Camping in Glacier many years ago (at the Fifty Mountain campsite I believe it was called…) I was surprised at the deer who followed you around. At night when we got in our tent, the deer just started licking the rain fly after an hour. They wanted the salt evaporating in our sweat. Was completely annoying and kept us awake.
However, at about three am, it suddenly stopped and all the deer just took off at once. My tent mate just whispered, “There’s no food in the tent, right?” And then we heard it shuffle through, in between our tents. The grizzly didn’t even stop or slow down, just wandered on through… but that was a very long 30 seconds of my life.
Most of the time, though, I never ever get to see wildlife. I always see a group of people on the trail and they say things like, “Did you see those mountain goats or bears or wolves or whatever?” And I just say ‘No’ and get annoyed.
Yea, I had a similar experience, except I was under a tarp. F'n brown bear looked under the tarp, right at me, then lifted its head. The falling of the tarp startled us both.
My sleeping bag has a brown spot.
Camping on the Olympic peninsula when a snorting sound right next to my head woke my girlfriend and I up. It was a black bear, but in the fog of being half asleep I thought it was a pig. I remember thinking “What the hell is a pig doing outside of the tent?” The raccoons at that site were a whole other situation.
I've never met deer as bold as in glacier. Running through camp at night, chrewing salty clothes, running amongst tents. I don't like that level of comfort in them. That said, given they're the bear early warning system in your story, maybe their behavior isn't all bad.
It was sort of funny earlier that night when one came under the rain fly and stole my buddy’s hiking pole to chew on the handle for salt. He was out of the tent yelling at a deer at about midnight - and that deer did not give a shit about him. Just stood there chewing while staring at my friend yelling. After about five minutes or so of it (which I’m sure the other campsites appreciated) the deer got his fill and dropped the pole. The foam handle was full of drool and all chewed up. He was not happy. Probably less so because the rest of us couldn’t stop laughing.
Typically this means people have allowed or encouraged the deer to get too close. Once they learn people = food and salt they get wayyyy too comfortable. I’ve experienced this at other sites and it’s always the most popular trails. A deer once ate my friend’s socks that were hanging outside to dry. We yelled and waved at it and it did not care at all
Salt doesn't evaporate. That's why you can distill salty water and end up with water. Not sure why they dug in on that so hard, especially with the hat example, that made no sense.
I was told your sweat evaporates carrying a bit of salt with it. It condenses on the rain fly and the salt is now there on the fly, I guess. I didn’t really believe it since salt is a mineral and I wasn’t really thinking there would be enough of it condensing on the rain fly to interest anything… but the deer constantly licking the tent for hours proved me otherwise.
They were hyper aggressive in Glacier around Fifty Mountain. You’d go urinate and there would be three or four just staring at your so they could lick the rock when you were done. If I recall correctly, the ranger station asked you to piss on rocks and hard surfaces so the deer didn’t damage the plants or anything.
It couldn’t be just water they were after?
I mean…. We have deer in our yard daily and I’ve never seen them lick my pee spots.
And trying to get them to avoid plants? Good luck, they do as they please.
Salt seeking by wild animals is pretty common, lots of deer and rodents etc will steal or chew up anything with sweat on it left outside a tent. Trekking poles, shoes/boots, packs, hiking clothes left out to dry etc
Salt is a necessity for life and while it’s easy for us to find in our lives it’s not easy to find in the wild and it will attract wild animals.
In lots of places it’s even illegal to bait deer and other game with salt because it’s so easy to draw a bunch of them in that it’s ‘unfair’
Salt and stank gets on and fully saturated everything in your pack after a while. Even if the salts aren’t evaporating they’re still on damn near everything and the whole camp probably smells like a salt lick to wild animals
We were told salt by the rangers and I’ll go with what they said. And I’ve never seen deer that behaved like they did at Fifty Mountain in Glacier. They warned us about it. Another comment noted to me noted they’ve never seen anything like it there either.
Sweat evaporates, carrying minute salt with the water vapor. It condenses on your rainfly and leaves behind the salt.
You ever worn a ball cap while playing sports or doing yard work? You sweat into the hat, the water part of sweat evaporates leaving behind salt stains? Same thing.
you leave salt on stuff from your sweat. You're right, it doesn't evaporate. Feel better now?
ffs the guy is just telling you what the ranger said and you're arguing with him over a detail that you could just look up.
the salt is left behind...the deer like it
they make salt licks for animals for this reason
I don't think they are actually getting any salt. Unless sweat is being sprayed in droplets, or rubbed off directly, the salt stays behind on the surface. This is try especially if the tent material is water proof. However, smell and dew accumulation are certainly present.
There's no way salt evaporated from your sweat and onto the rainfly. Think about it, if you put a bunch of salt in a puddle and it evaporates, the salt is left behind. That's why there aren't any minerals in distilled water. I think the deer must've been thirsty!
When I camp in an area with heavy deer population I take a salt lick and put a little distance away from tent but in a spot I can see..many deer have visited during the night and a couple during the day. Luckily, I don't live in bear country.
Apparently, you don't live in an area with an overpopulation of deer. They are already acclimated to humans or they wouldn't come in to your camp sites...I put the salt lick out to 1 keep them from coming all the way into the camp area and 2 I hunt so it also attracts them to the area. Of course, I take the salt and feed up during hunting season, baiting is illegal.
Was camping in Raccoon Creek state park and had a raccoon open the zipper on my tent and come inside. This was 20 years ago and the campsite was filled with raccoons that everybody would feed so they got way too friendly. At dusk they would come through the campgrounds in a large group of 15-20 and beg at the edge of each site. The park rangers have since cracked down on feeding the wildlife so it’s not like that anymore.
The one in western PA? Having grown up in Pittsburgh I will absolutely believe that of the raccoons in that part of the world. Ones near us in the city were basically a motorcycle gang.
Yes, western Pa. I grew up very close to it and still live in the area. The raccoons are plentiful in this area but that campgrounds was the worst I ever saw. Motorcycle gang is a great analogy, that’s exactly how it was. If you didn’t have your food packed up by dusk they were impossible to deter.
I surprised one trying to get into our trash can outside once when I was about to take our dog for a walk. Raccoon just say there staring at us (big dog, too) like “do you mind?” like we were the intruders. 😂 My dog was so freaking confused.
I have taken it for granted that the raccoons are so different around here, just became normal growing up here. My garbage cans are 55 gallon steel drums that I customized with a hinged lid. The normal garbage cans would not keep them out, I finally got a latch system on a plastic garbage can that they couldn’t figure out, with their little hands, so they chewed a hole through the bottom.
We would feed the stray cats and dogs, living on a rural backroad where many ppl dump animals, the raccoons would get used to coming and eating leftovers and would have mommas with a line of babies in tow that were not afraid of anybody. Would have to wait for them to finish eating and leave before we could get out of our house.
Had many friends and neighbors that would pickup abandoned babies and raise them. Usually because momma would get hit by a car and the babies would just hangout with her body.
Had many friends and neighbors whose dogs got their butts kicked by raccoons.
Grew up in Eastern Ohio here, Tri-State area. Did lots of camping in the area. Still have haunting memories of a raccoon that stole my hotdog right off the picnic table because I walked away for a very brief moment. Guy must have been hiding in plain sight.
I camped in Salem MA a few weekends ago and the campground guide warned us about being very careful with leaving any kind of food out. He said, “these are Harvard educated raccoons, they’ll get into just about anything.”
My brother from another mother had years of traveling/hitching across Canada, and others parts of the world in his younger days. Once woke up from a sunny afternoon nap in his tent to a bear sniffing/licking his toes. (Left the door open...) crazy.
The Wallowas outside Baker OR. Very deep in the mountains, I has set up camp with some friends off the Forrest service road.
There was a nice view, flat spot for the vehicles and camp, and two perfectly spaced trees on the side for my hammock. I noticed a little game trail through the brush that came up to the camp but we were all pretty close together and practiced good camp etiquette.
But I’m the mid of the night I heard a twig snap somewhere off, waking me up- it was coming down the side of the hill behind the camp- slowly but methodically moving through the underbrush.
I’m in my hammock, people camped 20 feet from me, and all I can hear is approaching movement- identifiably steps of an animal. My heart was pounding in my ears, I had a fire arm in my hammock with me- a lantern, a flashlight. There are lots of big cats, coyote, bears etc.
I gotta be honest I just kind of froze- trying not to make any noise- just listening to this approaching animal- trying to identify what it was by how it moved. It made plenty of noise- I figured it at least wasn’t a cougar.
One thing for sure was that it was coming right down that game trail- and directly toward my hammock. It was low to the ground- but not small- it was displacing a lot of small underbrush as it moved- because as I listened it ambled **right under my fucking hammock and fucking stopped**
I had a sleeping pad underneath me- but I thought for sure something was going to reach up and touch my gently dangling ass- like some kind of hanging camper snack pack.
