Food in tents

[asichacker]

I would think that saying...

 

"If you're caught with food in your tent, you're getting sent home immediately." would work.

 

Nothing like getting Bears, Bobcats and Mountain Lions involved.

[Stosh]

Do like they do at Philmont. If items have been in contact with the food, they go in the bear bags. If the boys don't have a tent to sleep in, too bad. A couple of nights in the rain and the boys will police themselves.

 

Also: when I was at Philmont in 2000, they had at least 3 incidents where boys were hurt. Our first night at base camp a string of lights were coming down from the Tooth of Time because the troop in the nearby site had a bear they couldn't scare off. That meant they had to leave in the dark down the mountain.

 

If a bear is hungry enough they will defend their stash of food they have found. When that happens, it's time to leave the area.

 

Stosh(This message has been edited by jblake47)

[sbemis1]

The story I heard as a reason for bear bagging first at Philmont is that they had a Kamikazee bear a few years back that would raid the pack line, or food pile, while crews were setting up. I'm sure others could clarify.

[JoeBob]

Almost on topic:

Circa 1976, I took my two brothers to Carlsbad caverns. We camped above some waterfall in the area. There was this beautiful waterfall fed by a creek in the middle of the desert. The creek provided some green flats that made a beautiful campsite. We just spread out our bags and camped under the stars.

In the middle of the night I awoke to a rustling noise behind me and figured that I had a little brother playing games. I rolled over to smack him, and almost swatted the biggest porcupine I've ever seen.

Moral of the story? Don't camp right on top of the only water source for 20 miles!

[Leprechaun]

While at Philmont in 08, a scout had a water bottle in his tent and decided to mix up some Gatorade in his tent. Some time later a bear reach through the "wall" of the tent and somehow grabbed the bottle. The scout awoke and started to thrash around and the bear caught the scouts leg in it's mouth, requiring stitches. It also required the Ranger to take out the bear.... and her cub.