Article on Boondocking Safety

[ColoRockiesFan]

Just read this article in Truck Camper magazine ... some good info!

Personal Safety for Truck Campers

[ShirleyA]

Thank you for sharing that info. If you see part 2 come out, please pass that along.

Thank you!!

[Jack L]

Thanks for sharing!

[ColoRockiesFan]

Personal Safety - Carrying Firearms and Non-Lethal Self-Defense Tools

[TomK]

Both excellent articles Lisa. Thanks!

Tom

[honda03842]

A gun is like an anti-sway bar. I don't want to ever use one but it's nice to know it's there if I need one. I do not carry one ever when hiking. Personally we have never had a bad experience with people in over 3,000 nights of camping. Our concern is a national breakdown.

There's a Redwood trail we frequently hike every other year or so. After our last hike, a retired couple like us were jumped by a mountain lion, the husband was saved by his wife who stabbed the mountain lion in the eye with a ball point pen. Ginny now carries a pen on every hike.

We also have two hand tasers that look like small flashlights that may be more effective than the ball point though we again hope they're never used.

At the Oregon NOG a park ranger gave a talk on Mountain Lions. He said since the timber cutting has been dramatically reduced in Oregon the deer have moved down to more populated areas to feed, the mountain lions have followed, one of those unintended consequences. He had many stories of lions and people.

[TomK]

Originally Posted by honda03842

There's a Redwood trail we frequently hike every other year or so. After our last hike, a retired couple like us were jumped by a mountain lion, the husband was saved by his wife who stabbed the mountain lion in the eye with a ball point pen. Ginny now carries a pen on every hike.

A pen mightier than a sword! That made me smile. My brothers and I deer hunt in a National Wildlife Preserve in MI's Upper Peninsula. We've hunted that area for the past 25 years or so. Bears are common, coyote were there in numbers, but wolves have now displaced them. None of them concern me too much. I'm well armed with a high power rifle. However..... There's now a new kid in town. We've been spotting mountain lions. Something about them quietly stalking thru the North Woods keeps me on a higher state of alert. They are absolutely silent, and can close the distance in a charge before you blink. I usually have a .357 strapped to my waist for close encounters nowadays.

Like a sway bar. There when you need it.

Tom

[honda03842]

The ranger said getting hit by a mountain lion is like getting hit by a car. He said he knows people who have been hit so hard that they came out of their shoes.

You just don't see them before they strike.

[minke]

I've seen adult cougar tracks in the snow next to my house. A couple of years ago there was an unlikely trio of 2 one-year-olds and a two-year-old lodging under a neighbor's deck. The DPW (Dep't of Parks and Wildlife) chose to move them because they killed too many dogs. They accidentally killed one in the process. The dog owners here should know better. That'll never happen.

That said, the only human fatality story here in CO that I'm familiar with and that I happen to believe occurred was in the foothills west of Boulder. A runner died and the official (DPW?, can't remember) theory was that he may have stopped to tie his shoes and his diminutive stance allowed the cougar to view him as prey.

[Timber Wolf]

Originally Posted by honda03842

You just don't see them before they strike.

We have a cat that was born in a shed on my place to her feral mother. After my daughter found her and her brother we watched them for a while until her brother died and it was obvious the mother was not taking care of them. I brought the girl kitty in and bottle fed her kitty formula (I had previously never known of such a thing). She is an amazing cat and built exactly like a very small wild cat, which she is. It is amazing to watch her hunt. And plum scary to think what a much larger cat could do.

About packing a rod, heater, Rosco, gat, etc. I know it may be a disturbing topic to some, but I am not going to get caught somewhere remote with nothing but harsh language (or a pen) to prevent someone from killing me and kidnapping my daughter.

[TomK]

I live in Chicagoland. It runs from Gary, IN to Milwaukee, with Chicago in the middle. One HUGE megalopolis. A mountain lion was spotted near my village. It made all the local news and even the national news on a couple networks. A cop found it in a tree in the city just south of us and shot it with his service pistol. He calmly explained "It's a mountain lion living in the city. It doesn't belong here". Some were livid, but most agreed. The biologists traced it's DNA to an area in Minnesota. Why it made it's way here was anybody's guess.

Tom

[honda03842]

A mountain lion was killed by a car in Connecticut. It was from South Dakota.

[J.R.]

Fantastic information. Just the type of thing I have been hoping to see on this forum and among the most helpful of all. This could save people a lot of problems and expenses. Thanks for posting the link.

[Timber Wolf]

Those big cats can range far and wide, and doing so is a Biologists dream. It has to do with spreading their gene pool around and not inbreeding. We saw a Florida Panther jump the Interstate here in North Florida a few years back and it was a sight to behold that beautiful creature sail over the asphalt. The Wildlife people know they are up here but will not publically admit it for fear of people not taking habit restoration seriously. I saw a map of the range they (the Wildlife folks) want to create and it spread from South Florida to Texas with large tracts of wild areas connected with wild “corridors” for the cats to “migrate” or travel to breed and hunt.

