, and rolled over and went back to sleep. I remembered it in the morning and asked and was informed that it was neither a dream nor cut-ups but indeed coyotes.
Another time what must have been a pair of owls woke up me and the other four people at the campsite in the middle of the night. At the time it was scary--they didn't sound like a noise a mammal or bird could possibly make, very other-worldly, like something come to life off a cathedral, on both sides of the clearing. You couldn't have paid me to go out of my tent. One of the people knew what it was but said in the morning heck yeah, they were still scared.
Most of the time when you think there's a bear outside of your tent, it's a deer, especially in the Shenandoah park. I swatted one through the wall of my tarptent to make it go away so I could go back to sleep.
Sudden loud noise! I do that anyway when anything falls or crashes nearby. Just happens........
Almost There
02-25-2008, 18:52
Fart (or just soil myself(more so than normal)).Seriously, bears have a good sense of smell.
That was you who farted at Peddlar Creek back in 06. I thought a portal to hell had opened with the stench that I had smelled.:eek: Don't worry, my friend, you are safe from bears!:D
Once in Shenandoah, I was meeting up with a group to take a day off and do some canoing. I got into camp after dark, so just decided to cowboy camp. During the night, I woke up to something nosing around our camp. There were two couples near-by, each had their tent up. I finally figured out it was a bear, sniffing around one of the tents. I lay there, with the dilemma of what to do, holler out, or keep quiet. Soon the folks in the tent also heard it. They made the decision. The guy hollered out very loud and commanding "GO AWAY BEAR!!!" It did, never came back that night.
Guess you just gotta tell 'em what you want. :-)
That was you who farted at Peddlar Creek back in 06. I thought a portal to hell had opened with the stench that I had smelled.:eek: Don't worry, my friend, you are safe from bears!:D
No, you were still there when I woke up.
Blissful
02-25-2008, 19:57
Turn on my head lamp and make a bunch of noise, hope to startle it in order to get it to leave!
Almost There ought to know what to do, he's got the avatar to prove it.
:)
I'd put my MP3 player on and ignore it.
Use nail clippers on it.
Katz
wilconow
02-25-2008, 20:11
Go back to sleep
I have been in that situation just south of the smokies. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. My buddies had their little pocket knives and were freaking out.
wilconow
02-25-2008, 20:28
^^^ Yeah, my answer is go back to sleep and hope that anyone else around isn't irrational and going to keep me up
Jack Tarlin
02-25-2008, 20:31
I'd make noise and flash my headlamp around the woods.
Bears don't like either one; i.e. odd or unusual noises at night scares them, and so would a flashlight in the face.
This is NOT behavior likely to cause an attack either; instead, it is likely to make the bear take off.
And then I'd probably stay up for awhile to see if it worked! :D
Roll over and go back to sleep.
In the Smokeys coyotes came into camp in the middle of the night howling and woke me up.
Another time what must have been a pair of owls woke up me and the other four people at the campsite in the middle of the night.
deer, especially in the Shenandoah park. I swatted one through the wall of my tarptent to make it go away so I could go back to sleep.
I couldn't sleep after coyotes yipping.
I could sleep with a smile being lulled to sleep by an owl. Unless it was a "visegrips on a cat" sounding owl.
You are lucky you swatted a deer and not a skunk. Or porker.
Yell, "Go away, bear!"
Actually, whether I'd try it or not depends on whether the bear is just walking past my tent, or whether he/she is hanging around. If the bear is just walking past, I let it go. If it's hanging around, then I shout. It worked in Yosemite, anyway.
When it happened to me, I layed there worrying about the Snickers wrapper in my pocket. I didn't make a peep.
warraghiyagey
02-25-2008, 21:26
You're sound asleep in your tent (or otherwise fully enclosed shelter so you are unable to see out). You are awoken by the sound of shuffled footsteps outside. It's a bear! Do you either lay quiet pretending to be asleep and hoping it will just go away, or make a sudden loud noise hoping to scare it off? What would you do?
Lie, listen and ponder it in my journal.:sun
fiddlehead
02-25-2008, 21:27
Depends if you want to keep your food, or get some good pics.
I like my food so: yell, scream, throw rocks at it. Make it mad enough to go get someone elses food or climb that bearpole or tree and work harder than just scaring someone for their food.
Lone Wolf
02-25-2008, 21:28
just start shootin'. empty the clip
just start shootin'. empty the clip
wimp. if you had nads you'd rassle it.
Footslogger
02-25-2008, 22:25
just start shootin'. empty the clip
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...and hope to hell your aim was good ;)
'Slogger
Burst into "I'm in the mood for love..."
Footslogger
02-25-2008, 22:31
Burst into "I'm in the mood for love..."
