Yogi bear wants my picanic (beer) basket!

[wheel]

In a couple of weeks I'm taking the boy into some fairly remote areas camping/fishing etc. My wife is all concerned about bears. I'm not too worried, as I can run faster than the kid.

The real problem with the bears though, is the beer cooler. I know I can string our food up in a tree to keep it away from them, but how am i supposed to keep my beer cooler out of their reach?

[limoshawn]

when we used to go camping in Canada we would take Strohs, bears wouldn't touch it!

[wheel]

Good point. I could bring something that nobody would drink. Like say American beer.

[Hoople]

Bring a way to attach a sling to the cooler and a long rope to suspend it from a tree branch. Attach sling to cooler, attach rope to sling, throw rope over branch, hoist cooler and then tie rope securely.

Lower for beer service to human - raise to have bear avoid beer.

[LifeinAsia]

Get a bear-proof storage container. In other words, get some bear cans for your beer cans.

The American beer idea won't work- if the bears don't want to drink it, would you?

By the way, if a bear wanted your beer, would that make it Yogi beer?

[phranque]

I could bring something that nobody would drink. Like say American beer.

i would suggest one of the worst beers i ever tried - labatts blue.

[Leosghost]

In Europe I think they market it as Harpic.

[rocker]

My wife is all concerned about bears. I'm not too worried, as I can run faster than the kid.

Just make sure he didn't tie your shoelaces together after you enjoyed a few of those brews.

but how am i supposed to keep my beer cooler out of their reach?

Instead of the traditional cooler you can keep your beer in a collapsible cooler bag and hang it from a tree.

[SevenCubed]

Submerge them in a river or lake, keeps them out of reach and cold (the beer, not the kids).

[incrediBILL]

If you still have beer left in the cooler you're doing it all wrong.

Drink all the beer and climb the tree and pee on the bear when he comes looking for your beer.

[wheel]

Bring a way to attach a sling to the cooler and a long rope to suspend it from a tree branch. Attach sling to cooler, attach rope to sling, throw rope over branch, hoist cooler and then tie rope securely.

A bit of googling indicates that the bears are actually smart enough these days to figure this out. Unlike facebook, bears aren't stupid.

[wheel]

So friday and saturday were slight probability of precipitation. No problem, we drove 5 hours to get out of civilization. Pouring rain the whole way. Unloaded the four-wheelers and went another 1/2 hour off the road, in the rain. Drove to the top of a granite peak and set up camp in the rain.

Tried to light a fire to roast our hot dogs we brought for supper. Gave up after dark. It was raining hard enough that it was clear there wasn't any bears around anyway, and there wasn't any trees big enough to string up the duffel bag with food. I'm not completely stupid though, we put the bag of food underneath a structure a few hundred feet away from the tent. A bit overkill, but better safe than sorry.

Retired to the tent to go to eat a granola bar for supper and go to sleep. It turns out our tent leaks. A lot. Rain dripped on my face all night. We were soaked. It stopped raining at 5am. Kid was sleeping, so I stayed put. A couple hours later it started to rain again, so decided might as well get up and get breakfast.

Find I can't get out of the sleeping bag. Seems a fish hook has some how embedded itself through the bag into my thigh. Can't pull it out because of the barb, the eyelet is too big to go back the other way. Kid goes and gets the multitool and we snip off the barb. Hook still wont' come out because the hook has barbs running the whole length of it. So we snipped off the eyelet and finally it comes out.

Walk in the rain to go get our bag of food. The bears took the whole freakin' bag. It's gone. The only food we've got are the granola bars, and oh ya, we ate them last night for supper.

Think about going fishing, but I forgot my fishing license at home. So we drove our four-wheelers about an hour into the nearest little town and bought breakfast at a local diner.

Packed up in the rain and drove home. So much for that weekend of four-wheeling and fishing.

[J_RaD]

Good point. I could bring something that nobody would drink. Like say American beer.

*gasp* guess you've never had anything dogfish brews!

[wheel]

I'm not much of a beer drinker (or any kind of drinker to be honest). I couldn't tell you what's good or not.

It's all perspective I guess. Like how my weekend went, yet ask the kid, he couldn't have had a better weekend - a bear took our food! How crazy is that?!

[J_RaD]

those are normally the most fun! I remember we took off camping at the drop of a hat one day.... surf fished all day get back to the camp site, doh we forgot FOOD! ended up eatting our left over bait shrimp for dinner. good times

[johnhh]

"light a fire" I don't think thats legal here, "bears" - um no - the wife spotted a frog in the garden though.

Always remember our trips to Montana , almost complete freedom - compared to the UK. Toilet arrangements at one place were interesting - shovel and roll ! fantastic place - woman owned the whole valley, amazing holiday.

[Leosghost]

Sounds like North Wales..:)

[LifeinAsia]

The trip sounded like a good excuse to introduce the kid to drinking...

The wife and I are going this weekend- first camping trip for her. No rain is expected, so hopefully it will be drier.

[akmac]

The trip sounded like a good excuse to introduce the kid to drinking...

Priceless.

That's a rough trip. On the plus side, your future camping adventures will probably be much better. Also, you have a good excuse to do some fun gear shopping.