Scary things encountered

September 2013: Seaview Campground, Eastport, Maine. Fifth wheel with 3/4 ton pickup truck..

Had just taken animal friendly yelllow lab retriever out for last walk. Then went back outside to lockup truck. Pushed the button on the key fob and saw a skunk walking under the length of the trailer. Next day, a fellow camper asked me if I smelled the propane leak the night before.

Sir, that was no propane leak, was the skunk strolling by. He went a wee bit pale as he was letting his dog out at night sans leash.

After over 50 years camping, my wife and I remember only one really scary event. It happened in 1960 in a Campground in Missouri.

We owned a new Red Dale PU Camper and camped over night in that campground. The next morning we were getting ready to leave and both of us were outside the cammper and truck. close to use, about maybe 100 feet, a family with small chldren were camping with two tents, side by side. We had noticed them the previous evening but did not pay any attention to them.

Just before we got into our truck we heard severe, piercing screams from one of the tents. The lady just inside of the open flap on the tent screamed loud enough to wake the dead, so all of the campers could hear, "shut the door, can't you see that I am dressing?" Without the screams I don't thing any of the campers there would have noticed. I know we would not.

Before one of the kids ran and closed the flap both my wife and I noticed that the lady wss really needing to dress. I hope getting flashed is the only scary thing that will ever happen to us.

Some years ago I owned a small camper mounted on a Toyota pickup. I as encamped at Sedona, AZ when early one morning I kept hearing this strange tapping sound coming from the driver's area. I looked through the camper's front window and could see a large bird sitting at the driver's side view mirror looking at itself and attacking its image.

Another time, at a nice campground in the forest in Williams, AZ I was sitting at a picnic table and felt something pulling on my pants leg. Looking down I spotted a real cute little squirrel begging for a snack.

Camping with DS and her hubby at SP. We girls in unit doing dishes . We hear awful noice and crashing sound outside. Look out to see "blood" every where ---- guys sitting under tree bloody Mary's on table between them --- raccoon fell out of the tree hit the table dead center sending Bloody Mary flying all over the place including shell schocked guys. We could not stop laughing--guys really grumpy as they headed for the showers !!

westend wrote:

Rmack wrote:
I know what you mean. I'm so much older and wiser now, and I would never believe personnel like this.

You really don't know what I mean and I'm not going to get into a P&*^%g match with you about this, only to say that the staff of that State Park was in no way responsible for your inconvenience.

Well, I guess so. There was really no alternative for food storage, though I would have preferred to just give the bear the food rather than have my car torn apart. It was my fault assuming they were promising my car would be safe with food in the trunk. I suspect they knew better, but just didn't have any other options.

I mainly meant I won't trust the 'personnel' that handled the reservation, telling me there were bear boxes. They were undoubtedly just relaying info from their computer.

My ire was mainly aroused by the attitudes I ran into. You had to be there to appreciate it.

I'm sure that most of the employees of that National park (Yosemite) were courteous and professional. I just ran into a couple who had bad attitudes. They acted like it was all my fault, and they wouldn't give me any paperwork to confirm it was a bear that did the damage. Turned out I didn't need it, but they could have been a lot more courteous. Again, you had to be on the receiving end to really know what I mean.

Oh, and there was definitely not any crime going on. The crime scene tape was just to keep people from doing what I wanted to do; grab a box and take it to my site.

ddndoug wrote:

mgirardo wrote:
Apparently, 3 of the 4 guys were beating up the 4th guy. They were chasing him throughout the woods. The mother was telling us it went on for hours. She said they first called the Rangers at 3 am and then called a few times after that with no response. She told us that they just put the guy they were chasing into the car and it looked like he was past out and had been worked over pretty good. That's what we saw as we were walking down.

As we were leaving, we saw the husband return with a Ranger. Not long after that a State Trooper showed up with another Ranger. They arrested the guy who was packing up and when the other 2 returned, they were arrested as well.

-Michael

Do you ever find out the rest of the story in the paper or on the news?

Doug

Unfortunately not. The web was still in its infancy back then and didn't really have that resource. The local paper didn't have a web site back then. We grabbed a local paper before we left, but couldn't find a story about it.

-Michael

Rmack wrote:
I know what you mean. I'm so much older and wiser now, and I would never believe personnel like this.