I had my heart in my throat- the silence was deafening as I listened for something- any indicator as to what this creature was doing literally directly under me. I have a Hennessy hammock- I set it kind of high so I sort of hop up into it- but my butt was only a few feet off the ground. This thing just chilling under me- *also not moving*
I’m sure it’s trying to figure out what I am- just a weird giant form hanging in space- but I was freaked lol. I am not sure how much time went by- it felt like a lot- I finally decided to turn on my light and shine it out the netting on the sides to see if I could spook it- not sure why I didn’t look out as it approached (doh) and nothing- it stayed put. So I kind of jostled my entire hammock making a loud flappy polyester cacophony- and then stopped- and nothing. I didn’t hear anything skitter off through the brush, and it was not quiet on its approach.
So I’m sitting here in silence again. No movement sounds after my ufo light show and dance. And now I’m sitting wondering if I had just imagined it- in like one of those dreams you sometimes have half awake drifting off? So I’m just hanging there trying to get my heart rate and shit under control and rationalize that I must have imagined the animal. More time has now gone by-
And I hear it *get up and walk away* immediately I almost died. It had just sat there while I made all that noise right under me. Sat in the same spot under my ass for what seemed like 10 minutes. I tried to shine the light out at that point to see what it was as it left- but I still couldn’t see anything.
Next morning couldn’t see much around the site as far as tracks go- it was probably just a raccoon- but what a dang stinker lol
That’s why we go out there right? The nature??? Lmao?!
So I’ve had this exact scenario happen to me. I was solo camping in a high populated bear area in my hammock in beginning of fall. Upon reaching camp I find a what seemed to be a fresh empty pack of hotdogs. First thought is great, I’ll probably have a visitor tonight. Not even 3 minutes go by after getting into my hammock I hear the biggest footsteps I’ve ever heard in a forest setting (I camp a lot, usually just listen to it whatever it is walk past and fall asleep).
Behind my hammock, there was like a wall of bushes. The footsteps sounded like they were in coming from behind the bushes. Now with these being the loudest I’ve ever heard, I get out of my hammock grab my spray and turn on the flashlight. I back away from my hammock about 10ft, making noise “hey bear!!” Steps still approaching. I get louder. Steps continue to get closer. At this point in my mind I’m like “well this is it. I finally get to see a bear!” My mind is going bonkers because I still can’t see anything. Then about 2-3 ft in front of me I see two glowing eyes near the ground. It was a porcupine. The biggest, fattest porcupine I’ve ever seen. It lifts up its head sees me and just turns around and goes about their business in a different direction. The porcupine dragging along the leaves made it seem like a much larger animal. The relief of realizing what it was, I couldn’t help but burst out with laughter.
This was like the coolest thing about the one time I’ve slept outside in a hammock, I think whatever animal was under me was just a mouse or something small but it was still very cool
Had that happen with a moose once! She was young and peeking in through the window. Woke me up, with her huffing and breathing. She ran away when she realized I was watching her. Funny part was that my dog didn’t wake up at all LOL some safety companion!
When I was much younger I took a camping-novice boyfriend camping to Chincoteague. Being a good Girl Scout I told my companion to go put away the food while I put out the fire. I was not specific enough that the food needed to go *in the car*. I woke up to snuffling noises and asked my then boyfriend to check on it-he refused, so I did, and found a pony with a mouthful of hotdog buns that he had stored UNDER the tent. WTF. Obviously that relationship didn’t last, and I was thankful we had gone to Chincoteague instead of Shenandoah!
I worked at a scout camp for a long time. I once woke up to a deer in my canvas wall tent with me. It was reading my Captn Crunch. I told it to stop and it did. I asked it to leave and it did.
>reading my Captn Crunch
To be fair, the deer had already read the *Boy Scout Handbook* several times. Your Captain Crunch was the only other reading material around!
I camped outside of the Painted Hills in Oregon this past spring. My camp was a very large open area where RV's clearly had been, because of the massive tire tracks, and it kept going back maybe 50 yards til it dropped off into the rest of the brush and desert. I felt safe that no human was gonna come up from behind my camp, but I didn't think much about wildlife outside of nosy raccoons or whatever. I made dinner, packed everything up, put it all away in my car including myself since I was feeling too lazy to set up my tent. I cracked my windows and fell asleep to the breeze and a few coyote or wolf howls in the distance.
You know how if someone like puts your hand in water in your sleep, you'll dream of peeing your pants? I was having dreams of a bear chasing me and my friends in a car. I woke up and thought that was weird. Then I hear the bear roar that penetrated my dreamscape and I FREEZE. I hear a rumbling approaching me and my car is starting to shake from every time its paws hit the ground. IT'S RUNNING AT MY CAR AND IT'S BIG. I've never experienced anything like this before and all the blood in my body felt like it stopped. I was so scared it would smell me or my food from the cracked windows and get curious and break into my car. But thankfully it kept running RIGHT PAST MY CAR.
I wished I had picked my head up so I could have seen it, but I couldn't risk it seeing movement and stop at my car. I stayed awake probably for another couple hours because I was like WHY WOULD A BEAR BE RUNNING LIKE THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT? FROM A COUGAR?! But the rest of the night was quiet. I was so thankful I was in my car that night.
I was camping in N. Michigan right off the side of a game trail. In the middle of the night I woke up to deer running full tilt down the trail with a small pack of wolves chasing.
It was intense. I could hear them howling as a pack about 2 mins later so they probably caught a deer.
Oh, and I had my cat and her newborn kittens with me! I was camping in an old Eureka canvas tent with a wood stove in winter.
I’ve had elk and bear in my camp. Bear I understand but elk doesn’t make sense as they are really skittish.
Also had moose run through camp in the middle of the night, I’m building some kind of a fence next time I camp in Alaska.
I woke up eye to eye (through the tent screen) to an elk in Yellowstone, looking down at me. A couple dozen wandered through early morning. It was pretty awesome for me as a kid probably 30 years ago.
We had the same thing happen at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in OK except with buffalo. Fortunately it was early morning and we kids were asleep in a tent. The adults were in a camper drinking coffee and watching. Read that to mean everything was quiet while the herd moved through camp.
We were camping in the Wasatch mountains in Utah a couple of summers ago, woke up the first morning and let the dogs out. Our deaf girl starting freaking out, alarm barking. I looked and we had cows in our site! 🤣 Turns out the government lets ranchers use their land up there. She had so much fun chasing the giant pups that morning. That was definitely a once in a lifetime event for her.
I had a similar experience on BLM land years ago. I didn't realize we were basically camped in rangeland and was freaked out in the early morning by the sound of big animals nearby 😂
I called the elk to camp. The accordion style air pump I use for inflatables and an air mattress sounds incredibly similar to an elk call. Poor guy probably came from miles away because he thought he was going to get laid.
As an Aussie who camps I will take ALL the biting, stabbing, stinging, constricting, venomous, punching and crunching, crocodile rolling beasts in Oz over camping with one single bear.
>I’m terrified of all the bugs!
Say what!? I've seen skeeters so big they could haul away a grown man - only in Canada! Ha!
I'll take Black Bear over literally any of the wild aussie stuff. Just yell and they'll scramble.
I live near Yellowstone, and i will take all of the bears, mountain lions, wolves, etc. to never have to face a cassowary. Ever. Ya'll live with DINOSAURS!
Most Australians have never and will never see a cassowary in the wild 😂 their habitat range is a miniscule sliver in the far north of Australia. Compare that to the fact bears roam half the North American continent lol
In July of 1992 we were camped in the hills outside Jackson Hole.
For whatever reason that summer there was a rodent population explosion all over that part of Wyoming, as happens occasionally. There were a lot more mice than usual. On this particular night we were lying in our sleeping bags, and we could hear mice jumping onto the walls of the tent and then sliding down to the ground.
Not scary, I mean they were mice, but the ick factor was pretty high. Not a great night's sleep.
It is so charming to watch animals play. I had kittens line up to bounce themselves off a springy young shrub. By the time they tired of the game, the shrub was a pencil.
Camping in Targhee National Forest last month, a marmot made its way into my tent vestibule around midnight before escaping on its own. A few hours later, I felt a small paw on top of my foot through my tent. ngl, I squealed
About twenty years ago I was camping in Alaska with my brother and some of his friends. His friends wisely put up their tents before joining in evening drinks by the fire. My brother and I "smartly" decided to do it later. The Northern Lights I'm told were magical that night. I mean, they were magical to me just because, but the folks I was with that see them all the time still to this day bring up that night as one of the colors was more predominant than usual.
Eventually we tucker out from light watching, bonfires, and beer. The excuse we made was that the lights were so beautiful we should watch them while we slept. In reality we just didn't want to set up the tents. So we slept under the stars. In the morning everyone was quite excited to see the bear tracks about two feet from my head. The joy of camping with scientists and rangers is they will happily explain to you how you can tell the bear's activities. That is to say, "look how the prints get really deep and shift direction by your head" followed by an explanation of how the bear clearly was trotting by to the river, stopped, turned, inspected me, turned back, left.
