Camping in Bear Country - Soft Top
 

I've taken my first trip up north with the JK and the soft top, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I should probably treat food and fragrance containing items exactly the same way as I did when backpacking, i.e., hang everything up in a tree. If I found a Bear ripping through my top, I would probably do something insane and foolish like attempting drag it away.

I really like the idea of being able to bring the cooler along and have fresh MEAT and BEER.

I'm curious to hear other people's input.......

Thanks,

Kachad

If you're in bear country, you definitely don't want to store edibles (including bug spray, soap, deoderant, toothpaste, makeup, etc...) in your Jeep. Bears will try to get it-- I've seen them swipe at hard top vehicles trying to get inside, so a soft-top would be at risk. When I camp in bear country with my soft-top, I do treat it just like backpacking.

Now, as far as the bear bag goes-- not sure what the rules are like where you are, but here in CA bear bags are pretty much a thing of the past. Within the last few years, it's been made a ticketable offense to hang a bear bag because they have become so ineffective. The bears just send their little cubs up the limbs to get the food. The best way to store food and other smelly items away from bears is in a certified bear canister (they're small, so you might need a few) or in a bear locker at a developed campground.

yeah just leave everything wide open, let the bears peak around....ive seen bears get in hardtop vehicles....and basically make them into convertibles trying to get out...impressive....but not if it is your ride haha.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. We don't have any regs limiting bearbags here, yet, but I'll be looking at purchasing a bear-box for the cooler. I don't want this to happen to my Jeep:

http://my.project-jk.com/data/764/me...ears_car1a.jpg

with bears, honesty is the best policy. leave your doors and top at home. before you go to sleep in a tree, lay anything that carries an odor out on the ground, accurately labeled, and grouped according to the food pyramid.

Bear boxes at many places are provided by the managing agency. Depending on where you camp, you may not have to bring anything along. Many trail heads now even have bear boxes. Also, I know that when hiking along parts of the AT a couple years ago, they had stainless steel cable systems designed for hoisting an entire backpack into the trees. These were lots better than bringing along three ropes (if you don't know how to use three ropes, then forget about hanging your food in a tree because a bear will have it down even without the cubs).

Finally, bear canisters are quite small--they're designed to fit in your backpack. At Redwood National Park a couple weeks ago, my son and I hiked in and camped past the Tall Tree Grove and the park service loaned us a bear cannister. And there was a bear box at the trailhead so we didn't have to leave the food in the Jeep. When hiking in King's Canyon a couple years ago, we rented a bear cannister for a couple dollars.

Bottom line: You may not need to bring anything extra along, depending on where you camp.

--mark d.

Don't leave it home, just fold it down so they can reach over it and get what they want. :D

I wonder if they would respect a polite request to ignore the beer but have at it with the rest of the labeled and organized foodstuff on the ground? haha

Most of the camping that I do around here is in Northern MN\WI in non-managed sites in either State Forest or National Forest land, so there are no pre-established bear proof containers. I did find a sight that has several vendors selling panniers that a typical cooler may slide into, and then you can place say 100 yards down the trail. Kind of spendy, would rather use the money towards a bumper, but personnel and vehicular safety come first. I've seen alot of bear sign around, and through the years had some encounters while backpacking, but never had one go through a hard top (and now, soft top possibility) --- not going to tempt fate in any way with my JK though.

I'm attaching a bear track, that while spotting a trail I came across. Based on the fact that the tender grass shoots had not started to straighten back out and that it I didn't see any evidence of rain distortion within the track (picture doesn't pick that difference up - it rained earlier that day) I would guess that we may have scared it off the trail as we went down it. Hence, my concern, hehe. The pieces of dry stick were kicked into the track, and didn't naturally fall.

Also, a link to the site with the panniers that fit the cooler.

I'm a noob to posting rules, so if this is in the wrong area or the vendor link is against rules, any moderator please inform me.

Thanks!

http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index...ars.containers


http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/Be...land_Trail.jpg

Its easy, just leave the food at home and bring more beer:beer:

Except that bears like beer as well. Usually imports, so you may be better off with Coors or Bud :)

While odor is a real issue, hiding items that look like food is important as well. A big issue with bears breaking into cars is related to the bear seeing things like ice chests etc inside the vehicle. If they see what looks like food, as pointed out, they can get in whether or not the vehicle is a hard top or not.

Bears that break into cars are almost always habituated bears that have learned that what is inside cars could be food. The picture of the broken into car almost certainly had an ice chest of some food items visible through he windowl So whether or not these types of bears are present in your camping area is a big consideration.

My wife, who worked for a number of years as a national park ranger in bear country, suggests hiding things like ice chests with towels or blankets in the vehicle if there are not food lockers where you camp. Hide all food or food related items, regardless of whether or not it is a hard top. Even old food wrappers and trash bags should be hidden, as should water jugs, canned food etc. Better yet, just take a big blanket or two and hide everything in the vehicle.

Campground patrols in places like Yosemite Valley look to see if ice chests and the like are visible in cars. I think that they will even impound vehicles if food is visible through a window. They have had significant problems with habituated bears in Yosemite though.

We just left Denali National Park Teklanika Campground. It is definitely grizzly country and they had food lockers for backpackers that did not have a vehicle to store food in. All others could store food in the car. But the bears there are thankfully not habituated to people and do not associate food with people and cars.

We have not been tent camping lately but figured that if we were, and a bear was in our camp or getting at the Jeep, we would at least try and scare them off by hitting the panic button on the key. Hopefully flashing lights and horn would scare them off.

Just saw a mother grizzly with two cubs yesterday in Denali. They walked right behind or motorhome parked on the side of the road and did not even give us a look.

Devin