Okay this kinda freaks me out still :new_weirdsmiley: this past weekend we were sleeping in the tent on our land and I was awake yet. Hubby and dog were sleeping. Then I hear the grass crunch ever so slightly right next to the tent.....it was very quiet except for the frogs down by the creek.......then I hear this strong deep sniffing sound goes and stops....goes and stops. Right next to the tent right were my head is. Then I hear something drag along the tent fabric like his nose or something....real soft-like....more sniffing..stops...more sniffing, louder now and more intense. By now I am invisioning this huge 400lb bear clawing through the tent to get at us.... :new_weirdsmiley: I poke hubby in the back a few times.....he wakes up and I say there is something BIG out there smelling along the tent!!!! What? he says....um.....bear I say....outside!!! He sits up and faces me and listens....hears nothing. Then it starts to rain and the drops on tent prevent hearing anything further. Meanwhile during all this...my dog is snoring sound asleep..... :laugh: I know something BIG was out there and I think it was a bear because the old guy that has a cabin on the other side of our treeline said the one had been visiting his place the past 3 nights. His place isn't that far from where we had our tent. I guess I will be getting a few trail cams and putting them up. Now I don't like the thought of sleeping in a tent on "Black bear highway" which is our land. Guess we will be looking for a travel trailer until we can build the cabin. I am worried about my doggy getting hurt too, if he would run into one. I can deal with sleeping near deer and porcupines and frogs....but bears.....um....no. I know people say they will usually leave humans alone and will run away from us but these bears are just getting up from their sleep and they are HUNGRY. There is not much vegatation or berries for them to eat yet as the snow just melted about 3 weeks ago. Plus the fact that we have the creek there and alot of rotted down trees says to me we will be having more bear visits. The neighbor guy said that there is quite a few around there. I have seen many large piles of scat on our land too. This time we were up there we saw 3 BIG fresh looking piles just about 200 feet from our tent. So I am sure they are around.



Sail

Pretty scary, there, Sailgirl. If you don't keep food in the tent or campground overnight, the probably won't bother you. But bears are wild animals, and with that comes a certain amount of unpredictability. I have heard that the best protection for a snoopy bear is to sleep with a big cast iron frying pan under your pillow. When he pokes his big nose into the tent fabric, whack it full-force with the frying pan. Joking, PLEASE don't try this at home. Honestly, I think having bears out there makes the whole outdoor experience more interesting.
BSF

A couple of years ago we had a hurricane come through here, and it knocked our power out for 5 days. Well I had a camping trip planned and left toward the end of the 5 days. My wife took the kids to stay with her parents so our house was deserted for the entire time. Upon our return we found out that in fact the power had been out the whole time needless to say the food in the freezer and the refrigerator weren't in the best shape. She asked me what she should do with it and I said honey we live in the middle of no where dump it over in the woods. Yeah I know I was asking for it but the word bear never crossed my mind. Anyway when we got back we sat there in the car for a few minutes deciding who would carry what in and who would get the kids. With everything decided I hopped out. I immediatetly turned around to see the neighbors chow dog running straight at me or so I thought cause I could hear him bark. I said honey look "Rat" came to welcome us home and I shut the door. I turned back around and squated to rub him when he ran up when I realized that he was bigger than I was. yep it was a bear a very big bear. I stood up and though oh crap I am dead but I had no where to go since I was against the car. At about 15 feet he realized I was a person or so I hope and took a hard left and went behind the car and back into the woods. Once he went into the woods I heard him run and then stop. At this point I hustled the family in the house and left most of the other stuff. I guess ole smokey the bear wasn't finished with his dinner and didn't appreciate being interupted. I decided that that was just too close so I had my Boy Scout Troop visit the park I live in to have a discussion on bear safety. During the talk the Ranger, who lives just down the road from me said she had a bear go through her yard a couple of nights ago that wieghed over 500 pounds and I was like oh really me too.

Wow Sail!

