Cooking + animals

[TBBucs]

So I've been thinking about preparing meals over the fire. I like to have a fire next to my shelter (who doesn't?), but you also have to cook over that fire. So, unless you make a separate fire for cooking (which seems like a pain in the rear to me), what keeps the animals away? Everyone says to cook your food away from where you sleep, but that would require the construction of a second fire. Is that what you guys usually do?

[RBB]

So I've been thinking about preparing meals over the fire. I like to have a fire next to my shelter (who doesn't?), but you also have to cook over that fire. So, unless you make a separate fire for cooking (which seems like a pain in the rear to me), what keeps the animals away? Everyone says to cook your food away from where you sleep, but that would require the construction of a second fire. Is that what you guys usually do?

I have one fire. If I'm in black bear country, it is near my tent (or tarp, or whatever). If I'm in brown bear country, it is away from my tent (or tarp or whatever).

[Teotwawki]

I have one fire. If I'm in black bear country, it is near my tent (or tarp, or whatever). If I'm in brown bear country, it is away from my tent (or tarp or whatever).

RBB - why near your tent in black bear country?

[bulrush]

I thought the biggest thing that attracted animals to your cooking fire was fat that dripped into the fire, along with food that fell in there. But the smell might attract them a little too.

[RBB]

RBB - why near your tent in black bear country?

Long answer or short answer? Short answer - not concerned about them.

[Teotwawki]

Long(er) answer, please?

[RBB]

Long(er) answer, please?

I'll PM you when I have a little more time.

[dragonjimm]

i'll take a stab at it. i'm sure if i'm wrong some one will correct me

black bears are afraid of
a fire
b man

brown bears are afraid of
a bigger brown bears
b .............

am i close

[Sourdough]

People are way to PHOBIC about bears. On the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island there are brown bears, and we camp there for 3 months every fall, and two and a half weeks every other spring. You learn to live with the bears. Yes, some two and three year olds can be annoying.

We cook IN the tent and have for 38 years, it rains sideways with wind 35 to 70 MPH; You ain't going to cook outdoors. There are "NO" trees, your food is in the tent, and excess is rolled in a classic blue tarp next to the tent.

Yes, you could get bear bit, but you have a much higher chance of injury from the small plane that flies you out. Or from my cooking.

People in rural Alaska have to live with bears, and the Anchorage city people to a lesser extent live with bears.

I would rather live with the bears, than live without the bears.
I would rather have bears as neighbors, that Gang Members as neighbors.

Learn how the bears communicate.

How many people do you know who got hurt in car crashes, How many people did you know who got killed in car crashes......NOW LIST THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW WHO HAVE BEEN BEAR BIT.

[Ken]

(Loaded Question)

So Hopeak, how would you feel about having your friends in the Forum as neighbors?

[Sourdough]

Ken, I have very few friends on this forum, including the management.....but I am not here to make friends......

[klkak]

People are way to PHOBIC about bears. On the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island there are brown bears, and we camp there for 3 months every fall, and two and a half weeks every other spring. You learn to live with the bears. Yes, some two and three year olds can be annoying.

We cook IN the tent and have for 38 years, it rains sideways with wind 35 to 70 MPH; You ain't going to cook outdoors. There are "NO" trees, your food is in the tent, and excess is rolled in a classic blue tarp next to the tent.

Yes, you could get bear bit, but you have a much higher chance of injury from the small plane that flies you out. Or from my cooking.

People in rural Alaska have to live with bears, and the Anchorage city people to a lesser extent live with bears.

I would rather live with the bears, than live without the bears.
I would rather have bears as neighbors, that Gang Members as neighbors.

Learn how the bears communicate.

How many people do you know who got hurt in car crashes, How many people did you know who got killed in car crashes......NOW LIST THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW WHO HAVE BEEN BEAR BIT.

Hopeak, I wasn't going to get involved in this thread but I must say you hit the nail on the head.

On a personal note. I am much more afraid of black bears then brown bears. But the way I feel about either does not affect the way I set up my camp. I am more concerned about the terrain and weather. But then again I'm not much of a fair weather camper. I camp when I hunt and trap both of which are done when the weather is anything but "Fair".

[Rick]

There is a little matter of proximity, too. I would imagine that if as many people were around bears as there are around cars the "bit quotient" would go up considerably. I'm not disputing your assertions but the example...well....I get the point.

[klkak]

This is an Afognak island hunting camp picture. 16' x 20' wall tent and really big tarp to keep the rain off.

[crashdive123]

Maid take the day off?

