I'm posting my trip report here because it wasn't a group get together nor did it happen in the pines. You might find it interesting, though . . . since its relevant to animals that exist right here.
Usually at least once a week, my friends and I will take a trip to the Delaware Water Gap for a day of hiking or a night of camping--usually both. This week was no different and i met my buddies on the AT at around 7pm. This particular trip was a little different as my friend's older (extremely paranoid) brother was joining us. I knew it would be an interesting day when i walked up to camp and almost killed myself on a trip line marking the perimeter--hooked up to pots and pans (a rather cartoon-ish way of alerting us if bears raid the camp in our sleep). I scoffed at the idea . . . my bear encounters have been getting more frequent and more extreme as weeks go by this year, and nothing in research or in personal experience has ever lead me to believe we'd be in danger even if a bear came to the camp.
So we ate our food and enjoyed our evening . . . some ramen noodles and half a wawa sub (i was saving the other half for tomorrow) were my delights . . and as the evening wore on we eventually all went to bed. I left my stinky boots and backpack outside, took out my contacts, set the alarm on my phone for 5:15, and went to sleep.
When the alarm went off at 5:15, i was barely conscious enough to turn it off, but somehow enough of my brain was working to recognize strange noises outside my tent. I dismissed it and fell back to sleep. The next time I awoke (maybe 5:45), there was no dismissing the noise. I heard rustling outside my tent (the other two guys were in their own, larger tent), some weird whining noises, snorting, heavy breathing, grunting, and most of all i heard the guys in the other tent stirring uncomfortably and talking quietly amongst themselves. The one noise i never heard though . . . pots and pans scraping on a rock then clanging together.
Well despite the lack of trip-alarm noise . . . i eventually resolved that it was bears before i even liften my head. The screen window to my tent was open, so when i lifted it, I strained to see the disturbance (now surrounding my friends' tent) not more than 10 or 20 feet away. Not only am I completely blind without my contacts . . . my shoes were outside, my light was laying on my shoes and my clothes were balled up in a shirt i was using for a pillow. Straining to see in the misty twilight of pre-dawn in the mountains---i made out two black shadowy figures. One was huge. The other was small. Mother and a baby. Crap. Not only that, but i'm both blind and naked. Crap crap crap!!
My friend eventually got up the courage to make a noise and in the most manly, loud and authoritative voice he could muster, he blurted out one word: "Bob?"
I responded: "Yeah. Those're bears alright."
when i spoke i saw the smaller figure dart to the left and the larger, lumbering figure move slowly after it.
Well then the race was on. how long would it take for us to get dressed (for me to put in the contacts) and for us to leap out of the tents before the now freaked-out bears starting doing rash things to our paper-thin shelters?
Jay was out first (only having to pull on sneakers), i was slowly second, and his paranoid brother curled into the very center of his tent and greedily devoured the bagel he had been practically using for a teddy bear "I have to eat this so it won't attract them" By the time i was out of my tent, the bears were gone and we were discussing how insane that experience was, and i peered back in my tent for my backpack . . . i wanted something to munch on, but it wasn't in there. Then it occurred to me . . . my backpack was outside. RIGHT outside my tent, in fact. But it wasn't. "Those bastards stole my backpack!" my quirky early-morning amusement suddenly turned into anger. Why? a list of my backpack contents:
--Maps
--bug net
--bandanas
--first aid stuff
--excedrine
--car keys
--wallet
--gps
--binoculars
--collapsible snake hook
--2 packs of ramen noodles
--1/2 wawa ham and turkey blt sub.
--pepper spray (they probably used it to season the sub)
Well i was no longer a happy camper (excuse that horrible joke please) ---how could I have been so stupid as to leave food in my unsecured backpack like that?? I make fun of people that do stupid rookie stuff like that. and our new mission was to track down the bears and find my pack. There was just no way i could afford to lose all that stuff. In the first half-hour of looking for my stuff--we didn't come across success, but we DID come across two other backpacks and someone's food bag which had obviously been tied up on a tree---all ravaged. Those airtight containers were popped open as easily as a ripe melon--this wasn't the first time this has happened. This bears know this is a well-used site. They know they can get easy food. They've had practice.
So as we go through the belongings of other unlucky campers, Jay's lion-hearted brother (who stayed at the site for his own safety purposes) screams out into the morning: "beeaaaaarrrr!!!!". We race back to discover a mother and two cubs had returned for another attack on our camp.