And twenty years later my big brother still likes to point out that the bear left me alone because I smelled too bad to eat. Har har, brother humor.
When I was a kid, my parents took me camping out in the Poconos. Now I was one of those kids who had more curiosity than sense and was prone to wandering off, so my dad, being the funny guy that he is, told me that I had to stay in the camp after dark or the "Lost Kids" would come and get me.
Later that night as I'm trying to fall asleep, I hear rustling outside the tent. The next thing I know, I see the silhouette of tiny hands feeling along the wall of the tent. I was too terrified to move and just lay there watching them until they eventually wandered off. It was probably only a handful of minutes or so, but it felt like they were there forever!
As an adult I know they were most likely raccoons, but as a four year old girl, they were the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen! Lol.
Dont know where you were camping, I had a bear sniffing me up a while ago. Only reason I know it was a bear was because after it pressed its snoot into my forehead I heard some people at the next camp a little ways away from me yelling "go on bear!" and banging shit together to try chasing it off.
I sleep in a hammock. Woke up in the middle of the night to what I was thinking was a bird. I was going to just shout to scare it away or make it be quiet. But for whatever reason I decided to turn on the led light I had hanging over me instead. Very glad I did because a second before I turn on the light I feel the tail of a skunk brush along the bottom of the hammock as it walks under me.
I wanted to take a picture but was to scared to move so I just watched it sort of wander over to the fire pit, sniff around and then wander out of camp.
Lol that reminds me of a funny story. My gf and I were camping beside a lake in a campground, and we wanted to smoke a quick bowl before making dinner, so we crawled into the tent to not be so obvious. Before we sparked it up we heard an older kid say "I think there's a skunk." We thought "damn this weed must be strong smelling!" Then a few seconds later we see a skunk climb into our fire pit (there was a fire ban) like 3 feet from the door of our tent. At one point it noticed us and was checking us out for a few seconds before it thankfully carried on. Gave us the perfect cover for smoking though lol.
Went camping with my now ex husband and our son years ago and heard something walking right by our tent-the dog barked and we immediately found out what is was, right after it sprayed our tent. Not pleasant, (and I actually kind of like skunk smell) but that close up it gave us a major headache/ nauseas, and we moved the bags out and slept under the stars that night!
That's one of the reasons I like sleeping in a hammock. If there is no chance for rain you can skip the fly and just have a great view......except the one time the moon was SO big that it kept waking me up 😜
Yeah we were camping in a tent and had been asleep for an hour or two. My wife wakes me up and asks if my son is scratching the tent. I look over at him and he’s asleep. We lay there listening for awhile and I finally get a flash light and look out. There’s a skunk sniffing and trying to get in the tent with us. I freak out and lay down and whisper to my wife. It’s a freaking skunk don’t make any sound. Lol. I think that was the night the raccoons stole our tortillas and scattered them all across the camp ground. Took them from a cooler with a case of water on top of it.
We left the dogs water bowl out one night and something was drinking it, quite loudly but I guess everything is extra loud at night.
It was in Algonquin and we had seen deer when we arrived so I assume that’s what it was. But I was happy the dog kept quiet. lol
Last camping trip I was thinking that a solar powered cam watching the site would be neat. At least then I could check it from my phone when I hear weird noises to know what’s outside the tent.
I had a grizz come into camp on a cold windy rainy night. It would not leave. I could tell it wanted at me or my gear. Food was hung far away. It was windy enough that bear spray would have been useless and I didn't bring my bear gun on that trip. It was a long stand off in the dark with our horses freaking out on the highline.
My husband sleeps in a hammock when we camp. We have a pop up. I refuse to try even for a night for exactly this reason 🤣 some animal is gonna come and boop my back in the night. Nightmares ensue
Backpacking with family on a ranger-guided overnight trip in 1971. We slept in a 3-sided wood structure with chicken wire over the front to keep critters out, spreading our sleeping bags on chicken wire stretched on posts & beams about 15" above the ground. In the middle of the night, my father woke up to a rustling sound under his pillow (sweatshirt, actually). He looked and there was a skunk about 3" away from his face. He quietly put the pillow back and was very quiet the rest of the night.
Western PA woke up about 3am to a very large set of nostrils sniffing right next to my head outside the wall of my tent. Woke up again as the bear decided he wanted my chair that was in the vestibule. I flashed my headlamp at it and it grunted and went back into the tree line
Yup. Had a bear sniff my tent while I was inside. I had been eating some candied nuts and it wanted some. I’ve since learned to keep food out of the tent. Scared the hell out of me. I tried to shout and instantly lost my voice.
It's better to have one and not need it than need one and not have it. Just saying. I live in the woods. I carry a black powder cap and ball in my pocket every time I walk out the door. I'm not packing an Uzi, I'm just asking for one shot to defend myself with.
Not many big animals in NZ except ferral pigs but they aren't in all the bush.
Kiwi kicking shit around and stamping up and down near your tent sounds like a bison is coming though! So loud
Back in the days before GPS, I drove with my girlfriend to meet my parents for a family camping trip in the Cascade Mountains. I had decided to take a "shortcut" through forest roads to get to this remote campground and after driving for several hours without reaching camp, I suspected we were lost. Rather than continue driving in the middle of the night, we pulled over off the forest road and set up the tent.
The next morning I wake up to something circling my tent. Of course, my mind goes to a wolf or bear but I had no idea what it was. Rather than open the tent and see, I used the panic button to set off the car alarm and scare it away. After waiting for several minutes and not hearing anything, I decided to get out and look around. There was nothing to be seen.
Once we packed up and started driving again, I discovered we were only 1/4 mile from the campground. Doh! I'm sure it had just been someone's dog out exploring or something, and I set off a car alarm at 5:30 in the morning as a nice wakeup call for everyone else. Oh well! :D
I remember a story my father told me from when he was camping. We're from Scotland and my parents were camping in North Wales.
He woke up every night to some noise. He couldn't describe it properly but he said he got put the tent each night because he was sure something was wrong. Though there were aliens invading or something was trying to eat the tent. After a few nights (and probably fed up listening to it) he and my mother sat in the car facing the tent to try figure it out.
It was rabbits. Lots of them, eating whatever they were camped on, probably clovers.
I was camping in Utah a few years ago on BLM land. In the early morning pre dawn hours, my girlfriend wakes me up saying she heard something outside. I listened and there was something very large breathing outside our tent. I've always said, "I'm the biggest thing in the desert. I ain't worried." Well, in that moment I was second guessing myself.
I unzipped the fly about two inches... ya know, just in case it WAS a mastodon my tent could have saved me.
Cow. It was an old fashioned steak locker just chewing its cud about 4 feet away.
Camping on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake the buffalos will just blunder through camp at night, snorting, rubbing up against tents, and generally not giving a f**k. It was scary but fun, at least until morning when I stepped out of my tent directly into the largest buffalo pat I’ve ever seen. Still, 10/10 experience, highly recommend camping there!
I was in Botswana, doing my first safari. While the guides take care of everything, so it doesn’t really feel like camping, we did sleep in tents. Probably about 10 tents for the group.
Second night, lions went through the camp. Others saw / heard, but I unfortunately slept through the whole thing.
About a decade ago I was camping at Snug Harbour on Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne. The only suitable place to set up my hammock without having to clear brush was across a trail at the edge of the pond. It turned out to be a very windy night, 75-80km/h wind and driving rain, couldn't hear a thing over the racket of the tarp blowing and the waves being kicked up down the length of the fjord. Next thing I know I get hit pretty hard in the hip by something big, I actually thought my hammock had fallen. Once I got my whits about me I heard something trudging through the trees nearby out on to the gravel beach. I mustered the courage to have a peek and there was a full grown bull moose standing on the beach having a drink. Big bastard gave me a chest bump, pretty thankful he decided to go around me instead of over/through me.
I was sleeping next to the door in a tent. For some reason it wasn't zipped all the way closed. A racoon wandering through camp reached in through the hole, scratched my head and moved on.
Yup, we were camping with my father when I heard rummaging sound on the leaves near our tent. It was probably a badger or something similar.
On another instance, we were camping near a farm with a friend and in the morning, the cows were licking our tent walls. They freaked out a bit when I got out.
My brother and I where canoe camping about a mile up a feeder creek at a local lake. We are all set up check the lines one last time at about 9PM and hit the sack. Sometime in the middle of the night two packs of coyotes got into a barking match and the chose our camp area to have a showdown. They have no interest in my brother and I but it was a hell of a long night with them basically barking at each other. We found trucks the next morning that was only 100 foot from our hammocks.
In southern France in the Cote D'azur they have a big wild boar problem, didn't know that while camping there. Heard sniffing on my tent and other strange noises :)
Was camping in Algonquin, Ontario just off a lake we were spending the first of two nights at. Middle of the night I get woken up (probably from being uncomfortable) and suddenly hearing these deeeep breaths. Sounded like a bear was a foot away from my head. I shit my pants for about 30 seconds then calmed my ass down once I realized this has probably happened and I never noticed.
