Soft Side Truck Campers in Alaska

[MissouriBird]

We are doing preliminary planning for 3rd trip to Alaska summer 2019. Seriously considering buying a Northstar Soft side truck camper and leaving our travel trailer at home.

Should we be concerned about bears? We have always been in hardsided units when in bear country before.

Thanks for your responses.

[profdant139]

Veebyes, I am reminded of a cartoon I once saw. Two satisfied-looking bears are sitting near the ruins of a trailer, its contents strewn around the area, including the clothing of the unfortunate former occupants.

One bear says to the other, "I love the contrast between the hard crunchy shell and the soft chewy filling!"

😉

[Veebyes]

Soft side is like lunch served in a paper bag. Hard side is lunch served in a box. One is a little more difficult to get into.

[profdant139]

Yes, Joe, that is what we have done on a few instances -- fragrant trash goes into the camper shell covering the cargo bed. It's only fiberglass, but I am hoping that bears don't know the difference between that and metal. 😉

[joe_b_]

Put your trash in a sealed bag in the pickup cab at night. Have never seen a bear break into the metal cab of a truck. Could happen, I guess but I would prefer a bear in the cab over a bear in my camper. LOL. I had an acquaintance in Ouray Colorado that had a bear get into their kitchen while the had gone shopping in town. That kitchen looked like a tornado had gone through it.

[profdant139]

We camp in bear country (the Sierra) all the time -- no problem except one winter night in Sequoia. We had had reheated bbq ribs for dinner. The bones were in the trash, inside the trailer -- since we were boondocking, there was no dumpster.

Fast asleep. Three AM. Someone starts pounding on the side of the trailer, right next to our heads. Eyes open fast. We start pounding back. The pounding stops, and we went right back to sleep, just a couple of hours later.

Next morning, we see bear paw prints in the snow, all around the trailer. Later that day, we saw Mr. Skinny Juvenile Bear himself, skulking around in the trees, about 50 yards away.

No doubt that it was the smell of the ribs that prompted this "attack." But what to do? I make the most amazing slow smoked ribs -- don't tell me I can't bring them on a camping trip, please!

But this was just a black bear. In grizzly country, we are giving serious thought to tofu. 😉

[SideHillSoup]

Agree with Joe, never take a Dog Huckleberry picking....
Bear story...
Buddy was out hunting.. had is 18ft trailer for him and his buddy to stay in. They got up early,,, went out for the morning hunt. Got back about noonish....
Mr. Bear decided to visit the campe while they were hunting...he liked something inside the hard sided camping trailer, so in he went... and he didn’t use the door. Mr. Bear went in through the side window of the trailer...
That bear ripped the fridge out of the wall, and tore the fridge door off and had dinner... then found the cupboard with dry food and had desert... then he tried getting out... but he must have lost his way and couldn’t find the window he came in through...into that 18ft trailer... so out a different window... but that window was right beside the door, so when Mr. Bear starting ripping the window apart to get out, he ripped the door frame off, then when the window frame with the door frame fell outside and on the ground, he walked out and went looking for a bathroom...
Trailer was destroyed, and it was a hard sided rig.
We also this past fall a homeowner had a bear come in through a closed kitchen window, that was located right beside the vent for the range hood....
Keep a clean camp, read up on being in bear country...
Soup.

[joe_b_]

The best way to avoid bear problems is to keep a clean camp. As PA12 mentioned, once you have seenwhat a brown bear can do to a solid wood cabin door, you don’t want anything in any RV that a bear might want. In the game of bears versus joe b., the score stands at joe b. - 5, bears -0. After living in rural Alaska for 25+ years, I have, like others done many nights in tents, and both soft and hard sided RVs without a major problem with bears. There are basically two bear groups, dump bears and wild bears. Dump bears have been around people too much and associate humans with food. I used to enjoy solo camping out of my Piper Super Cub on gravel bars along the rivers on the south slope of the Brooks Range. I always set up two tents, one a cook tent and the other for sleeping, about 100 feet away. Made sure no food was in my airplane at night as it was a long walk to anywhere. Lots of good advice given by others. I carry a can of bear spray when hiking in bear country. Plus the spray is good on tacos if you want extra spice. I don’t like having a dog with me as they love to harass bears and then run to their person for protection.

[SideHillSoup]

I live in BC, about 40 minutes from the Washington state boarder with B.C. This was last May in our next door neighbours back yard. The dog and the Griz were running around playing in the yard until my neighbours wife, who use to be a Fast Ball pitcher had enough, and beaned the Griz in the butt with a softball, however Her hubby was there with is pea shooter just in case...
Bears are everywhere up here, this one hung around for a few days then after getting a sore butt left the area.
Read up on being Bear Awear.
Soup.

[fanrgs]

You know what grizzlies call tent campers? "Dessert"!

Just kidding, sort of. But do be very bear-aware, even in developed campgrounds.

We camped at the Hidden Lake cg on Skilak Lake Road, just off the Sterling Highway. Shortly after we set up the trailer, the ranger came by in her truck to warn us about a young grizzly that was roaming the campground. Just before we arrived, it had destroyed a screened canopy over the picnic table of the campsite directly behind ours. The idiots camped there had left an entire case of full pop cans sitting on the table. Needless to say, there was no more pop as well as no more screened canopy. And those campers left shortly thereafter without staying the night!

Interestingly, late that evening, the couple camped next to us had the grizzly follow them from the lake almost to their RV after they caught a couple of fish. We decided to leave the next day!

[sue_t]

We always expect a bear to be in the area so always take care to not have anything at our campsite that will attract a bear. Thus the bear will visit other campers that have bear attractants.

We have a couple of grizzlies who live nearby us here in Yukon, and they often stroll around our property to eat soapberries, raspberries and catch varmints. But they don't come near the house because there's nothing here to interest them, not even a BBQ. This past summer the mamma griz taught her two cubs to just stay away from the humans - the trailcam got some shots of her nudging the cubs away. So we live with grizzlies on our property, but they haven't been an issue even when we're hiking because we call out to let her know we're moving around.

So most of my bear photos are from along the Alaska Hwy

[tony_lee]

In our limited experience, Canada had many more bears than Alaska - at least in our favoured boondocking places, but in two provincial camogrounds we have watched a black bear doing the morning rounds. Also had a black bear try to climb up the back of our motorhome in Canada so I'm glad it wasn't a soft sider.

Point I'm making is that people giving guarantees are irresponsible and people who accept them are stupid

[PA12DRVR]

Poor bear management practices (smelly food, garbage, etc) results in bears destroying 4" wood doors to get into cabins.

Keep your food in "smell proof" containers, your garbage in the dumpster, and your fish guts back at the river and you won't have problems.

As mentioned by others, it's pretty rare to have bear encounters in any sort of "developed" (using that term VERY broadly) CG up here.

Now that the hair is either grey or gone, my excursions usually end at a cabin, but "back in the day" I've had years with 100+ nights out in a tent and no bear issues. There is a fair amount of undue bear hysteria in Alaska.....IMNSHO.

[sljohnson1938]

we went up to Alaska two times, both in a TC soft side, one a Northstar the other an Outfitter. we had no problems. Only in Yellowstone NP we had problems.

[wrktfsh]

The main problem I see is that your camper walls will be wet all the time. It rains a lot there particularly the coastal areas