Wildlife encounter that went bad

[Alan]

Racoons got into our cooler first night out. They destroyed everything. I thought we secured it but those things are smart, we lost all our food and had to end the trip early. What's your worst wildlife camping story?

 

[Clyde]

A black bear wandered into our camp as it got dark and didn't even react when we yelled. The rangers closed the area that night. We packed up quickly.

 

[Janizary]

I guess it's 'wildlife', but not the kind you'd normally call out.

Camping in eastern TN with a few friends. It had been cloudy for a few days with the possibility of rain, but it was summer and rain would have been welcome at that point.

Just in case we strung up a line over our two tents, put up a few tarp 'roofs' to shed water (we had rain flys for the tents and used them, but you know how good those can be in a downpour...) and trenched around the tents for run off to bypass the tent area. Smart boys.

It rained the first night out. Torrential.

Apparently our 'dry spot' was very attractive to some wildlife, but in a "let me out of this horror movie" way: Spiders swarmed our tents. I wish we had had a camera to take pics but this was well before cell phones and even digital cameras and the polaroid we had was in the van.

One of the boys opened the fly on one of the tents and spiders were all over the opening. All over the ground. All over all over! Some dropped in the tent. He started yelling. The boys in the other tent started yelling what was wrong, they opened their tent. Bad idea. Spiders dropped in.

If you have been watching this on TV it would have either been a comedy or horror movie, or both. Grown ass men yelling, a living mass of spiders (seriously, it's not something I have ever heard of or seen since...and frankly, I'd rather not), rain, thunder, lightning. Flashlights shining through tent material where the mass of freaking 8 legged swarmers could be seen moving on the tents.

Oh, yeah, funny many decades later for a bunch of old men sitting about laughing about old times. But at the time. NOPE NOPE NOPE.

 

[TexasJackKin]

I’ve been sprayed several times by skunks (mess with the bull you get the horn) mess with a skunk you get the spray. It’s interesting, how about a half hour after you get sprayed, you can’t smell it anymore, but when you run across you buddy and say, Guess what happened to me?” They get it right every time!

The funniest time, I didn’t get sprayed, but my trapping partner did. We had caught a skunk, in a trap we had set for fox, and at the time skunk pelts weren’t worth much, so we decided to let it go, and flipped a coin, and I was supposed to “entertain” the skunk, while my buddy snuck up behind it and let the trap off it’s hind foot. It all went according to plan, until the skunk was free, when it immediately stood on its front legs and sprayed my buddy right in the face. My buddy took off in a run (we were both wearing hip boots) and jumped over the bank into the river (This was in early January, with a heavy frost on the ground) into water about arm pit deep, his plan was to wash the spray out of his eyes. I wasn’t as motivated to get to the river, so I arrived a few seconds behind my buddy, when I got there I was laughing so hard, I lost my balance and fell down the embankment but was able to keep from going in over the top of my hip boots.

We still had a few hours of trap line to check, so we built a fire, and poured the water out of his hip boots, got him mostly dried out and continued checking traps. I still grin when I think about that morning. We both laughed about that incident, until he died 10 years or so ago, and this is the first time I’ve thought about it for quite some time….

 

[Alan]

A black bear wandered into our camp as it got dark and didn't even react when we yelled. The rangers closed the area that night. We packed up quickly.

When yelling doesn’t work, it’s officially time to pack fast and rethink camp safety.

 

[Alan]

I guess it's 'wildlife', but not the kind you'd normally call out.

Camping in eastern TN with a few friends. It had been cloudy for a few days with the possibility of rain, but it was summer and rain would have been welcome at that point.

Just in case we strung up a line over our two tents, put up a few tarp 'roofs' to shed water (we had rain flys for the tents and used them, but you know how good those can be in a downpour...) and trenched around the tents for run off to bypass the tent area. Smart boys.

It rained the first night out. Torrential.

Apparently our 'dry spot' was very attractive to some wildlife, but in a "let me out of this horror movie" way: Spiders swarmed our tents. I wish we had had a camera to take pics but this was well before cell phones and even digital cameras and the polaroid we had was in the van.

One of the boys opened the fly on one of the tents and spiders were all over the opening. All over the ground. All over all over! Some dropped in the tent. He started yelling. The boys in the other tent started yelling what was wrong, they opened their tent. Bad idea. Spiders dropped in.

If you have been watching this on TV it would have either been a comedy or horror movie, or both. Grown ass men yelling, a living mass of spiders (seriously, it's not something I have ever heard of or seen since...and frankly, I'd rather not), rain, thunder, lightning. Flashlights shining through tent material where the mass of freaking 8 legged swarmers could be seen moving on the tents.

Oh, yeah, funny many decades later for a bunch of old men sitting about laughing about old times. But at the time. NOPE NOPE NOPE.

That’s pure nightmare fuel!

 

[Alan]

I’ve been sprayed several times by skunks (mess with the bull you get the horn) mess with a skunk you get the spray. It’s interesting, how about a half hour after you get sprayed, you can’t smell it anymore, but when you run across you buddy and say, Guess what happened to me?” They get it right every time!

The funniest time, I didn’t get sprayed, but my trapping partner did. We had caught a skunk, in a trap we had set for fox, and at the time skunk pelts weren’t worth much, so we decided to let it go, and flipped a coin, and I was supposed to “entertain” the skunk, while my buddy snuck up behind it and let the trap off it’s hind foot. It all went according to plan, until the skunk was free, when it immediately stood on its front legs and sprayed my buddy right in the face. My buddy took off in a run (we were both wearing hip boots) and jumped over the bank into the river (This was in early January, with a heavy frost on the ground) into water about arm pit deep, his plan was to wash the spray out of his eyes. I wasn’t as motivated to get to the river, so I arrived a few seconds behind my buddy, when I got there I was laughing so hard, I lost my balance and fell down the embankment but was able to keep from going in over the top of my hip boots.

We still had a few hours of trap line to check, so we built a fire, and poured the water out of his hip boots, got him mostly dried out and continued checking traps. I still grin when I think about that morning. We both laughed about that incident, until he died 10 years or so ago, and this is the first time I’ve thought about it for quite some time….

Poor guy! Nothing like skunk revenge to make a morning unforgettable

 

[LoProfile]

We have Bears, Mountain Lions and Wolves here in Northern Nevada.

Remember when I was about 15, was headed to hike the mountains in NM, first time I saw a bison, kept walking towards it then realized .... There's no fence.

When we were up in the mountains hiking had a smaller bear walk up behind me as I was splitting some firewood. Walked into camp looking for a free lunch .... The rangers at the camp were concerned as it was a "new" bear and didn't seem very afraid of people.