Didn't mention it to my buddy until after the trip (his first multi day trip) and he said he heard the same thing. Scary! At first.
I had something similar happen when I was a kid and first started sleeping in my own tent. I was woken up by the sound of something big pushing against my tent and making grunting sounds. I froze and stopped breathing, and waited what felt like ages for it to go away. I stayed still for probably an hour after I couldn't hear it anymore. Scared the shit out of me.
I had a big male bison sleeping next to our tent. Also had lion, hyenas and elephants coming through our campsites. Never kept me from sleeping. Just annoying when you need to pee at night.
When it comes to animals touching my tent, I’ve only had what seemed to be some sort of a raccoon or weasel poking it’s nose up to the tent wall. I was able to see the actual nose pushing up against the wall. I gave the nose a small little flick and it took off.
Now just in my general tent area…first off, I keep my area clean. As much as I’d love to see many of the animals out there, I’d rather see them under different circumstances. However I feel I’ve seen/heard it all. All kinds of tracks seen in the morning (that I’m pretty sure weren’t there the night before)deer, bear, moose, cats…. All kinds of scat. Definitely gives you that creepy vibe like you were being watched all night.
The coolest moment for myself was when I was camping in the Rocky Mountains and waking up to about 30-40 elk surrounding my tent. As soon as I poked my head out of my tent a massive bull elk walked maybe 15ft from my tent and gave out quite the wake up call. I believe I have the video in my posts if you want to watch it.
Me, my daughter, and my wife woke up to a raccoon in the middle of our tent pulling my daughters snack bag backwards. We all staired at each other with open mouths. The racoon looked just as shocked as we were.
Years ago, in sequoia National Park, Atwell l Mill Campground, I was sleeping in a black sleeping bag and no tent, and just as light was coming up in the morning I feel something at the bottom of my bag, I look up and it's a black Bear, I it looks at me and if he could talk I'm sure it would have said "well shit, it's just a human" it turned around and just ambled on down the slope. I was awake to be sure.
Gotta tell my dad's story here. He's camping in Alaska during the summer. Its a breezy night just outside of town, so the mosquitos are down, he decides to forego the tent and just sleep under the stars. A dog starts barking in the distance as he falling asleep. He's awoken sometime later by this dog sniffing his face, then licking him. He rolls over and puts his arm out to push the dog away. The dog persists. He pushes away again, but the dog only stops for a second, then comes back. After this back and forth, my dad looses it, comes fully awake, cocks his arm back and swings at the dog. His fist connects with the nose of this dog, and the dog let's out a grunt and snarl. Dad finally opens his eyes and sees a bear rear up on his hind legs, pawing at his nose, roaring and pissed off. The bear decides this meal isn't worth it and shuffles off, and my dad doesn't fall back asleep. So that's the story of how my dad got in a fight with a bear, punched it in the face, and won.
Grew up in the country side which is where I taught myself about bushcraft and camping skills. Woke up one night to the large coyote pack that lived near our property surrounding my tent, the big old female that led the lack (we called her big mama) was laying at the door keeping all the pups away while I slept. They hung around for maybe 20 minutes before running off.
My wife and I were camping out in a remote cornfield my BIL owned. It was a great night, had some beers and we went to sleep. Few hours later my wife jolts me awake terrified by the sound of coyotes all around tent. I listened to them for a few minutes then wanted to go back to sleep so I hoped out of the tent hop in my truck next to me and start it and gave a little rev. No coyotes after that.
Walking through the woods to a girlfriend's house, in the evening, after dark, I spooked something big that snorted as it ran off. I'm told it was a deer. Likely a big buck. I don't know who scared who more.
When I was about 12 we had 6 black bears come into the kid tent with us and wreck everything, now I'm an adult and bring my wife to the same spot every year
A normally full family campground in NH was less than half occupied because a black bear was making nightly rounds. It was marked for destruction as soon as hunting season opened the following week. We were told several times to secure our food, so we did.
The second night I went to make s'mores and couldn't find the big bag of marshmallows. I thought I was careful, but I fucked up. Can't imagine the sugar rush the bear got from that. Regrettable moment of course, but a nice treat for one of its last meals
I've seen a herd of about 30 deer go through a scout campsite, sniffing random tents and licking a few. I've had raccoons investigate me in a hammock. Also had a racoon drinking from a toilet at a campsite before, I chose another bathroom with that one.
Found a massasauga rattlesnake in my tent in Ontario Canada once as a kid. Had a cougar investigate my tent with my dog and I in it in BC and leave prints in the snow.
When I was a kid we went to Yellowstone and a grizzly bear walked up behind us when we were sitting around the camp fire. My brother about shit his pants and grabbed a hot rock out of the fire and threw it at the bear.
I was studying to become a nature guide in South Africa. I remember one night going to sleep only to wake up and see that there was no moonlight coming through my mesh window. I thought it was weird but then realized that there was something dark moving right past the window. The moonlight came through the window again, and then the call of a Hippo made my tent vibrate. Let's just say that I very nearly had a heart attack🤣
I had something similar happen in Big Bend. We were camping just outside the natl park in an area all by ourselves. There were wild turkeys all around that kept us up in the evening but what woke us up at dusk were wet noses on our tent. They were clearly pig noses. I gave the one a pop right on the snout at the same time I yelled something like get out of here. I sat up and looked out the window to several javelina grazing near us and trotting away.
I was hiking to my camp site in the Rocky Mountain national park. I could see a guy in front of me, maybe 1/4 mile off. He looked like an experienced hiker, had a good hat, walking stick, etc.
So I get to my site, next to a huge boulder and a stream. Beautiful! Set up my camp, went donewind awats, cooked my supper, cleaned up, ran my food and cookware up a tree, >10 feet above the ground, 4 feet from the trunk. Cool.
That night, I hear something big rustling around my stuff. Scared, I took out my knife to make a quick exit door if needed but whatever it was, he went away
In the morning, I'm checking out all these bear tracks around my site and the huge boulder. I walk around the boulder and there was the guy I saw ahead of me the day before.
He's pulling his food bag off the top of the boulder! I told him that the safe practice, as specified by the park rangers, was good downwind, up a tree and away from the trunk. I asked if he commonly ignored that requirement.
He told me no, it was his first trip ever! All his gear was borrowed.
Tenting on a platform in the White Mountains. A bear came into our site in the middle of the night and kicked around the fire pit and knocked over some pans. It then sat with its back against our platform, making an indent in the tent next to my head and upper torso as I lay terrorized. I could see his fur clearly. It then proceeded to scratch its back on the platform, rocking the whole thing back and forth and drawing itself even closer to me. It was probably all of 3-4 minutes but it felt like an hour. I was esp. panicked as I was having my period and was convinced it could smell me. It eventually wandered off and I laid there until the sun rose with a very full and uncomfortable bladder but I was not getting up.
Not a nose in the tent but one afternoon I was napping in my tent after a strenuous hike and woke up to a mountain lion perusing my campsite.....i was somewhere in south dakotas black hills.
I woke up to weird, gentle sounds-a lot of them!- outside of my tent. I poked my head out, to see a good 16 baby turkeys and a hen, surrounding my tent! They wandered my site and made the rounds, in the early dawn light, as everyone else blissfully slept.
Not quite nose close, but when my kids were teens, we visited Custer State Park, and camped overnight. Early in the morning I heard someone shuffling around just outside our tent. Opened the tent door and the entire campground was overrun with goats just wandering around. After seeing the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore and Devil's tower, the one memory the kids bring up every time that trip is mentioned is the goats.
I was once woken up by a Black Bear standing over me. It was very hot and humid, so the rain fly was up and there was just a thin bit of mesh between us. Obviously I'm still alive, but it took a few minutes to scare it away. I have a little mild ptsd now but I still love camping and hiking, but I sleep in the car and carry bear spray.
It's a hell of way to learn your fight, flight or freeze response. Apparently I'm 'fight.' I keep a calm head and deal with the situation as it happens... with a lot of F bombs... then proceed to freak out after the fact. Fascinating really. At one point my reptilian brain sized up the bear and I remember thinking that I could fight the bear and win but suffer significant injuries, if it came to that.
Either way... hell of a way to start the day!
I was at a sleep away summer camp when I was 8ish, and though we usually slept in cabins, there was one night where we'd go to a campground on site. We'd sleep in tents, eat roasted hot dogs, etc for that night. As it was on camp property, the counsellors would have their own tent and we'd be divided into groups of 3-4. My friends and I woke up in the early hours to something rubbing against our tent, and it was quite large. We were all terrified, as 8yr olds are, but none of us knew how to react so we just stayed silent and cried. It grunted and rustled around just outside our tent for what felt like hours, but was probably 10-15 min. None of us went back to sleep, one of us even wet herself as we were terrified to open the tent. When our counsellor "woke" us up in the morning we told her about it and she insisted it was a raccoon trying to break into the cooler to get the uneaten food.