[DOGMAN]

I think there is a big difference in styles here....Hunting and backpacking

Style 1 is hunting. At hunting camp cooking in tents is the norm, just as hokeak and kklak mention. One big thing involved in this style is- guns, bigger wall tents, semi-permanent- home in the wilderness style, were bears hopefully realize that this area is "human occupied" The precautions in this mode of camping are a little different, because humans are the dominant member of the food chain when firearms are brought into the equation.

Style 2 is backpacking. In backpacking camps are usually small and progessive (moved daily) there aren't horses or atv's around and the size of the tent is not the size of a small cabin, but more the size of a large garbage bag! So, when a nosy bruin starts peeking around he may not even be sure that this is an occupied human space. Also, many backpackers travel light, or are in places that firearms aren't allowed like Yellowstone National Park or Glacier National Park. Bears that live in these areas are the top predator in the food chain, unarmed humans are not. So, different precautions are needed.

Interesting note, members of the Lewis and Clark expedition felt that Grizzly bears would be the largest adversary to settling the Western United States- not Indians. Read the journals of Lewis and Clark and they are full of run-ins with hostile Grizzly's. It often took 9-10 musket balls to stop a charging Griz!
Many western historians say that if hadn't been for the invention of the repeating rifle, the west would never have been settled, because the Euro-American interlopers didn't know how to live in Griz country.

My good friend who has worked as bear conflict specialitst in both Glacier Park in Montana, and Yukon-Charlie National Wildlife Area in Alaska says that if Timothy Tredwell would have tried his approaching bears style research in Yellowstone or Glacier instead of Alaska he would have been killed his first summer! The main reason being the bears in Alaska have a much better diet and have plenty of fat stores. While the bears in Montana and Wyoming are often operating on a caloric deficeny in between large meals! Hunger pains cause violent outbursts in turns out!

[Teotwawki]

Thanks Jason_Montana for pointing that out to everyone - we definitely fit in the backpacker category... We take what we can carry in our backpacks - try to keep it to around 30lbs or less... that includes food, water, shelter, fire-starter, flash light, walkie-talkie, alum cooking pans, bio-degradable tp, sleeping bag, tent... Part of the challenge is supplying yourself for a long journey and keeping it light.

Plus walking sticks and that is about it... we even use the special extremely light quick dry hiking shoes.

Part of the hike we are planning is closer to mountain climbing than hiking - huge boulder field at about a 60degree incline - would be very easy to break a leg or get caught in a crevice. Last 100 yards or so to the top of the first ridge is darn close to a 90 degree incline and has a lot of loose material making for a bit of a treacherous "hike."

The top of that ridge is as far as we have ever gone... beyond that will be new territory for us...

OK - I'm rambling again....

[dragonjimm]

see i knew someone would correct me its all in how you phrase the question

In central AL. where i am the worst you'll run in to is someone's rottweiler or chow gone wild. the little black bears around here don't get much larger then a big chow and the fewer cougars tend to avoid humans while your'e average raccoon while walk right up and expect to be fed.

[Sourdough]

Well something sure did not get communicated.

The brown bears are in camp. There can be many brown bears in camp. They walk through camp. there can be 20 brown bears with-in 50 yards of camp.

We have to land on the lakes, and we have to camp where the fresh water creek flows into the lake. Well, that is right where the bears are salmon fishing.

I have had camps in spots that you could see 40 or 50 brown bears from camp.

My point is you learn to live with them, you learn when they are agitated, and when you can push them and when you can not push them.

You are correct the bears are well feed, more so in the fall, there are millions of salmon flopping around for them to eat. They will walk right through camp and not even look at you. They will dig a shallow hole next to your tent and start snoring.

It is the two and three year olds that can be destructive. I have lost $4,000.- worth of equipment to the juvenile delinquents in one night.

My camps do not look at all like the one posted, we use one and sometime's two 8' X 8' Eureka tents called Bombshelters.

And all extra gear, cloths, food, back-up sleeping bags, salt, game bags, etc. are rolled up in a tarp neatly next to the tent. We have Guiding concessions, and the refuge manager or Alaska Dept. Fish and Game stop in for free coffee.

My point I am trying to make is you learn to live with the Brown Bears, they are there when you land and they are there when you leave. I am there guest, in there home..........

[KingFisher907]

As an Alaskan, Im gonna echo what hopeak and klkak typed...common sense goes a long way in avoiding contact with bears, if thats what you wanna do..I would like to add that of all the animals we've had visit us here at the homestead, grizz, blackies, wolves, caribou and moose, its the moose that tend to give us the most headaches...please, everyone, feel free to visit my backyard during last september's moose season...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mL1SWDZLsE