BC Parks, Porcupines, and Chicken Wire

Powder pig wrote:
Yes, porcupines can totally disable your vehicle by chewing on tires, brake lines, radiator hoses, or wiring. They seem to go for rubber or areas with winter road salt left on them.

They seem to be more of a problem in the wetter West Kootenays like Valhalla and Kokanee parks but are also a problem in St. Mary alpine park and Bugaboo park.

Some parks have rolls of wire left by other users but I carry my own chicken wire to be safe. Plasticized wire would be fine but they could chew through plastic fencing. The procedure is to wrap the wire entirely around the vehicle. Put rocks on the wire at ground level so they can't get under the wire and then prop sticks against the top of the wire and tie it to mirrors, grill, etc., so they can't climb over the top and in.

There seem to be fewer porcupines around in our area of the East Kootenays but I wouldn't take a chance if leaving a vehicle overnight. I don't bother with the wire if only parked for a day hike.

You named the main parks correctly. Those areas are famous around here for this problem. When I started hiking up Kokanee Glacier back in the 60's with friends that were seasoned hikers I didn't know what to think the first time they pulled out the chicken wire. Our neighbour also had a bag of Moth Balls that he would open and chuck a bunch under the Jeep. He would use the chicken wire / moth balls on over nigh hikes as well as day hikes. Back then there wasn't much activity up at the Parking lot on the Balfour side entrance and it was a long walk down the mountain if a Porcupine decided he wanted a morning snack, while we were out on a day hike
Where was are camped right now we are only 20km away from Valhalla and Kokanee Glacier and we have never had an issue here, however we are much lower in altitude and in a more populated area.

Soup.