--to be continued . . . .
-Bob
Usually at least once a week, my friends and I will take a trip to the Delaware Water Gap for a day of hiking or a night of camping--usually both. This week was no different and i met my buddies on the AT at around 7pm. This particular trip was a little different as my friend's older (extremely paranoid) brother was joining us. I knew it would be an interesting day when i walked up to camp and almost killed myself on a trip line marking the perimeter--hooked up to pots and pans (a rather cartoon-ish way of alerting us if bears raid the camp in our sleep). I scoffed at the idea . . . my bear encounters have been getting more frequent and more extreme as weeks go by this year, and nothing in research or in personal experience has ever lead me to believe we'd be in danger even if a bear came to the camp.
So we ate our food and enjoyed our evening . . . some ramen noodles and half a wawa sub (i was saving the other half for tomorrow) were my delights . . and as the evening wore on we eventually all went to bed. I left my stinky boots and backpack outside, took out my contacts, set the alarm on my phone for 5:15, and went to sleep.
When the alarm went off at 5:15, i was barely conscious enough to turn it off, but somehow enough of my brain was working to recognize strange noises outside my tent. I dismissed it and fell back to sleep. The next time I awoke (maybe 5:45), there was no dismissing the noise. I heard rustling outside my tent (the other two guys were in their own, larger tent), some weird whining noises, snorting, heavy breathing, grunting, and most of all i heard the guys in the other tent stirring uncomfortably and talking quietly amongst themselves. The one noise i never heard though . . . pots and pans scraping on a rock then clanging together.
Well despite the lack of trip-alarm noise . . . i eventually resolved that it was bears before i even liften my head. The screen window to my tent was open, so when i lifted it, I strained to see the disturbance (now surrounding my friends' tent) not more than 10 or 20 feet away. Not only am I completely blind without my contacts . . . my shoes were outside, my light was laying on my shoes and my clothes were balled up in a shirt i was using for a pillow. Straining to see in the misty twilight of pre-dawn in the mountains---i made out two black shadowy figures. One was huge. The other was small. Mother and a baby. Crap. Not only that, but i'm both blind and naked. Crap crap crap!!
My friend eventually got up the courage to make a noise and in the most manly, loud and authoritative voice he could muster, he blurted out one word: "Bob?"
I responded: "Yeah. Those're bears alright."
when i spoke i saw the smaller figure dart to the left and the larger, lumbering figure move slowly after it.
Well then the race was on. how long would it take for us to get dressed (for me to put in the contacts) and for us to leap out of the tents before the now freaked-out bears starting doing rash things to our paper-thin shelters?
Jay was out first (only having to pull on sneakers), i was slowly second, and his paranoid brother curled into the very center of his tent and greedily devoured the bagel he had been practically using for a teddy bear "I have to eat this so it won't attract them" By the time i was out of my tent, the bears were gone and we were discussing how insane that experience was, and i peered back in my tent for my backpack . . . i wanted something to munch on, but it wasn't in there. Then it occurred to me . . . my backpack was outside. RIGHT outside my tent, in fact. But it wasn't. "Those bastards stole my backpack!" my quirky early-morning amusement suddenly turned into anger. Why? a list of my backpack contents:
--Maps
--bug net
--bandanas
--first aid stuff
--excedrine
--car keys
--wallet
--gps
--binoculars
--collapsible snake hook
--2 packs of ramen noodles
--1/2 wawa ham and turkey blt sub.
--pepper spray (they probably used it to season the sub)
Well i was no longer a happy camper (excuse that horrible joke please) ---how could I have been so stupid as to leave food in my unsecured backpack like that?? I make fun of people that do stupid rookie stuff like that. and our new mission was to track down the bears and find my pack. There was just no way i could afford to lose all that stuff. In the first half-hour of looking for my stuff--we didn't come across success, but we DID come across two other backpacks and someone's food bag which had obviously been tied up on a tree---all ravaged. Those airtight containers were popped open as easily as a ripe melon--this wasn't the first time this has happened. This bears know this is a well-used site. They know they can get easy food. They've had practice.
So as we go through the belongings of other unlucky campers, Jay's lion-hearted brother (who stayed at the site for his own safety purposes) screams out into the morning: "beeaaaaarrrr!!!!". We race back to discover a mother and two cubs had returned for another attack on our camp.
--to be continued . . . .
-Bob