[minke]

The only day-of-the-week on which I have any special responsibility is Wednesday. Garbage day is clearly the highlight of my week. On topic,,, being in bear country I 1) do not put out my garbage the night before, and 2) I do sprinkle the garbage and recycling with a little ammonia. You only have to clean up one bear mess to get motivated.

I've never heard of a bear injury in CO. I have heard of car doors ripped off to get at ice chests to get at food. (I tried to buy an ice chest on the east coast a few years back. Since I didn't know the magic word "cooler" I got nowhere. My geriatric memory may have reversed the two names.) I'm told that the danger comes mostly from getting between a sow and her cubs. The cubs can enchant you so be careful.

We're told that when facing an aggressive bear (I never have) to make noise, look big by e.g. opening up your jacket and holding it out, and throw things. I have enough trouble with one thing at a time! Then, if actually attacked we are supposed to roll up in a ball to protect our viscera. I can't imagine having the presence of mind and self control to actually do that.

A geologist buddy had a staff member injured in AK. The guy's rifle was on the ground and he was clearing a landing spot for the helicopter to pick him up. IIRC the bear came up behind him and took one swipe and the helicopter arrived. Also, IIRC, it was a grizzly. A few months later he was OK.

[Scamper Jim]

“Ginny now carries a pen on every hike.”

Norm, Norm, Norm…

There is a fly in the ointment here. You assume that: 1}the lion would attack you, and, 2) that she would come to your aid.

Now what if the lion attacks her? There is no mention of you carrying a pen to save her! Hmmm, better hope she doesn’t see through your little plan otherwise if you are attacked, she just may use her pen to make a note to herself to file a claim on your life insurance policy when she gets back.

Likewise, you may not want to encourage her to get a concealed-carry permit. If you are attacked and she has to use it, she could “accidentally” hit you instead. No problem there, the inquest would be an open-and-shut case. Accidentally shot you while trying to save you from the attack, and the claw and teeth marks will be there to back up her story. She files life insurance claim and spends the rest of her days in the Bahamas instead of New Hampshire and having to spend 260 days of the year in a 16’ camper with you. Do you sense a problem here?

By the way, could you give me her phone number? Just to offer my condolences after your accident; of course the life insurance money would have nothing to do with it.

[minke]

Originally Posted by minke

...

We're told that when facing an aggressive bear (I never have) to make noise, look big by e.g. opening up your jacket and holding it out, and throw things. I have enough trouble with one thing at a time! Then, if actually attacked we are supposed to roll up in a ball to protect our viscera. I can't imagine having the presence of mind and self control to actually do that.
...

I just returned from Mueller State Park (CO) and on a bulletin board, in my words, "speak softly to the bear, don't yell, and back away".
That seems easy to make fun of ("Hello Popa/Moma/Baby Bear, it's 4:00 P.M. and would you like tea?") and perhaps difficult to do when your IQ drops to single digits. Perhaps doing that will help calm us too!

I'd also like to remove the word "aggressive".

I hope I haven't misinformed anyone.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Scamper Jim

“Ginny now carries a pen on every hike.”

Norm, Norm, Norm…

There is a fly in the ointment here. You assume that: 1}the lion would attack you, and, 2) that she would come to your aid.

Now what if the lion attacks her? There is no mention of you carrying a pen to save her! Hmmm, better hope she doesn’t see through your little plan otherwise if you are attacked, she just may use her pen to make a note to herself to file a claim on your life insurance policy when she gets back.

Likewise, you may not want to encourage her to get a concealed-carry permit. If you are attacked and she has to use it, she could “accidentally” hit you instead. No problem there, the inquest would be an open-and-shut case. Accidentally shot you while trying to save you from the attack, and the claw and teeth marks will be there to back up her story. She files life insurance claim and spends the rest of her days in the Bahamas instead of New Hampshire and having to spend 260 days of the year in a 16’ camper with you. Do you sense a problem here?

By the way, could you give me her phone number? Just to offer my condolences after your accident; of course the life insurance money would have nothing to do with it.

I love humor. Thanks.

[steve dunham]

There has been numerous reports often with photos of mountain lion sightings here in Wisconsin . Our DNR says there are NO mountain lions in Wisconsin and treats the report of one the same as a BIGFOOT sighting . The DNR's motivation for dismissing the reports is a mystery to many

[Timber Wolf]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

The DNR's motivation for dismissing the reports is a mystery to many.

Many who live in rural areas around here are besieged by Black Bears. Not really dangerous but one couple I know has their freezer out in the shed routinely destroyed by bears trying to access the deer meat inside. Fish & Games postion is "ain't no bears hereabouts". Of course I had another Wildlife Officer tell me one of my favorite Grey Squirrel hunting areas in the National Forest "was not squirrel territory". Guess nobody told the squirrels.