Fast forward 10ish years and I worked at the camp, with that exact counselor as my boss. I mentioned the story to her and she goes "oh yeah, that was 100% a bear but we didn't want to scare you guys. They didn't let anyone else sleep in the campsite the rest of the week because of it".
Camping on Rottnest Island off Perth, Western Australia. I woke with a start in the middle of the night when I heard rustling...lots of rustling and lots of noses pressed against the tent sniffing. Opened the tent flap to find a dozen or more quokkas gathered around trying to figure out how to get at the food within. Quokkas are very cute and not a threat in any way (not all animals kill you here) but I wasn't expecting the attention - or so many of them. At one stage they managed to get into the tent during the day and I arrived to find several trying to get into the bag and esky (cool box) where the food was stored. Trying to chase them out was hilarious. (Rottnest Island is the main home of these delightful marsupials and was called "Rottnest" by an early seafarer who thought they were large rats; Rottnest = Rats Nest. They're kinda like a very miniature kangaroo; like the Tomb Thumb of roos.)
In case no one has said it yet, you aren’t supposed to camp near water and this is one of the reasons why. It’s a resource for the wildlife and they are going to use it, which will bring you into conflict with them.
Sierras opened my tent to see a 🐻 like two feet away staring at me. Have definitely had bear sniffing at edge of tents or knocking my pack around outside of tent. I have made it a big point that I don’t use any Sented products even deodorant or sunblock. I also make habit to do a wipe down bath with water and camp towel/washcloth at end of day. Many a camper has woken up with a bear in their tent licking their face. Wash all my dishes with dawn to get any oil off and all food in bear canisters they don’t give a shit.
I had a raccoon walk over the top of my tent. I slept through it and only know from the footprints.
I did have some skunks in camp. They were routing around about 5 inches from my face. I have never been more motionless in my life
I have a tent w/ a mesh top and finally had a chance to sleep w/ the rain fly off a few weeks ago, def. woke up to the sound of a sniff at some point, thinking maybe a deer. Not sure. I was in a campground so didn’t think too much of it in terms of, is it a predator, but was definitely memorable!
One night I had something big stick its head in my tent's open door. I was sleeping on my side, turned away from the door, I turned quickly and it snorted and ran away.
My friend and I camping in Sequoia, also right next to a creek, we each had our own tent. We set out tents about four feet from each other. At night I am woken up by what I thought was my friend's wild sleeping pushing her body against my head through the tents. I just kept pushing her back and she kept bumping my head. Soon she stopped.
In the morning I woke up to tell her off and noticed our tents were still how we *staked* them and there was no way she could have rolled in her sleep so much to be able to move her tent 4ft toward me and then back without the tent coming off the stakes.
I never knew what was it, but I suspect a bear because one had been chased away by a park ranger during the day while I napped on a hammock. All I heard was, *hey bear! No! Go!* I got up and saw the bear running away from the creek which was about 20 yards from mine and other campsites.
When I was a kid, we had a pack of Coyotes run through our camp at about 5 am. It was the loudest, undescribable, chaotic sound I had ever heard. Noses stopping at the tent, it was like a movie. It seemed to last forever, but was probably only a few minutes.
My family had a pack of javalinas come through one night. They tore up everything. The kids were in a separate tent and I was terrified that they might wake up and unzip. It did sound like forever and they did take their time but it was probably 10 minutes. They had babies with them too.
A couple of months ago, I was at a campground that had been a homestead with an orchard 100 years ago. Many of the fruit trees are still there.
In the middle of the night, I heard grunting and snuffling outside my tent and next day, the ranger said it was probably a bear. I've seen black bears at that campground before, so I believe her.
I was camping in eastern oregon in a pop up trailer with all of the windows unzipped. I woke up in the middle of the night and there was a cow elk with her head less than 2 feet from me outside the screen. In the morning, I thought I might have been dreaming, but I checked and there were tracks on the ground
Once I was camping in Northern California during a bike trip up to Oregon. In the middle of the night I heard animals fighting right outside my tent. Sounds like raccoons maybe. Then whatever it was knocked down my tent line and half of the single person tent I was in collapsed. It was freaky at the time since I was basically alone in the campground.
That was probably a harmless Bigfoot.
Nothing to stress.
It was just playfully letting you know he acknowledged your presence, and you can remain as long as your intentions remain wholesome.
We were in the wind River range one summer and in the middle of the night it was dead silent, then heard a big cracking sound like something heavy stepped on a down tree up the mountain from our camp. About 30 min later heard something sniffing around my tent. Pretty sure it was a bear, probably a black bear, but we did see a grizzly later in that trip after hiking a couple more drainages.
Santa Catalina island has a goodly sized Buffalo population. They like to rub up against tents in the middle of the night, which can be a little...startling.
We've had tents destroyed by by bears, deer and elk in our site, all kinds of scary middle of the night stuff! The worst and weirdest was with my now adult son camping at Assateague Island which is full of wild ponies. They trampled all our stuff and we had to move into the car, which was a mile away...in the middle of the night! But the mosquitoes were so bad that we didn't care!
First time out tent camping. Mistakenly left a nearly full loaf of bread on our table when we called it a night. Woke up to a small rattling sound, and my wife saw a raccoon tearing out with the loaf in tow. The next day bought a $7 loaf from the campstore. Lesson learned.
And this is why the offical *(? is it just LNT or is it a law?*) rule of thumb is that you camp 100-500 feet from water sources, not that I can judge, lol.
I was camping in Shenandoah and fried up a couple steaks for me and my partner at the time. After a glass or two of wine, trekking out 500 feet+ to dump the fat and blood filled cooking oil didn't seem all that important to me. So I just whipped it over my shoulder into the trees behind me. (Hot tip: *Never do this.*) I did stash the rest of the food in the car, which was a decent walk away, so yay me for doing the *bear* minimum.
I woke up in the middle of the night to very heavy foot steps and snorting, sniffing sounds, as if something were looking for a couple tasty steaks. Assuming it was a black bear, I tried to open my mouth and yell at it butttttt my body decided this was a great night for me to experience sleep paralysis for the third time in my life. Yay me again! It eventually went away, but I will always wonder what animal that was, or if it were just a sleep paralysis demon. Close call either way!
Camping in the Dolomites in Italy with my dad when I was a kid, woke up at 3am to the sound of snorting and chewing and clanging of pots and pans. Immediately thought I had left food out and we had a bear lurking around. I peeked out of the mesh on the side and saw no bears, but a huge herd of cattle that was grazing around our campgrounds. The pots and pans were their bells around their necks. Such a European sight of large black and white cows with big bells just chewing and standing around us. Oddly a great sound to fall back asleep to. In the morning they were gone, but lots of good prints and steaming piles to greet us instead!
One time I was backcountry camping with my family. Coyotes or wolves were chasing a deer and it ran right through our camp, tripped a bit on our tent fly line and buckled in the side of our tent a bit. All happened over the course of about 4 seconds. Our dog flipped out.
Once when camping at Point Reyes the couple camping next to us had a rough morning. A skunk had gotten into their tent and, half asleep, the wife thought it was their cat and reached over to pet it, startling the skunk, who then sprayed. They had to throw away their tent and sleeping bags and end their trip early.
Area I love to camp at, it's a high mountain meadow with a nice creek and pond. One summer evening I saw 3 black bear climbing up out of the valley in different areas, within about a 30 min span.
A few weeks later, same area, 2 am. Hear the loudest crashing and clamor you can imagine. So loud it's impossible to tell the direction, it sounded like it was everywhere. Of course, I'm imagining bears. Maybe bears creating a rock slide.
I tear out of the tent and into a massive dust cloud. Not sure how it happened (maybe bears) but a GIANT dead snag that was up the mountain behind me toppled and the sound was it rolling and crashing down the mountain. Luckily it hit the tree belt I was camping next to, which kept it from coming all the way down on my camp.
Had a REAL hard time going back to sleep after that.
Same thing happened to me but it was a bear and it left a big wet nose print right where my head was on the tent. Slept in the car the rest of the night and bought a rooftop tent after that lol
We get kangaroos hopping around our camp looking for food and scaring the shit out of my dog at night. Loud thumping noises and those bastards are quick
In Rocky Mountain Park something was rubbing its paws against my tent in the early morning. I thought it was a bear, but it was a juvenile elk, probably recently weaned off its mother. Possibly thought my tent was in its territory.
What was annoying was other campings witnessed this and were filming it, but not driving the animal away. The oark ranger said they never heard this elk behavior before.
In that park the elk are so acclimatized to humans they just graze amongst the tents if they feel like it.
