Are there any animal worries when winter camping in the BWCA? Just curious. Wolves? Do you do anything special with your food? Like hide/hang in the summer?

I only worry about wolves when I have my dog with me. I no longer let her run in and out of the tent as she pleases during the night. I keep my food in the tent with me where it is handy.

Other than that, I look forward to seeing and hearing any sort of life in the winter.

Whiskey Jacks

less worries than in summer I would imagine. This year will be my first winter trip so I guess I will find out.

Buck do you have any winter camping plans this winter?

Dave and I went in Dec. We were kinda thinking about going again sometime here, but we are both more excited about a May trip so we might just wait for that...

Had a big moose walk around my tent and camp one night on ram lake. He was doing this for a couple hours and kept me awake. I thought he might step on us in are tents.

Got up in the morning tracks were all over in the snow.

The only worries I have is Pine Marten keep coming into camp and stealing my fish I caught. There goes my supper. It has actually happened. Those cute little buggers- Ilove them.

The only animal I've encountered were scavengers. Not a bad idea to hang your food all the time. Haven't had a problem with any bears or wolves, though I have seen wolves and fresh bear tracks so...

My buddy Kaiser saw wolves one afternoon crossing the Lake (I forget the Lakes name, but it is a small lake by by Lake 3). We have had wolf packs run within 20 yards of our tent site at night (left tracks and scat). They will leave you alone though. They will run if they see you.

The only thing you might run into that can be potentially dangerous (highly unlikely) would be a moose. If you are lucky enough to see one, make sure to put a very large tree between you and it.

Winter camping can be dangerous, but the wild life is probably the least of all the dangers.

So far, the only intruders we've had is whiskey jacks.


But, we have seen many tracks of many animals out away from camp.

Never worried about any in Minnesota. I don't think there is a reason too. Seen many a wolves over the years and they always went their own way. I suppose like anything like getting struck by lightning,some animal like a wolf could act abnormal.
Usually worried more about the human kind when I sleep in the back of my topper during the year close to roads.

Winter camped in the back country of Yellowstone once,woke up in the morning looked out and a big old bull bison was lying down about 50 yards away. Glad he didn't decide to take a nap on my tent. That was one amazing winter camping trip,there was literally over 10,000 elk wintering in the area I was,and many bulls still with huge racks at the end of March.Had the area to myself. A lot different than summer. Was a little worried a grizzly might wake up from his winter nap looking for a snack.

quote PINETREE: "The only worries I have is Pine Marten keep coming into camp and stealing my fish I caught. There goes my supper. It has actually happened. Those cute little buggers- Ilove them. "

I had one of them steal my stringer of fish, I had 3 nice walleyes in the 3-4 pound range and it was dragging them off. Grabbed my canoe paddle and we had a stare down, he finally ran off after I started swinging the canoe paddle at him. It was late fall.

This one scares me.

I was on Wind lake and when heading out from camp to fish and explore had to wait to scare away a river otter that had smelled some fish guts I had buried about 75 yards from the tent. He smelled it from the shore and headed straight to where I had buried the guts the night before. He then came to the island straight to my campsite. I waited to be sure he wasn't planning on scavenging the tent. I never saw again him once he saw me and went into the bushes on the island.

quote Sobi: "This one scares me. "

Looks like the bear's version of a snow angel.

My main worry when I was doing lots of winter trips was Moose. It is quite common in alaska for moose to attack dog teams and snow machines because they don't want to give up the trail and go into the deep snow. So, in years with lots of snow, that would be a concern (well at least something to keep in mind). As far as wolves, I have never had an issue with them on any of my trips, but they are far from docile animals. In the right situation, they can be just as dangerous as any animal out there. So give them a wide berth and treat with respect.