After 21 years of car camping kayaking and backpacking in bear country in
Alaska (and I work for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game) I have not
heard of one encounter in the state where a Brown or Black bear entered a
car or tent with people inside.  It is definitely not recommended to sleep
with strips of freshly cooked bacon in one's tent, or to pitch a tent along
a salmon river with dozens of of salmon carcasses laying about .  But the
probability of a bear encounter while sleeping in a van, using minimal
precautions must be infinitesimal compared with the risk of injury with
driving on most of America's highways.
Happy camping,

Jeff Hartman
Juneau, Alaska

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Dierbeck <mdierbeck@NETSCAPE.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 12:19 PM
Subject: Bears, Food & Westies

I know its not a good idea to sleep in a tent with food.  Is there any issue
with respect to bears as far as having food in a Westy?  Has anyone heard of
a
problem related to this?

____________________________________________________________________
Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at
http://webmail.netscape.com.