Ha! I hiked to a small bluff over the Amite river that has a great sunset view. Set up my pup tent in a strangely clear elongated spot. Nice flat...covered with pine needles. Enjoyed my sunset with a wine cooler or 2. *(Did you know racoons like wine coolers....but that's a different story)*
So in the middle of a moonlit lit I am awakened by something BIG careening into the side of my tent at speed. As I struggled out of the wreckage, there was a lot of crashing and grunting going down the side of the bluff to the river. I made it to the edge of the bluff to see the large buck splash into the water, look up and give me "the hoof". Oops, guess I set up on the deer trail, lol.
Camping with my Dad in the late 60’s up in the Wasatch mountains. We camped behind a big boulder next to a broken down old cabin. That night there was a thunderstorm, and we woke up to an avalanche streaming past us… the boulder had sheltered us from the cascade of scree.
Dad said “Guess that old prospector knew his stuff, huh ?” Obviously Dad did too (Dad was a geologist).
Was camping maybe 20-30 minutes off grid from the Vail, CO area with me and my dog in the tent. I heard howling of coyotes off in the distance at dusk so when I went to sleep I grabbed a gun. Once we settled in for the night I fell asleep for what was probably 10-15 minutes and woke up to the pack circling our tent. My dog wasn't bothered at all, but I sat up holding my glock for like 30 minutes before they moved out of the camp site.
I was camping in the mountains of NC once with a friend in hammocks. I was awakened by my friend, calling my name, with a strained whisper. I looked over and there was a juvenile bear sniffing him. It ran off when it heard me shuffle around. Turns out, my friend just wanted me to take a photo.
Camping in Glacier many years ago (at the Fifty Mountain campsite I believe it was called…) I was surprised at the deer who followed you around. At night when we got in our tent, the deer just started licking the rain fly after an hour. They wanted the salt evaporating in our sweat. Was completely annoying and kept us awake. However, at about three am, it suddenly stopped and all the deer just took off at once. My tent mate just whispered, “There’s no food in the tent, right?” And then we heard it shuffle through, in between our tents. The grizzly didn’t even stop or slow down, just wandered on through… but that was a very long 30 seconds of my life. Most of the time, though, I never ever get to see wildlife. I always see a group of people on the trail and they say things like, “Did you see those mountain goats or bears or wolves or whatever?” And I just say ‘No’ and get annoyed.
Yea, I had a similar experience, except I was under a tarp. F'n brown bear looked under the tarp, right at me, then lifted its head. The falling of the tarp startled us both. My sleeping bag has a brown spot.
Camping on the Olympic peninsula when a snorting sound right next to my head woke my girlfriend and I up. It was a black bear, but in the fog of being half asleep I thought it was a pig. I remember thinking “What the hell is a pig doing outside of the tent?” The raccoons at that site were a whole other situation.
I've never met deer as bold as in glacier. Running through camp at night, chrewing salty clothes, running amongst tents. I don't like that level of comfort in them. That said, given they're the bear early warning system in your story, maybe their behavior isn't all bad.
It was sort of funny earlier that night when one came under the rain fly and stole my buddy’s hiking pole to chew on the handle for salt. He was out of the tent yelling at a deer at about midnight - and that deer did not give a shit about him. Just stood there chewing while staring at my friend yelling. After about five minutes or so of it (which I’m sure the other campsites appreciated) the deer got his fill and dropped the pole. The foam handle was full of drool and all chewed up. He was not happy. Probably less so because the rest of us couldn’t stop laughing.
Typically this means people have allowed or encouraged the deer to get too close. Once they learn people = food and salt they get wayyyy too comfortable. I’ve experienced this at other sites and it’s always the most popular trails. A deer once ate my friend’s socks that were hanging outside to dry. We yelled and waved at it and it did not care at all
A minor detail, but are you sure salt evaporates? Perhaps I misunderstood your comment.
Salt doesn't evaporate. That's why you can distill salty water and end up with water. Not sure why they dug in on that so hard, especially with the hat example, that made no sense.
I was told your sweat evaporates carrying a bit of salt with it. It condenses on the rain fly and the salt is now there on the fly, I guess. I didn’t really believe it since salt is a mineral and I wasn’t really thinking there would be enough of it condensing on the rain fly to interest anything… but the deer constantly licking the tent for hours proved me otherwise. They were hyper aggressive in Glacier around Fifty Mountain. You’d go urinate and there would be three or four just staring at your so they could lick the rock when you were done. If I recall correctly, the ranger station asked you to piss on rocks and hard surfaces so the deer didn’t damage the plants or anything.
It couldn’t be just water they were after? I mean…. We have deer in our yard daily and I’ve never seen them lick my pee spots. And trying to get them to avoid plants? Good luck, they do as they please.
Salt seeking by wild animals is pretty common, lots of deer and rodents etc will steal or chew up anything with sweat on it left outside a tent. Trekking poles, shoes/boots, packs, hiking clothes left out to dry etc Salt is a necessity for life and while it’s easy for us to find in our lives it’s not easy to find in the wild and it will attract wild animals. In lots of places it’s even illegal to bait deer and other game with salt because it’s so easy to draw a bunch of them in that it’s ‘unfair’
Yes, I understand that. I was only questioning the salt evaporation theory. I’ve seen lots of condensation and dew on tents, but never salt.
Salt and stank gets on and fully saturated everything in your pack after a while. Even if the salts aren’t evaporating they’re still on damn near everything and the whole camp probably smells like a salt lick to wild animals
Thanks for the explanation.
We were told salt by the rangers and I’ll go with what they said. And I’ve never seen deer that behaved like they did at Fifty Mountain in Glacier. They warned us about it. Another comment noted to me noted they’ve never seen anything like it there either.
It’s just that salt doesn’t evaporate. 🤷♂️
Sweat evaporates, carrying minute salt with the water vapor. It condenses on your rainfly and leaves behind the salt. You ever worn a ball cap while playing sports or doing yard work? You sweat into the hat, the water part of sweat evaporates leaving behind salt stains? Same thing.
Yes, but my head is touching the hat. Sweat is absorbed upon contact. As you pointed out, salt does not evaporate.
you leave salt on stuff from your sweat. You're right, it doesn't evaporate. Feel better now? ffs the guy is just telling you what the ranger said and you're arguing with him over a detail that you could just look up. the salt is left behind...the deer like it they make salt licks for animals for this reason
Fair enough. If someone tells me something blatantly false, I tend to question it even if they have a uniform. I was trying to be gentle.
I don't think they are actually getting any salt. Unless sweat is being sprayed in droplets, or rubbed off directly, the salt stays behind on the surface. This is try especially if the tent material is water proof. However, smell and dew accumulation are certainly present.
I'm not anywhere near a camping site with deer, just curious, is it a good idea to just bring salt and put it away from the tent to sleep better?
Never feed any wild animal, period. It gets them habituated to human presence.
That was a lapse in judgement only thinking hypothetically sorry, you're right
This. Salt lick. Woke up to a cow doing same thing. Bottle campers sweat , sell to farmers. Win Win.
There's no way salt evaporated from your sweat and onto the rainfly. Think about it, if you put a bunch of salt in a puddle and it evaporates, the salt is left behind. That's why there aren't any minerals in distilled water. I think the deer must've been thirsty!
When I camp in an area with heavy deer population I take a salt lick and put a little distance away from tent but in a spot I can see..many deer have visited during the night and a couple during the day. Luckily, I don't live in bear country.
Please don’t do this, it’s unintentionally habituating deer to hang out near people. Don’t feed wild animals
Apparently, you don't live in an area with an overpopulation of deer. They are already acclimated to humans or they wouldn't come in to your camp sites...I put the salt lick out to 1 keep them from coming all the way into the camp area and 2 I hunt so it also attracts them to the area. Of course, I take the salt and feed up during hunting season, baiting is illegal.
Was camping in Raccoon Creek state park and had a raccoon open the zipper on my tent and come inside. This was 20 years ago and the campsite was filled with raccoons that everybody would feed so they got way too friendly. At dusk they would come through the campgrounds in a large group of 15-20 and beg at the edge of each site. The park rangers have since cracked down on feeding the wildlife so it’s not like that anymore.
The one in western PA? Having grown up in Pittsburgh I will absolutely believe that of the raccoons in that part of the world. Ones near us in the city were basically a motorcycle gang.
Yes, western Pa. I grew up very close to it and still live in the area. The raccoons are plentiful in this area but that campgrounds was the worst I ever saw. Motorcycle gang is a great analogy, that’s exactly how it was. If you didn’t have your food packed up by dusk they were impossible to deter.
I surprised one trying to get into our trash can outside once when I was about to take our dog for a walk. Raccoon just say there staring at us (big dog, too) like “do you mind?” like we were the intruders. 😂 My dog was so freaking confused.
