Pushing it for not friday....

   but a good deterrent for bears (and creeps) is to have a dog along in
your Vanagon..  Bears and dogs seem to not like each other much.  Bears will
choose to go elsewhere if you have a dog in camp...except maybe if it's a
small bite-sized breed.  They (dogs) are also pretty handy in Griz country
because they get spooky if they smell bear sign on a trail you may be
hiking...and you can avoid surprises if you watch your doggie's demeanor...

  If you have a big strong dog(s), it is not a good idea to chain him/her
outside to the picnic table while you sleep....We awoke, back in the day,
while sleeping in a Splitty VW van in Yosemite, to find our two dogs
dragging a picnic table (before they started getting ripped off and so
became customarily  embedded in the ground) behind in hot pursuit of a night
marauding bear, waking other campers and creating quite a disturbance with
the table dragging through the campground....

  we were young and dumb...one of the dogs was a Huskey, too.
  Don Hanson

On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 10:46 AM, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@cox.net> wrote:

> We always carry bear spray when in bear country, but come to think of it,
> it might be good to use against the drunk humans you mentioned.  I think
> inquiries to knowledgeable personnel might be in order concerning bears in
> any particular region.  Yosemite black bears seem to be the best anywhere at
> getting into vehicles.  Grizzlies are pretty frightful critters, however,
> and don't seem at all reluctant to get into camps and tents.  I wouldn't
> expect one to drop onto the van from on high, though.
>
> when backpacking in bear country, we always hang all smellies, and we sleep
> at least 100 yards from storage and cooking spots.  But we do cook,
> minimally -- freeze dried stuff, heatables, and such.  We've never had a
> problem, but we've known folks who have.  So, what to do in the vanagon?
>  National Park campsites with known bear problems provide storage lockers,
> and some large NFS ones do too.  But -- the cooking?  Hardsided vehicle is
> reputed to be adequate, except in Yosemite.  Hmmmmmmmm.
>