# There's a Bear in the Truck!



## MrWhoopee (Jun 1, 2022)

For the first time in a few years, we are having a bear problem. If I put the trash out the night before pickup, it will be spread far and wide before the garbage truck arrives. Bears make a much bigger mess than dogs, coyotes, raccoons or ravens. They will knock the can over, drag the contents out, then take a whole bag and drag it 100 ft. away before tearing it open and spreading it around. To counter this I've been keeping the trash in the back of one of my many cars, taking it down early Tuesday morning. Being deliberately disconnected, I forgot that this Monday was a holiday and pickup wouldn't be 'til Wednesday, so the can was full of all sorts of attractive stuff. I drove down and hoisted the full can into the back of the truck and took it back up to the house. Fortunately, I left it hooked up to the hoist.




About 3:30 this morning my wife woke me, telling me there was a bear making a lot of noise in the back of the truck. Because the can was still attached to the hoist he couldn't tip it over. He managed to get one bag out before we scared him off. The mess was much smaller than a raccoon would make and confined to the back of the truck. I call it a win.


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## DavidR8 (Jun 1, 2022)

Wow, that's a determined bear!
(as an aside it looks like the axe in the lower left corner of the pic needs a new handle  )


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## mmcmdl (Jun 1, 2022)

Send that bear my way , maybe he'll drag some of my junk away !   We're suppose to have 5 or so roaming around our camp area . I've never had any issues with them over the years , but the .338 Win Mag is always at my side when sitting around the fire at night . The fishers and the cats up there are everywhere and are always on my mind .


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## C-Bag (Jun 1, 2022)

Bears are something that I’ve seen firsthand the kind of damage they can do and it’s got to be seen to believe. At least once a summer I’d see a car, camper or truck brought into the Curry Village garage In Yosemite to make the vehicle driveable so they could get down the hill. Typical was a door frame on a big American PU peeled down like it was made of spaghetti or a door torn off a motorhome. Usually they’d left some food on the seat and locked up the truck. The bears also would try almost nightly to get into the armored dumpsters. They looked like they had been attacked by a dozer.


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## MrWhoopee (Jun 1, 2022)

DavidR8 said:


> Wow, that's a determined bear!
> (as an aside it looks like the axe in the lower left corner of the pic needs a new handle  )


Found by the side of the road, still looking for "Chuck" to return it.


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## MrWhoopee (Jun 1, 2022)

C-Bag said:


> Bears are something that I’ve seen firsthand the kind of damage they can do and it’s got to be seen to believe. At least once a summer I’d see a car, camper or truck brought into the Curry Village garage In Yosemite to make the vehicle driveable so they could get down the hill. Typical was a door frame on a big American PU peeled down like it was made of spaghetti or a door torn off a motorhome. Usually they’d left some food on the seat and locked up the truck. The bears also would try almost nightly to get into the armored dumpsters. They looked like they had been attacked by a dozer.


Fortunately, so far our bears are not that experienced or determined.  This one bailed as soon as my wife opened the front door, and didn't come back.  The two large neighborhoods in our area have much worse problems because of the density and the bears have become accustomed to people. Our daughter had to chase one out of her garbage, only to have it move two doors down the street.  A local posted pictures on FB after he tried locking his can. The bear dragged it out in the woods and destroyed it. Wishing we had neighborhood bear-proof dumpsters instead of the common plastic cans.


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## C-Bag (Jun 1, 2022)

MrWhoopee said:


> Wishing we had neighborhood bear-proof dumpsters instead of the common plastic cans.


Boy howdy. All it will take is the one time somebody goes out there to roust a bear only to find it’s a momma and cubs, then stuff gets real.

Being in Yosemite I got a lesson in how folks just don’t get it. You could hear those bears beating the dumpsters and fighting each other every night around 10pm. There was no way I wanted to be any closer than the other side of the lodge from them.

I was standing in camp waiting for to use the pay phone and two older ladies asked me where the garbage cans were for the lodge. I asked why and they told me they wanted to watch the bears eat garbage. And I told them that was not safe and they just smiled at me like I was an idiot. About that time came a big crash and off they went. I’d ride my bike every night after my shift and would see tourists with little kids out in the big meadow trying to feed the deer and bears with cubs. They should have all been in the Darwin Awards.


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## 682bear (Jun 1, 2022)

I'm harmless unless you get between me and the food...