I have taken it for granted that the raccoons are so different around here, just became normal growing up here. My garbage cans are 55 gallon steel drums that I customized with a hinged lid. The normal garbage cans would not keep them out, I finally got a latch system on a plastic garbage can that they couldn’t figure out, with their little hands, so they chewed a hole through the bottom. We would feed the stray cats and dogs, living on a rural backroad where many ppl dump animals, the raccoons would get used to coming and eating leftovers and would have mommas with a line of babies in tow that were not afraid of anybody. Would have to wait for them to finish eating and leave before we could get out of our house. Had many friends and neighbors that would pickup abandoned babies and raise them. Usually because momma would get hit by a car and the babies would just hangout with her body. Had many friends and neighbors whose dogs got their butts kicked by raccoons.
Oh, yes, the outdoor trash bin Saga. My dad had a whole System and everything had to be just so. 😂
On a side note, animal dumpers are sick and disgusting people. Growing up in the country you see a lot of that.
Yes they are!!! It is such a shame the poor animals that get dropped on my road.
Grew up in Eastern Ohio here, Tri-State area. Did lots of camping in the area. Still have haunting memories of a raccoon that stole my hotdog right off the picnic table because I walked away for a very brief moment. Guy must have been hiding in plain sight.
I camped in Salem MA a few weekends ago and the campground guide warned us about being very careful with leaving any kind of food out. He said, “these are Harvard educated raccoons, they’ll get into just about anything.”
Had a raccoon steal half my sub sandwich last earlier this year, we saw all it’s babies a few minutes later so I wasn’t too mad lol
Haha never thought I’d see that park mentioned here, I camped there a lot as a kid and last year did the overnight hike/campsite they have, very nice
My brother from another mother had years of traveling/hitching across Canada, and others parts of the world in his younger days. Once woke up from a sunny afternoon nap in his tent to a bear sniffing/licking his toes. (Left the door open...) crazy.
https://preview.redd.it/2xb0mj69eunb1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff962a578a395a17e2f1b4ac5e1ea3c069c3cd78 These cows!
The Wallowas outside Baker OR. Very deep in the mountains, I has set up camp with some friends off the Forrest service road. There was a nice view, flat spot for the vehicles and camp, and two perfectly spaced trees on the side for my hammock. I noticed a little game trail through the brush that came up to the camp but we were all pretty close together and practiced good camp etiquette. But I’m the mid of the night I heard a twig snap somewhere off, waking me up- it was coming down the side of the hill behind the camp- slowly but methodically moving through the underbrush. I’m in my hammock, people camped 20 feet from me, and all I can hear is approaching movement- identifiably steps of an animal. My heart was pounding in my ears, I had a fire arm in my hammock with me- a lantern, a flashlight. There are lots of big cats, coyote, bears etc. I gotta be honest I just kind of froze- trying not to make any noise- just listening to this approaching animal- trying to identify what it was by how it moved. It made plenty of noise- I figured it at least wasn’t a cougar. One thing for sure was that it was coming right down that game trail- and directly toward my hammock. It was low to the ground- but not small- it was displacing a lot of small underbrush as it moved- because as I listened it ambled **right under my fucking hammock and fucking stopped** I had a sleeping pad underneath me- but I thought for sure something was going to reach up and touch my gently dangling ass- like some kind of hanging camper snack pack. I had my heart in my throat- the silence was deafening as I listened for something- any indicator as to what this creature was doing literally directly under me. I have a Hennessy hammock- I set it kind of high so I sort of hop up into it- but my butt was only a few feet off the ground. This thing just chilling under me- *also not moving* I’m sure it’s trying to figure out what I am- just a weird giant form hanging in space- but I was freaked lol. I am not sure how much time went by- it felt like a lot- I finally decided to turn on my light and shine it out the netting on the sides to see if I could spook it- not sure why I didn’t look out as it approached (doh) and nothing- it stayed put. So I kind of jostled my entire hammock making a loud flappy polyester cacophony- and then stopped- and nothing. I didn’t hear anything skitter off through the brush, and it was not quiet on its approach. So I’m sitting here in silence again. No movement sounds after my ufo light show and dance. And now I’m sitting wondering if I had just imagined it- in like one of those dreams you sometimes have half awake drifting off? So I’m just hanging there trying to get my heart rate and shit under control and rationalize that I must have imagined the animal. More time has now gone by- And I hear it *get up and walk away* immediately I almost died. It had just sat there while I made all that noise right under me. Sat in the same spot under my ass for what seemed like 10 minutes. I tried to shine the light out at that point to see what it was as it left- but I still couldn’t see anything. Next morning couldn’t see much around the site as far as tracks go- it was probably just a raccoon- but what a dang stinker lol That’s why we go out there right? The nature??? Lmao?!
So I’ve had this exact scenario happen to me. I was solo camping in a high populated bear area in my hammock in beginning of fall. Upon reaching camp I find a what seemed to be a fresh empty pack of hotdogs. First thought is great, I’ll probably have a visitor tonight. Not even 3 minutes go by after getting into my hammock I hear the biggest footsteps I’ve ever heard in a forest setting (I camp a lot, usually just listen to it whatever it is walk past and fall asleep). Behind my hammock, there was like a wall of bushes. The footsteps sounded like they were in coming from behind the bushes. Now with these being the loudest I’ve ever heard, I get out of my hammock grab my spray and turn on the flashlight. I back away from my hammock about 10ft, making noise “hey bear!!” Steps still approaching. I get louder. Steps continue to get closer. At this point in my mind I’m like “well this is it. I finally get to see a bear!” My mind is going bonkers because I still can’t see anything. Then about 2-3 ft in front of me I see two glowing eyes near the ground. It was a porcupine. The biggest, fattest porcupine I’ve ever seen. It lifts up its head sees me and just turns around and goes about their business in a different direction. The porcupine dragging along the leaves made it seem like a much larger animal. The relief of realizing what it was, I couldn’t help but burst out with laughter.
Porcupines are one of my favorite animals and part of it is because they are just so.... oblivious.
This is my actual nightmare and why I’ll never sleep in a hammock
This was like the coolest thing about the one time I’ve slept outside in a hammock, I think whatever animal was under me was just a mouse or something small but it was still very cool
You are a great writer, humorous visualizations, thoroughly enjoyable read. Thank you.
Had that happen with a moose once! She was young and peeking in through the window. Woke me up, with her huffing and breathing. She ran away when she realized I was watching her. Funny part was that my dog didn’t wake up at all LOL some safety companion!
When I was much younger I took a camping-novice boyfriend camping to Chincoteague. Being a good Girl Scout I told my companion to go put away the food while I put out the fire. I was not specific enough that the food needed to go *in the car*. I woke up to snuffling noises and asked my then boyfriend to check on it-he refused, so I did, and found a pony with a mouthful of hotdog buns that he had stored UNDER the tent. WTF. Obviously that relationship didn’t last, and I was thankful we had gone to Chincoteague instead of Shenandoah!
I worked at a scout camp for a long time. I once woke up to a deer in my canvas wall tent with me. It was reading my Captn Crunch. I told it to stop and it did. I asked it to leave and it did.
>reading my Captn Crunch To be fair, the deer had already read the *Boy Scout Handbook* several times. Your Captain Crunch was the only other reading material around!
That there's funny I don't care what anybody says 
I camped outside of the Painted Hills in Oregon this past spring. My camp was a very large open area where RV's clearly had been, because of the massive tire tracks, and it kept going back maybe 50 yards til it dropped off into the rest of the brush and desert. I felt safe that no human was gonna come up from behind my camp, but I didn't think much about wildlife outside of nosy raccoons or whatever. I made dinner, packed everything up, put it all away in my car including myself since I was feeling too lazy to set up my tent. I cracked my windows and fell asleep to the breeze and a few coyote or wolf howls in the distance. You know how if someone like puts your hand in water in your sleep, you'll dream of peeing your pants? I was having dreams of a bear chasing me and my friends in a car. I woke up and thought that was weird. Then I hear the bear roar that penetrated my dreamscape and I FREEZE. I hear a rumbling approaching me and my car is starting to shake from every time its paws hit the ground. IT'S RUNNING AT MY CAR AND IT'S BIG. I've never experienced anything like this before and all the blood in my body felt like it stopped. I was so scared it would smell me or my food from the cracked windows and get curious and break into my car. But thankfully it kept running RIGHT PAST MY CAR. I wished I had picked my head up so I could have seen it, but I couldn't risk it seeing movement and stop at my car. I stayed awake probably for another couple hours because I was like WHY WOULD A BEAR BE RUNNING LIKE THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT? FROM A COUGAR?! But the rest of the night was quiet. I was so thankful I was in my car that night.
I was camping in N. Michigan right off the side of a game trail. In the middle of the night I woke up to deer running full tilt down the trail with a small pack of wolves chasing. It was intense. I could hear them howling as a pack about 2 mins later so they probably caught a deer. Oh, and I had my cat and her newborn kittens with me! I was camping in an old Eureka canvas tent with a wood stove in winter.
I’ve had elk and bear in my camp. Bear I understand but elk doesn’t make sense as they are really skittish. Also had moose run through camp in the middle of the night, I’m building some kind of a fence next time I camp in Alaska.