I had this same thing happen to me on a hunting trip in the Blues here in Oregon. Hubby was asleep and dad-in-law was in another tent nearby. The bear approached my side of the tent and did the same sniffing thing that you describe. It basically sniffed along to hubby's side of the tent and then moved on. We found tracks around the camp the next morning and a pile of scat just outside of camp. I have photos of those tracks somewhere.

Redwolf

Sail, that would have totally unnerved me. :new_weirdsmiley:

They can be pretty scary when they are up close like that. Be careful.

This may be a little off topic, or maybe not.... but, anyway.... You don't by chance use any of the "fruitty" smelling hair products do you? I have noticed that alot of the stuff on the market, shampoo, conditioner, leave ins, styling products have a fruitty smell that is attractive to all sorts of wild critters, from insects on up.... I really noticed this recently when I switched to something that my cats just adore, they will try to roll on my head when hair is wet, and some try to eat my hair as well. SOMETHING in the product is attractive to them. One of the worst ones I used to use as a child (Aussie) used to attract yellow jacket wasps, too. Just a thought, I would think that a fruitty smell may be attractive to a post hibernatin' hungry bear :laugh:
SK

That might be a very good point to ponder, Snow Kitty......

Well, I am a girl, and the two who had experiences with bears "sniffing" are too.... so.... :new_lmaosmiley:

It certainly could be true that the fruity smell of some hair products might attract a bear, but bears have been sniffing around tents at night ever since long before I can remember.

That is a very good point SK. They have watermelon, strawberry and other scents that are probably best not used when camping or hiking. We had a horse start sniffing my youngest daughters hair due to a fruity scented hair gel. He actually sniffed one of her curls up his nose! The owner took him away before he could attempt a taste test.

Our curious bear was likely drawn in by the scent of our dinner. I did wash the pans and there were no leftovers...but I am sure the scent lingered in camp and on us. The time of year (late summer) combined with lots of berries in the area made ours a somewhat different situation that what Sail encountered. Hers could have gotten ugly in hurry. Still, you don't want to take any chances.

RW

Oh, I'm a girl too...I just don't use fruity shampoo's..but I can see where they might smell tasty to a bear. Although I know they follow their nose where ever it takes them....

I thought of it due to the fact that I know that there are scent maskers for hunters and have a friend who in 15 years has not once had a chance to even take a shot at a deer, both rifle and bow seasons here in Michigan. We tease him every year and tell him he needs to stop smoking cuz they can smell him a mile off, even down wind :laugh: He smokes .....alot. So much that he exudes the smell of cigs, he can sit on my furniture for 15 minutes and I have to get the febreeze out... cuz the sofa smells....
since we can't smell alot of scents that we carry into the woods or generate, ( like cooking, or bathing etc ) we tend to forget that the native critters can... and do smell something out of the ordinary. Course it probably doesn't help to camp in the middle of their "highway" either :new_whistle:

Next time you sleep in the tent, right before bed eat a turkey sandwich, two pickled eggs, and wash it down with a couple warm beers. Now we know black bears have no interest in dead things, which is supposedly why playing dead if one attacks usually ends up with them walking off. Of course that combination of food won't kill ya, but it'll sure make ya smell like yer dead. The bear will sniff a couple times, smell that scent, and run for the hills!

OK, maybe it won't work, but if it does, it was my idea! I had the same thing happen while camping in the Redwoods along the Smith River in N. California. I was the only one awake... hmmm maybe that's because I was the only one in my tent! Anyway, same thing.. something big came up along the tent and started sniffing away. As I heard it start to wander off I peered out the front flap and watched the back end of a bear heading off. Next time I'm bringing two buddies and I got dibs on the middle!

No I make it a point not to use or wear anything with any scent of ANY kind when we are up there!!! I use no hairspray or makeup or lotions, and use unscented everything else. We keep nothing in the tent that would have a smell, other than just our clothes. I use unfragranced detergent and don't even keep bug spray in tent. This WAS a scary situation and from the looks of things it will be back. So no more tenting! We will sleep in the truck until we find a used camper trailer. We had a gun in the tent, but I would really hate to kill a bear or anything else unless we were really in danger. But they are unpredicable animals and we have to careful out there it is a very remote forested area and there are many animals around. Sail

The scary part for me, sailgirl, was that I was pretty sure you had taken alot of precautions, and even with a gun in the tent, you can still be badly injured before you have a chance to use it. I get the feeling you really are into camping, you by chance don't drive a pick up with a topper? Sleeping under topper in back may be solution til can get a camper... Good luck til then. I would hate to have something bad happen.