You really don't know what I mean and I'm not going to get into a P&*^%g match with you about this, only to say that the staff of that State Park was in no way responsible for your inconvenience.

westend wrote:

Rmack1 wrote:

westend wrote:

Rmack1 wrote:
I once went tent-camping at Yosemite. I specifically asked, and was told that there were bear boxes at the campground. If you don't know, these are strong metal boxes with latches that bears can't defeat to keep your food and other odoriferous items that might attract them.

When we got there, the promised bear boxes were stacked in a big pile near the campground, enclosed by crime scene tape. I asked a ranger if we could just carry one over to our site. This would have worked, as no bear could carry one, and would give up anyway when he couldn't get in. No, for some obscure reason they couldn't let us do that. The ranger said to just keep our food in the trunk of our car.

The next morning, both windows in the back seat of my Honda Civic were folded down flat against the outside of the back doors with glass shards everywhere. The back rest was ripped to shreds. There were bear prints on the car (which I later showed to the insurance adjuster) and a smelly, dirty mess all over the back seat.

The bear never got the food, as the metal bulkhead between the back seat rest and the trunk defeated him.

I have never been back. I was appalled at the arrogance and condescension that I encountered from the rangers. I've met lots of other national forest and state rangers and never ran into anything like these kid's attitude.

So, your Honda got ripped up by a bear when it was full of food parked in a known bear high population area and you want to blame the staff for the problem?

Maybe, since the boxes were all gathered and the area taped, they had a valid reason not to be using them. Perhaps those canisters had food waste on them and were to be cleaned before reuse.

What? No, the bear boxes were brand new, they just hadn't been installed yet. There was a miss-communication between the 'staff' that booked the reservations and the 'rangers' on site.

I just hate the corporate mentality that forbids the logical solution of everyone carrying their own bear box over to their camp site, because some lawyer would sue if some idiot hurt himself picking up the box.

The attitude these very young college kids that were administering these stupid policies dramatized was the real turn off.

I knew all about the dangers from bears. This is why I tried to make sure I had someplace to keep my food. When the promised bear boxes were not forthcoming, I assumed the 'rangers' would make themselves useful by guarding the campground, since they told me it would be alright to put my food in the trunk.

I'm just speechless.

I know what you mean. I'm so much older and wiser now, and I would never believe personnel like this.

Rmack1 wrote:

westend wrote:

Rmack1 wrote:
I once went tent-camping at Yosemite. I specifically asked, and was told that there were bear boxes at the campground. If you don't know, these are strong metal boxes with latches that bears can't defeat to keep your food and other odoriferous items that might attract them.

When we got there, the promised bear boxes were stacked in a big pile near the campground, enclosed by crime scene tape. I asked a ranger if we could just carry one over to our site. This would have worked, as no bear could carry one, and would give up anyway when he couldn't get in. No, for some obscure reason they couldn't let us do that. The ranger said to just keep our food in the trunk of our car.

The next morning, both windows in the back seat of my Honda Civic were folded down flat against the outside of the back doors with glass shards everywhere. The back rest was ripped to shreds. There were bear prints on the car (which I later showed to the insurance adjuster) and a smelly, dirty mess all over the back seat.

The bear never got the food, as the metal bulkhead between the back seat rest and the trunk defeated him.

I have never been back. I was appalled at the arrogance and condescension that I encountered from the rangers. I've met lots of other national forest and state rangers and never ran into anything like these kid's attitude.

So, your Honda got ripped up by a bear when it was full of food parked in a known bear high population area and you want to blame the staff for the problem?

Maybe, since the boxes were all gathered and the area taped, they had a valid reason not to be using them. Perhaps those canisters had food waste on them and were to be cleaned before reuse.

What? No, the bear boxes were brand new, they just hadn't been installed yet. There was a miss-communication between the 'staff' that booked the reservations and the 'rangers' on site.

I just hate the corporate mentality that forbids the logical solution of everyone carrying their own bear box over to their camp site, because some lawyer would sue if some idiot hurt himself picking up the box.

The attitude these very young college kids that were administering these stupid policies dramatized was the real turn off.

I knew all about the dangers from bears. This is why I tried to make sure I had someplace to keep my food. When the promised bear boxes were not forthcoming, I assumed the 'rangers' would make themselves useful by guarding the campground, since they told me it would be alright to put my food in the trunk.

I'm just speechless.

soos wrote:

westend wrote:


So, your Honda got ripped up by a bear when it was full of food parked in a known bear high population area and you want to blame the staff for the problem?
.

did you miss this part?
"The ranger said to just keep our food in the trunk of our car."

No, I didn't miss it.