porkstar3
My wife and I love to camp on the beach. There are numerous places in Texas and Louisiana where you can set up a tent either very close to the sand or on it. Any suggestions?
Answer
You can get a back country permit to camp directly on the beach at Canaveral National Seashore In New Smyrna Beach. This is a "hike in" only location, so may have the entire twelve miles of beach to yourselves.
Most of the locations already mentioned by other answerers are in developed parks and while quite nice, are still developed and you will have plenty of neighbors.
You can also go to Everglades National Park and primitive camp on Cape Sable. You cannot reach this place by car or foot, only by boat.
You can get a back country permit to camp directly on the beach at Canaveral National Seashore In New Smyrna Beach. This is a "hike in" only location, so may have the entire twelve miles of beach to yourselves.
Most of the locations already mentioned by other answerers are in developed parks and while quite nice, are still developed and you will have plenty of neighbors.
You can also go to Everglades National Park and primitive camp on Cape Sable. You cannot reach this place by car or foot, only by boat.
Dispersed camping in bear territory?
Jack
All my prior camping out west has been in National Parks where there were steel 'bear boxes' to store foodstuffs in.
My camping here in Louisiana/Texas has not had to deal with any night-time pests larger than a racoon.
I plan to spend a lot of time in the Idaho BLM wilderness areas where the highest order of convenience is possibly a portable toilet and/or a fire ring.
What is the best way to protect food (and me and my little dog) from bears? I know you hang it in a tree, or on a pole, but how far away does it have to be from your tent?
Does a pole really work? i.e. how structurally sound does it have to be? Just out of reach, or able to withstand a sustained 'attack' by a hungry bear?
If you hang it in a tree, do you have to worry about the bear climbing the tree to dislodge the rope?
What kind of stuff do you need to put up off the ground? It seems like a lot of stuff could get 'contaminated' by food scents. Do you have to hang the whole 'kitchen' up in the air? I used to use the bear boxes as a storage spot for everything related to my 'kitchen' and it was a huge volume of stuff to consider hanging up every night.
Do you have to fear a tent attack from a bear that wanders into the area attracted by the aroma wafting about from the food in the tree??
Do you have to hang the ice chest?? That may be difficult if it has much ice in it?
I have a miniature pincer - about four pounds. He will bark at any noise/motion he senses at night. Will this serve as an attraction to a visiting bear?
Answer
Go to Youtube and search for "bear bag pct method". There are several videos that will show you how to do it.
EVERYTHING that has a food based scent, or flavoring, etc. should go into the hanging bag. This includes obscure items like toothpaste, toothbrush, chapstick, vaseline, and shampoo etc etc. It's amazing how many items have scents and flavors added. All of your food, condiments, dehydrated food packets, flavored beverages -- ALL food items should be hung. I also hang my utensils and pots and pans in a second bag because you can't get every little piece of food particle off of them.
If you don't want to use a hanging bag, then you can get a bearproof canister, but you need to go to the national forest website for your particular forest and see which ones are approved. In some forests, especially in ultra-socialist areas like California, if you don't use an approved canister, you will get a citation. Bear canisters can also get lost. Bear shows up, bear finds canister, bear plays soccer with canister for an hour. Your canister will be a half mile away when you return and you probably won't find it.
Another option is to use an electrified bear fence, but again, you need to make sure you are using one that is approved or you can get a citation. In Alaska, I used both a hanging bag and UDAP electric fence that was provided by the outfitter and the fence worked great.
Here's what I do as standard procedure on camping trips in bear country...
If I'm hiking, I will stop at around 5 or 6pm and at least a mile or two from my destination and my sleep camp, I'll make and eat dinner. Dinner is the only meal I cook when backpacking. Breakfast and lunch only require boiled water. After eating dinner in my cook camp, I'll clean up and then make my way to my sleep camp. At my sleep camp, I hang all the food, trash, and cooking gear in bags using the PCT method and I'll hang them at least 100 feet from my tent. A cooler and bear fence are too heavy to carry while backpacking so they never come into play. The main idea is that where you eat and where you sleep are a couple miles apart and all food smells are up in the tree at night.
