# Bear Visits in NH This Past Weekend



## ChileMass (Aug 22, 2005)

My family has been camping in the Bartlett NH area for several years and had heard the occasional story of bears visiting the campground.  My wife has been kinda concerned about this for a while, and started talking about bears and necessary bear-precautions about a week prior to our trip.  

And of course for several years I have been the guy down-playing any talk of bears.  I had never heard or seen one and in 7 years of going to this campsite, we had never had any trouble. We diligently put away all food and garbage every night in our van, and have never had so much as a raccoon bother us.  

So of course this past weekend a bear visited us 2 nights in a row!!  Our site was untouched, but several of our "neighbors" on adjacent sites had some damage and had some food eaten.  Again - we put all our stuff away juat about at dark each night, but the knucklehead college guys next to us left a picnic table full of food, old chip bags and beer containers which the bear apparently liked a lot.  He went through 3 other sites next to ours before moving off down the river sites to wreck a couple of screen houses and freak out several more camping families.  Car horns blared out all over the campground at 4AM, and we heard a couple kids shot bottle rockets at the bear in an attempt to scare him off.  The staff came around later and told us banging pans together would be sufficient, btw.  

Things settled down, but the bear remained a topic of conversation all day.  And that night just after dark (around 9PM), we spotted the bear across the river from our sites, looking our way.  But when my buddy shined a big flashlight at him, the bear froze in place (BUSTED!) and then wandered off.  

So be careful out there in the woods!  Keep your food and garbage either in a secure vehicle or hung up high in a tree to minimize your attraction factor.  I never expected to see a bear hanging around a relatively busy campground, but there he was.


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## kickstand (Aug 22, 2005)

which campground were you at?  We were up at our place this past weekend.  I thought it would be a good wildlife viewing weekend, since it was overcast, but I wasn't about to leave a bag of chips out in order to see wildlife.  The closest we got to wildlife, though, were the biggest spiders I have ever seen dangling from the overhang on our house.


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## ChileMass (Aug 22, 2005)

kickstand said:
			
		

> which campground were you at?



We were at Glen Ellis in Glen, NH.


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## riverc0il (Aug 22, 2005)

in a previous post, i reported seeing a bear in action yogi bear style staching a picnic basket off a table at lafayette place in the notch.  i am actually surpised this stuff doesn't happen more often.  most folks car camping have no clue about the woods or wildlife.  when i car camp, i am paranoid about leaving food out.  i don't even like leaving food on a table if i am siting by the fire.


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## una_dogger (Aug 26, 2005)

riverc0il said:
			
		

> when i car camp, i am paranoid about leaving food out.



Me too. This past July, at Heart Lake in the Daks, I kept all of my food in the car. I inadvertently left a back window cracked a very small amount, and when I opened my car, a red squirrel dashed out. He didn't really get any food because it was also vaulted, but he did eat all of the weather stripping off that window to get in my car!!! Arrrggghh!!!

Interesting about the bear sighting.


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## Npage148 (Sep 6, 2005)

red squirrels are the biggest pains in the rear.  Camping up in moosehead maine this summer, i left a bag of peanuts on teh table and went the the bathroom.  I was gone less than 15 minutes and when i got back the bag was dead empty.  There was this 1 squirrel that was doing it and i was ready to catch him and teach him a lesson.  I never did though.

On the bear topic, 1 season car camping in the adirondacks with my family, the campground was having some bear trouble.  The ranger was telling people to always keep their cooler in a car trunk and food cleaned up and so forth.  My family did and didnt have any trouble.  But i watched a med size bear destroy 2 screenhouses on the adjacet sites to ours and drag 2 coolers into the woods and feast.  This was broad day light too.  Im sure those people learned their lessons.  ALso that week at the grounds, our friend left the window to his truck down one night and in the morning he went to get something out of his truck and found a bear sleeping across the bench seat.  He left the door open and the bear eventually left


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## Mike P. (Sep 7, 2005)

in the Sierra's & Whitney Portal area especially, the bears have learned that trunks can be broken into & car windows do break so even car campers are encouraged to use cannisters.

I suspect the local bears are just slow getting the How-To manual


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