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That could be dangerous ...might be a gay bear !!
'Slogger
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That could be dangerous ...might be a gay bear !!
'Slogger
Then he'll have to bend over. ;)
aaroniguana
02-25-2008, 22:33
Scare him away with my impeccable Bob Dylan impersonation.
Footslogger
02-25-2008, 22:34
Then he'll have to bend over. ;)
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Wicked visual ....:eek:
'Slogger
Get up and make sure the bear really was, then I'd probably move my food bag down to the foot end of my tent.
hopefulhiker
02-25-2008, 22:39
This happened to me once near a shelter just before the NOC.. I was camped by a little rivelet..
I had accidentally brought a candy bar inside the tent with me...I had hung a bear bag, but forgot the candy...
Anyway I sat up inside the tent and my elbow hit something really heavy and big through the tent. I heard the thing run off.. I could tell it was really big... I am pretty sure it was a bear..
I got up and took that candy bar and strung it up with my other food.. No more sleep that night though...
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Wicked visual ....:eek:
'Slogger
I suppose it would. :p
One time on the PCT, about 5am not very far from my tent, I had something scratching dirt and what sounded like moving logs. I lit a cigarette, it split and I went back to bed. I figured it was an elk.
Footslogger
02-25-2008, 22:43
I suppose it would. :p
One time on the PCT, about 5am not very far from my tent, I had something scratching dirt and what sounded like moving logs. I lit a cigarette, it split and I went back to bed. I figured it was an elk.
=============================
Nah ...just a non-smoking bear !!
'Slogger
I watched a Moose and her baby enter my campsite on Isle Royale as I sat at a picnic table, late at night. I was essentially terrified and didn't move for 45 minutes.
maxNcathy
02-26-2008, 09:33
Look with light to see what it was.Have whistle in my mouth ready to BLAST it if a bear was too close for comfort.
HikerRanky
02-26-2008, 10:52
just start shootin'. empty the clip
Or how about just grinning it to death like Davie Crockett supposedly did?
Appalachian Tater
02-26-2008, 14:26
I was tenting near a shelter not too far from a dirt road and there were a couple of fairly young guys who had driven there and were camping in the shelter. You could see their car from the spring. We talked a little but I was tired so I ate and went to bed.
Not too long after dark, they woke me up hollering and banging things, sounded like a bear was attacking them and was already chewing on somebody's leg. It took me a few seconds to get my courage up, but I went to see if they needed help.
They were standing together in the back corner frightened out of their wits, no bear anywhere around, but they said a beaver tried to get in the shelter. Didn't make much sense, we were nowhere near any water big enough for a beaver, why would they be so afraid of a beaver, whatever. I told them a beaver probably wouldn't hurt them, not to worry, and went back to my tent.
Before I could go back to sleep, they were at it again, hollering and making a bunch of noise. No way was I getting out of my bag again for a beaver. Finally they were quiet and I went to sleep.
In the morning they told me that when it came back they realized that it was a porcupine, not a beaver. It did look like porcupines had already chewed up half the shelter, but I still don't understand why they were so frightened.
Porcs are damn near the cutest looking animals in the forest. Whenver I see one walk I cannot help but laugh a little.
envirodiver
02-26-2008, 14:40
Flash my headlamp at it, yell and make noise.
Or maybe give it a candy bar and try and pet it, I think they are soooooo cute, especially those little ones.
envirodiver
02-26-2008, 14:46
I was camping in Yellowstone and awake reading late at night in my solo tent. I heard something very large walking right outside my tent. Scared the snot out of me, so I lay very still (being invisible), until I finally got the courage to slowly slide through the door and quitely unzip the fly. I looked up right into the underside of a very large moose. I should have still been frightened, but I was so glad it was not a grizzly bear that had come to eat me, that I was relieved. No-one else in the group saw it so they accused me of being intoxicated. Heck w/ them cause I did see it.
Ever been awakened in the middle of the night by a screech owl near by? Man that will get your pucker factor up there pretty high. Takes a few min. to get the sleep clouds out of my brain and realize what it was.
A female bear? Grab it by the paw, pull it under my tarp, and give it a night it will never forget.
That reminds me: Jim moved to Alaska with hopes to become an Alaskan Police Officer. He walks into the first bar he sees and asks the barkeep. How do I become an Alaskan PO? "Simple" says the barkeep, "you must do three things: Drink a handle of whisky, make love to an Eskimo woman, and Kill a Grizzly bear."
Jim Drinks the whisky in two huge gulps, and crashes out the door into the night.
45 minutes later Jim stumbles back into the Bar bleeding all over the place, clothes torn up, crying, sits down at the bar and says, "OK, where's that Eskimo woman I'm suposed to kill."