If I'm car camping with a cooler, I will drive 4 or 5 miles down the road and cook and eat dinner in a separate cook camp, then drive back to my sleep camp. Food and cook gear gets hung using the PCT method in my sleep camp. My cooler only has beverage cans and ice and I wash down the beverage cans in advance in case some of the liquid was spilled on the cans at the factory. I also keep the cooler wiped down with Clorox inside and out. The cooler stays in the car with the windows up at night. I know this is a big risk but so far so good. All beverage empties get hung with the other trash. If available, I will put an electric fence around my sleep tent but I don't own one so this is not very often. In some places I've been stuck and couldn't drive to a cook camp so I setup a cook camp about 200 yards away. It was better than cooking and eating in one camp but not nearly as good as driving 5 miles down the road.
Also, it should go without saying that you need to dig your cat scratch holes fairly deep and cover them well and I also like to take care of this far far away from my sleep camp. I don't worry about urinating near my sleep camp, but going number 2 is a different story.
BTW, you don't just have bears to worry about in Idaho. I had a pretty scary encounter with some wolves in my camp last Fall in the Clearwater National Forest. It was way more scary than any bear encounter I ever had.
hope that gives you some ideas...
Go to Youtube and search for "bear bag pct method". There are several videos that will show you how to do it.
EVERYTHING that has a food based scent, or flavoring, etc. should go into the hanging bag. This includes obscure items like toothpaste, toothbrush, chapstick, vaseline, and shampoo etc etc. It's amazing how many items have scents and flavors added. All of your food, condiments, dehydrated food packets, flavored beverages -- ALL food items should be hung. I also hang my utensils and pots and pans in a second bag because you can't get every little piece of food particle off of them.
If you don't want to use a hanging bag, then you can get a bearproof canister, but you need to go to the national forest website for your particular forest and see which ones are approved. In some forests, especially in ultra-socialist areas like California, if you don't use an approved canister, you will get a citation. Bear canisters can also get lost. Bear shows up, bear finds canister, bear plays soccer with canister for an hour. Your canister will be a half mile away when you return and you probably won't find it.
Another option is to use an electrified bear fence, but again, you need to make sure you are using one that is approved or you can get a citation. In Alaska, I used both a hanging bag and UDAP electric fence that was provided by the outfitter and the fence worked great.
Here's what I do as standard procedure on camping trips in bear country...
If I'm hiking, I will stop at around 5 or 6pm and at least a mile or two from my destination and my sleep camp, I'll make and eat dinner. Dinner is the only meal I cook when backpacking. Breakfast and lunch only require boiled water. After eating dinner in my cook camp, I'll clean up and then make my way to my sleep camp. At my sleep camp, I hang all the food, trash, and cooking gear in bags using the PCT method and I'll hang them at least 100 feet from my tent. A cooler and bear fence are too heavy to carry while backpacking so they never come into play. The main idea is that where you eat and where you sleep are a couple miles apart and all food smells are up in the tree at night.
If I'm car camping with a cooler, I will drive 4 or 5 miles down the road and cook and eat dinner in a separate cook camp, then drive back to my sleep camp. Food and cook gear gets hung using the PCT method in my sleep camp. My cooler only has beverage cans and ice and I wash down the beverage cans in advance in case some of the liquid was spilled on the cans at the factory. I also keep the cooler wiped down with Clorox inside and out. The cooler stays in the car with the windows up at night. I know this is a big risk but so far so good. All beverage empties get hung with the other trash. If available, I will put an electric fence around my sleep tent but I don't own one so this is not very often. In some places I've been stuck and couldn't drive to a cook camp so I setup a cook camp about 200 yards away. It was better than cooking and eating in one camp but not nearly as good as driving 5 miles down the road.
Also, it should go without saying that you need to dig your cat scratch holes fairly deep and cover them well and I also like to take care of this far far away from my sleep camp. I don't worry about urinating near my sleep camp, but going number 2 is a different story.
BTW, you don't just have bears to worry about in Idaho. I had a pretty scary encounter with some wolves in my camp last Fall in the Clearwater National Forest. It was way more scary than any bear encounter I ever had.
hope that gives you some ideas...
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
No comments:
Post a Comment