-Bear


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## Bi11Hudson (Jun 1, 2022)

Read this post and then came back to it a lot later to comment. It seems many folks assume most any animal to be cute and adorable. I live in Birmingham, Ala, we don't have trouble with bears or big cats. But we do have quasi-domesticated animals that have reverted to feral states. Dogs and cats that were once domesticated but have turned wild are as dangerous as bears and mountain lions. They may not do the same damage but are still as wild.

Deer are a serious problem in the wilds around here. They have never been domesticated, and will run when encountered. But if cornered, it's a whole different issue. With a man ending up as Nr 2 at best. Taking on a train with a pickup truck has better odds. I have had an expression for years that if you *take a stick and poke at a rabbit until he is cornered, he will come up that stick. And you best let go the other end when he does*.

Then there are feral hogs. I spent many years in the swamps of Florida, feral hogs can have tusks as big as my hand. And with a bad temperment combined with those tusks, the safest place is about 20 feet up a tree. Even alligators leave them alone most times.

With times getting tough, there are some people that are becoming feral too. Always leave an animal, or a man, room to run. For a she animal with young, that covers about 350 degrees.

.


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## C-Bag (Jun 2, 2022)

Being a backpacker in the CA Sierra’s from the mid 60’s to the late 90’s I saw firsthand the evolution of bear incursions. Yosemite and it’s nearby areas were the epicenter. We went into a little lake close the White Wolf in ‘66 when in Boy Scouts. Our first real backpacking trip and were told by the park rangers we needed to hang our food at night and not keep any food in our tents. About half the troop took it seriously and did various schemes of hanging. Only a few of us asked the ranger exactly how. I did like he said and used my sleeping bag stuff sack and put my freeze dried food in it and tried to get it at least 15’ up and as far out on the limb as possible. Others did like the ranger said not to do, one patrol used a pack close to the trunk with everybody else some variation. We had not even settled down to sleep when a commotion started with yelling and banging on pots etc. A bear had gone straight for the hung pack and was tearing apart the pack on the ground with guys standing around yelling at it. It grabbed bags of candy and took off. The pack was ruined in seconds and all the food inside a mess in the dirt.

Things only got crazier from there where you had to go higher and further out on the limb and not tie your line to the ground but as high as possible in another tree and then rub your line down with creosote or something awful tasting. Also you had to hang your food for the whole time you were there and only get it down when you needed it as if the bears didn’t get it the squirrels would.

We did a month long trip where we hit every park between central CA to Banff National Park in Canada and if there was somebody camping close by and they saw us hanging food they were totally amused and would say “you must be from California”.


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## MrWhoopee (Jun 2, 2022)

We were backpacking in the Minarets (Ansel Adams wilderness) a couple of years after they closed the dumps in Yosemite. The bears had naturally spread out and become problems in areas where they had not been previously. My friend Chris had lots of practice with the counter-balance hang, and we were careful to put everything up high every night. We also avoided the popular campsites. During that week we encountered quite a number of people, ALL of whom had lost something to the bears. Some were leaving early because they lost everything. We never had any trouble.


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## Gnpenning (Jun 2, 2022)

Living in northwestern Montana we have both grizzlies and black bears.  I live next to a piece of state land and have had both types on my property. A few years ago we had a young sow spend a couple months in the fall right here living on gut piles and berries. She was collared with the grizzly specialist checking on her frequently.  He said she would move when people came close to her.  I was concerned about my livestock, especially the hogs I was trying to get in the freezer. After talking with him I felt much better.  

I've experienced black bears destroying my garbage and spreading it down the trail.  They sure make a mess of things. Clean up takes a bit of effort.  My location doesn't require bear proof garbage containers like some close by.  

Horse trips into the BOB and the rest of the back country require bear proof containers.  

The FWP uses the saying A fed bear is a dead bear.   Sadly it's true. So many feed wildlife to get pictures and condition bears to human food. A few years back a elderly lady was feeding bears, literally. At least one went in her house (open door) and fed on her.  

A tourist just got gored by a buffalo in Yellowstone.  To many think animals are just like in the Disney movies.  Plenty of real life action videos to prove otherwise.


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## C-Bag (Jun 2, 2022)

On that big month long trip we finally made it to Banff and here it was the end of June and it was miserable there. Rainy and so cold, yet mosquitoes like we‘d never seen. Even early Sierra crazy snow mosquitoes! These were huge lumbering things like hummingbirds. In the Sierra you could slither up some deet and the skeeters would hover about 6” away. The Canuck skeeters would just go for whatever didn’t directly have DEET on it like in your ears, lips, nose and eyeballs. We gave up and came back out and the green in the middle of Banff was like a concert without music. Every inch covered with gear and climbers and hikers trying to dry out their gear. One guy told us about the BOB( Bob Marshall Wilderness) and we were setting our sights on it to take up the time we originally allotted for Banff. We got beyond the border and stopped for the night and was talking to a guy and when we told him where we were headed he told us about two idiots who gave a bear something with LSD in it and it came back and dragged her out of her sleeping bag and killed her. We ended up going to Mt.Hood and walking all the way around it instead. Just the mention of grizzlies and homey is outta there.