Sail, I knew you had a bear or bears around there. And no, this isn't a good time of year to be camping out there. They'll have more to eat later on in the season and won't probably come around. But right now, there isn't a whole lot to eat so yup, they will check you out to see what you might have for them. They LOVE candy bars, so make sure you never mistakenly have one in your pocket when you're out there. I think that is behind a lot of the attacks on children that you hear about.

Your place isn't anywhere near the town dump is it?

And when it was walking up to the tent, did it sound lumbering or stealthy?

No we aren't near the dump as far as I know......VERY small town....I think I would have seen it by now if they even HAVE a dump. It wasn't real quiet....I heard it walk up, and it immediately started this intense sniffing. It stayed there for about 3 minutes.....felt like 15!!!! :new_weirdsmiley: My husband said that he heard something walk around tent the night before (Friday) but wasn't thinking bear at that time. He thought it was some deer, cause they have a "path" right near our tent, they are there almost every night, I have heard them too. I am looking for a trailer as we speak..................Sail

For the love of God girl, get yourself into something more sturdy than some tent fabric! :ohmy:

And I hope you have something for self defense just in case the need arises.

Otherwise, The land you have purchased sounds great and looks nice (saw the pic thread :icon14: ). Glad you are enjoying it.

Well we had a gun in the tent.....but if the big bear wants in the tent, we may not have had time to get it in time..... :new_weirdsmiley: We are not sleeping in it anymore, we will sleep in the truck next time. We are looking for a travel trailer to put on it. I know people have been killed before and this is not the best time of year to be sleeping in the tent as Just curious said. Thanks for all the comments and educational info. My hubby didn't think it would be a problem if bears came around, he thought they would stay away....... :yeahright: Sail

:laugh: Well, I guess you could say that generally there is a reason that us females are in charge of raising the kids...ecologically speaking.... :new_lmaosmiley:

I'm happy to hear you're getting a travel trailer or something a little sturdier until you start building that little log cabin in the woods. With no prior signs of human habitation, you are in the territory of whatever wildlife is there before you...

And speaking of which, I've been thinking about your description of what happened and after checking some maps,,,I have to ask whether you smelled the bear. You definately would have if it was a bear. Since you hadn't mentioned any smell, I have been wondering and the map answered my question. I do believe you're right in the heart of several wolf dens there. You mention your dog being in the tent with you. Don't let your dog run loose in the woods. And don't tie your dog up outside at night. I'll PM you some information.

Beans for dinner usually works wonders in establisheing an 'outer perimeter'.

When I was a teenager, I would save all the pickerel I caught in a 1 gallon mayo jar, and leave it out on the roof of a shed. It would turn to a very nasty smelling black liquid. Purpose: Bear bait. They are attracted by such commercially available canned products as 10 dead horse, and three miles of dead fish. I do not know if the Methane Perimeter would work, but something that smells just plain disgusting to us might draw a bear like blue flys to sh--. Better test it on non-human subjects first. And, no smoking withing 25 feet of the tent!
BSF

When I had my tent and was out elk hunting, I would always keep a 444 Marlin as my bear gun in the tent. Never had to use it but it was good insurance against big black bear. I knew that it would do the job if I called upon it for help.

Sold the 444 and now use a 450 Marlin. I know this one will also do the job.

Both excellent guns, Wardog. I like to have a BIG caliber (as in .45LC) handgun handy, myself. Also never had to use it. Almost a few times.

BSF

According to Buck Tilton, Health Expert for Backpacker magazine, Bears are curious about the odors of human excrement/waste, and they should not be deposited within 100 yards of camp in big predator country. Link With that in mind, I would think it reasonable to suggest the 'bean perimiter' defense could backfire.

BSF