Howdy folks, hope you've all been swell & getting ready for the liquid season. On to business...

I have been away from my camp on Moose Lake taking care of other affairs recently, past month or two, & I'd missed some scraps in my tent when I hastily changed sleeping locations to be more conveniently located near where I'm completing work...a bear made me pay for that Thursday night.


It had some fun with the stove & made a sizable hole in the rainfly, though the inner tent tears shouldn't be too bad to repair.


I think what got me hemmed up was the Zups bag I'd missed which had a couple of lemonade 'tubes' I'd bought over the winter or a container of ketchup I'd missed during clean out.



What's 'funny' about this all is that the bear provided a great test of my food packing method:

This bear tore up the place to eat a tube of ketchup & a honey mustard from DQ though an entire box of food I'd packaged for use in the BWCA went unscathed... I guess bears perhaps cannot smell a 'fart in a vacuum' like everyone want to give them credit for, or the bear just really likes condiments & dislikes...entire boxes of food. Weird...

Anyway, I have a roof calling my name to get stripped & shingled today so I bid you all adieu & hasta pronto amigos!

-JG

Probably should make sure absolutely everything at the site is cleared up. Also, just a set up unoccupied tent is probably a draw anyway since they've found stuff in there before and smells from occupancy are always present. Bears are clever.

My experience of years ago seconds what Freeleo1 says. While I was out paddling and fishing on a lake in Alaska, a brown bear broke into my tent just to chew on my sleeping pad and boot sole. All my food was in can a good distance downwind, and I had been super careful about never cooking or eating near nor in that tent.

Freeleo1: "Probably should make sure absolutely everything at the site is cleared up. Also, just a set up unoccupied tent is probably a draw anyway since they've found stuff in there before and smells from occupancy are always present. Bears are clever. "

Yep, I was 'asking for it' by not taking advantage of the nice weather to get it down earlier this month.. I knew in the back of my mind that it was a risk though life got busy. Went yesterday & got it in order, will be taking it down tomorrow, working on a roof & gotta get it dried in first.

Bet they're hungry this time of year until the greens are sprouting up...

Have you reported this bear to the MDNR? Or Forest Service?

Now that it has "raided" a tent and found some semblance of food, the likelihood of the bear repeating this behavior, even with humans nearby, has gone up substantially.

Michwall2: "Have you reported this bear to the MDNR? Or Forest Service?

Now that it has "raided" a tent and found some semblance of food, the likelihood of the bear repeating this behavior, even with humans nearby, has gone up substantially."

This bear live along the stretch of resorts on Moose Lake. It is well known & raids their cans all year, it caused me troubles this time of year last year as well, I had to scare it off just about every night. I would've shot it Fall 2023 when it first started at my camp after season(s) of raiding the local establishments - I could hear it making a ruckus at one property, then it would visit me, then it would go to the next property. If the Lord wills it, I'll be getting a bear tag in the near future to resolve the issue in the fall.

This bear's first raid was not on me, the 'now' for it raiding trash was years ago. If only property owners were allowed to take care of such animals it would have been resolved some time ago as it destroys the 'trash trailer' at the outfitters every year, literally tears it apart until I'd go confront it.

Bears used to fear us...we've gone soft. ;p

JohnGalt: "

Michwall2: "Have you reported this bear to the MDNR? Or Forest Service?

Now that it has "raided" a tent and found some semblance of food, the likelihood of the bear repeating this behavior, even with humans nearby, has gone up substantially."

Bears used to fear us...we've gone soft. ;p"

Yeah, we humans have gotten real lazy on cleaning up our messes we make and leaving trash about.

I'm interested to hear a little more about your food packing method (the food in the box that was not touched).

Just curious to hear how that was all packaged, what you used, etc.

FYI, the deadline for bear permit applications is this Friday:



How to apply for a bear hunting license

Minnesotian: "

JohnGalt: "

Michwall2: "Have you reported this bear to the MDNR? Or Forest Service?


Now that it has "raided" a tent and found some semblance of food, the likelihood of the bear repeating this behavior, even with humans nearby, has gone up substantially."

Bears used to fear us...we've gone soft. ;p"

Yeah, we humans have gotten real lazy on cleaning up our messes we make and leaving trash about. "

I know you are being facetious :) but technically we are way better at cleaning our messes up. There is way less trash in the BWCAW and public lands than when I was a kid. You would drive down the road or interstate and every ditch looked like a junk yard. Boat landings had cans/bottles and garbage everywhere. Parks were a mess. Etc…

Bear issues are way down while the population is still high. The peak time for bear complaints/issues was in the 1990’s. We were still improving outdoor ethics/leave no trace, the bear population was at an all time high, there were upward of 6,000 nuisance bear complaints/year in the state vs. around 500/year now. This is also due to a more aggressive DNR program to deal with problem bears. So John Galt is wrong too…most bears definitely fear us…at least statistically they fear us over 10x more now than they used too.

T

Shouldn’t this at least be OT? Not BWCA and really quite irresponsible for someone that has been living in the BWCA for awhile ;)

Sorry about this. The tent looks salvageable. It could have been worse. In the wilderness the animals own it.

Bears have always been a problem on Moose. Years ago when the dump was still active off the Moose Lake Road they were always there just as they used to be at the old Ely dump. When my parents lived on Moose it was standard practice to put your garbage can in a big section of drain pipe. Only once was a big bear able to knock one over and try to get in the garbage can. He left his teeth marks on the lid. When he lived there in a trailer, Knife Lake Pete used to shoot the bears in the dump. At the camp where I worked it was routine to shoot bears in the garbage pit. Today that would be illegal. Now they use dumpsters that usually keep the bears out, but that doesn’t keep the grand bears of those who were there decades ago from trying.

Good reminder , Never keep food/snacks in your tent ;)

I know many of deer ground blinds left in the woods the bear just for the fun of it trash it. Also my game cameras they will turn it around the tree and sometimes swat it off the tree or take a bite out of it.

Pinetree: "I know many of deer ground blinds left in the woods the bear just for the fun of it trash it. Also my game cameras they will turn it around the tree and sometimes swat it off the tree or take a bite out of it."

I learned from bitter experience not to leave a camera unprotected. Now, with the aid of steel boxes and locking cables, it’s merely entertaining to pull a card and see the images of a would-be vandal (ignore the erroneous timestamps):