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## 7milesup (Jun 2, 2022)

Wisconsin Couple Fends off Bear Attack in Their Own Home Using a Kitchen Knife
					

After they were attacked in their own kitchen, the husband got ahold of a firearm and shot and killed the bear.




					www.outdoorlife.com
				




This was 80 miles to the East of me.  Very unusual bear behavior.  
The sow was very small, so I am thinking there may have been an underlying cause for her aggression.


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## C-Bag (Jun 2, 2022)

7milesup said:


> Wisconsin Couple Fends off Bear Attack in Their Own Home Using a Kitchen Knife
> 
> 
> After they were attacked in their own kitchen, the husband got ahold of a firearm and shot and killed the bear.
> ...


Did you see at the end of the article where they just mention in passing a Cub was seen running into the trees?

I saw this one recently. Talk about cannon balls.









						Man Survives Grizzly Attack by Shoving Arm Down Bear's Throat
					

Bow hunter Chase Dellwo survives a grizzly bear attack Saturday by remembering a tip his grandmother had once given him.




					www.backpacker.com


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## mickri (Jun 2, 2022)

When I was backpacking in the Sierras I used a bear proof canister to store my stuff in.  Tying up in the trees is no longer allowed.  You can't get a wilderness permit now without an approved bear cannister.  I could store 8 days worth of food in my cannister.  A friend of mine had one made out of Kevlar and titanium.  It was bigger than mine.  He could store 10, maybe 11 days of food in his.  I only had a bear try to get into my cannister once.  We would never leave them close to the campsite.  Always put them about 50' away.  Since they got rid of the garbage dumps the bears aren't as bad in Yosemite.  I have heard that the bears are now really bad in Mammoth Lakes.  The vacationing city dwellers don't seem to understand bears and garbage.


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## 7milesup (Jun 2, 2022)

C-Bag said:


> Did you see at the end of the article where they just mention in passing a Cub was seen running into the trees?
> 
> I saw this one recently. Talk about cannon balls.
> 
> ...



Yes, I did see that she had a cub.  What is interesting about this case is that the sow was only about 120lbs or so, which is very small.


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## 7milesup (Jun 2, 2022)

One thing you guys deal with out west is grizzly bears.  NO THANKS!  LOL.


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## Gnpenning (Jun 3, 2022)

A local writer,  Roland Cheek has written several books about bear attacks. One story includes the son of my friend. The bear bent the barrel of his shotgun. Roland was an outfitter for years in our area. 

No matter what anyone tries to say, bears do cross all types of roads and are far more plentiful than some try to claim.

 Grizz and wolves have been using rifle shots as a dinner bell in my state.  Wyoming has the same problem, both I know from personal experience, I realize other states do as well, just relaying personal knowledge.  A couple years ago  we helped some hunters pack out a buffalo with a pack string. They had been there for several hours and had done basically nothing SMH. While butchering the animal we had to keep someone on watch, coming out in the dark can be interesting.  A year earlier in that same area an outfitter was attacked and killed while quartering an animal to pack out.  He was the father of one of my cousins boys girlfriend.


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## BGHansen (Jun 3, 2022)

You know, it might be worth putting a Hendey lathe in the truck bed.  You might catch a nice @682bear!

Bruce


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## C-Bag (Jun 3, 2022)

mickri said:


> Tying up in the trees is no longer allowed. You can't get a wilderness permit now without an approved bear cannister.


Wow, I did not know that had happened. So how do you keep the bears from hauling the canister off if you can’t hang it?


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## mickri (Jun 3, 2022)

The bears can't break into the cannisters.  So they leave them alone and move on to easier pickings.  Some places have bear boxes that you have to put the cannisters in when not in use.


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## Bi11Hudson (Jun 3, 2022)

Then there was the "Great White Hunter" that had never gotten out of town except to hunt deer. He got hooked on bow hunting and partnered up with a Native American electronics tech from Dakotas, who *did* have experiences other than the local tree stand. They became great friends until Great White Hunter decided to take a trip out west and *hunt grizzly, with a bow*. The Dakota native finally talked him out of it. And they considered me crazy for riding my motorcycle side saddle on occasion.

.


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