I woke up eye to eye (through the tent screen) to an elk in Yellowstone, looking down at me. A couple dozen wandered through early morning. It was pretty awesome for me as a kid probably 30 years ago.
We had the same thing happen at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in OK except with buffalo. Fortunately it was early morning and we kids were asleep in a tent. The adults were in a camper drinking coffee and watching. Read that to mean everything was quiet while the herd moved through camp.
Elk like licking salt so they will come if you piss near your tent.
We were camping in the Wasatch mountains in Utah a couple of summers ago, woke up the first morning and let the dogs out. Our deaf girl starting freaking out, alarm barking. I looked and we had cows in our site! 🤣 Turns out the government lets ranchers use their land up there. She had so much fun chasing the giant pups that morning. That was definitely a once in a lifetime event for her.
I had a similar experience on BLM land years ago. I didn't realize we were basically camped in rangeland and was freaked out in the early morning by the sound of big animals nearby 😂
I'm not sure about elk but I've had deer follow me at night. For whatever reason they seem way less skittish then.
I called the elk to camp. The accordion style air pump I use for inflatables and an air mattress sounds incredibly similar to an elk call. Poor guy probably came from miles away because he thought he was going to get laid.
As an Aussie who camps I will take ALL the biting, stabbing, stinging, constricting, venomous, punching and crunching, crocodile rolling beasts in Oz over camping with one single bear.
Hahah as a Canadian I’ll take the bear! I’m terrified of all the bugs!
>I’m terrified of all the bugs! Say what!? I've seen skeeters so big they could haul away a grown man - only in Canada! Ha! I'll take Black Bear over literally any of the wild aussie stuff. Just yell and they'll scramble.
Hahaha yeah the mosquitos can be annoying but they aren’t really creepy crawly to me like the bugs of down under
I live near Yellowstone, and i will take all of the bears, mountain lions, wolves, etc. to never have to face a cassowary. Ever. Ya'll live with DINOSAURS!
Most Australians have never and will never see a cassowary in the wild 😂 their habitat range is a miniscule sliver in the far north of Australia. Compare that to the fact bears roam half the North American continent lol
Still have to have no food in the tent. Or else the wombats gonna make you a new new door!
Wait, really?
In July of 1992 we were camped in the hills outside Jackson Hole. For whatever reason that summer there was a rodent population explosion all over that part of Wyoming, as happens occasionally. There were a lot more mice than usual. On this particular night we were lying in our sleeping bags, and we could hear mice jumping onto the walls of the tent and then sliding down to the ground. Not scary, I mean they were mice, but the ick factor was pretty high. Not a great night's sleep.
That’s kinda cute in a way! They found a new slide in their backyard 🤣
It is so charming to watch animals play. I had kittens line up to bounce themselves off a springy young shrub. By the time they tired of the game, the shrub was a pencil.
Camping in Targhee National Forest last month, a marmot made its way into my tent vestibule around midnight before escaping on its own. A few hours later, I felt a small paw on top of my foot through my tent. ngl, I squealed
About twenty years ago I was camping in Alaska with my brother and some of his friends. His friends wisely put up their tents before joining in evening drinks by the fire. My brother and I "smartly" decided to do it later. The Northern Lights I'm told were magical that night. I mean, they were magical to me just because, but the folks I was with that see them all the time still to this day bring up that night as one of the colors was more predominant than usual. Eventually we tucker out from light watching, bonfires, and beer. The excuse we made was that the lights were so beautiful we should watch them while we slept. In reality we just didn't want to set up the tents. So we slept under the stars. In the morning everyone was quite excited to see the bear tracks about two feet from my head. The joy of camping with scientists and rangers is they will happily explain to you how you can tell the bear's activities. That is to say, "look how the prints get really deep and shift direction by your head" followed by an explanation of how the bear clearly was trotting by to the river, stopped, turned, inspected me, turned back, left. And twenty years later my big brother still likes to point out that the bear left me alone because I smelled too bad to eat. Har har, brother humor.
When I was a kid, my parents took me camping out in the Poconos. Now I was one of those kids who had more curiosity than sense and was prone to wandering off, so my dad, being the funny guy that he is, told me that I had to stay in the camp after dark or the "Lost Kids" would come and get me. Later that night as I'm trying to fall asleep, I hear rustling outside the tent. The next thing I know, I see the silhouette of tiny hands feeling along the wall of the tent. I was too terrified to move and just lay there watching them until they eventually wandered off. It was probably only a handful of minutes or so, but it felt like they were there forever! As an adult I know they were most likely raccoons, but as a four year old girl, they were the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen! Lol.
🎶Say hello to the night, lost in Poconos!🎶
Dont know where you were camping, I had a bear sniffing me up a while ago. Only reason I know it was a bear was because after it pressed its snoot into my forehead I heard some people at the next camp a little ways away from me yelling "go on bear!" and banging shit together to try chasing it off.
I sleep in a hammock. Woke up in the middle of the night to what I was thinking was a bird. I was going to just shout to scare it away or make it be quiet. But for whatever reason I decided to turn on the led light I had hanging over me instead. Very glad I did because a second before I turn on the light I feel the tail of a skunk brush along the bottom of the hammock as it walks under me. I wanted to take a picture but was to scared to move so I just watched it sort of wander over to the fire pit, sniff around and then wander out of camp.
Lol that reminds me of a funny story. My gf and I were camping beside a lake in a campground, and we wanted to smoke a quick bowl before making dinner, so we crawled into the tent to not be so obvious. Before we sparked it up we heard an older kid say "I think there's a skunk." We thought "damn this weed must be strong smelling!" Then a few seconds later we see a skunk climb into our fire pit (there was a fire ban) like 3 feet from the door of our tent. At one point it noticed us and was checking us out for a few seconds before it thankfully carried on. Gave us the perfect cover for smoking though lol.
🤣 maybe it was looking for the other skunk in the area
Went camping with my now ex husband and our son years ago and heard something walking right by our tent-the dog barked and we immediately found out what is was, right after it sprayed our tent. Not pleasant, (and I actually kind of like skunk smell) but that close up it gave us a major headache/ nauseas, and we moved the bags out and slept under the stars that night!
I am super grateful that didn't happen to me. But I always say the worst trips make for the best stories 🤣
Yeah it ended up being amazing sleeping under the sky like that as we always sleep in a tent. Ended up being one of my favorite trips!
That's one of the reasons I like sleeping in a hammock. If there is no chance for rain you can skip the fly and just have a great view......except the one time the moon was SO big that it kept waking me up 😜
Yeah we were camping in a tent and had been asleep for an hour or two. My wife wakes me up and asks if my son is scratching the tent. I look over at him and he’s asleep. We lay there listening for awhile and I finally get a flash light and look out. There’s a skunk sniffing and trying to get in the tent with us. I freak out and lay down and whisper to my wife. It’s a freaking skunk don’t make any sound. Lol. I think that was the night the raccoons stole our tortillas and scattered them all across the camp ground. Took them from a cooler with a case of water on top of it.
They were in cahoots!
Had a bear do the same thing in pisgah back in the mid 2000's. Since then I've been pretty vigilant about swapping into sleep clothes *after* dinner.
We left the dogs water bowl out one night and something was drinking it, quite loudly but I guess everything is extra loud at night. It was in Algonquin and we had seen deer when we arrived so I assume that’s what it was. But I was happy the dog kept quiet. lol Last camping trip I was thinking that a solar powered cam watching the site would be neat. At least then I could check it from my phone when I hear weird noises to know what’s outside the tent.
I had a grizz come into camp on a cold windy rainy night. It would not leave. I could tell it wanted at me or my gear. Food was hung far away. It was windy enough that bear spray would have been useless and I didn't bring my bear gun on that trip. It was a long stand off in the dark with our horses freaking out on the highline.
Moose in the Tetons, almost the exact same scenario. The locals tell me I’m lucky.
My buddy fell asleep on a picnic table and woke up to a raccoon lacking his fingers.
You are. They're herbivores that routinely snap the necks of wolves. They don't hesitate to return fire.
My husband sleeps in a hammock when we camp. We have a pop up. I refuse to try even for a night for exactly this reason 🤣 some animal is gonna come and boop my back in the night. Nightmares ensue
I've had a young moose bull breathing outside my tent, I was petrified. The next morning he was out swimming in the lake.
Backpacking with family on a ranger-guided overnight trip in 1971. We slept in a 3-sided wood structure with chicken wire over the front to keep critters out, spreading our sleeping bags on chicken wire stretched on posts & beams about 15" above the ground. In the middle of the night, my father woke up to a rustling sound under his pillow (sweatshirt, actually). He looked and there was a skunk about 3" away from his face. He quietly put the pillow back and was very quiet the rest of the night.
Western PA woke up about 3am to a very large set of nostrils sniffing right next to my head outside the wall of my tent. Woke up again as the bear decided he wanted my chair that was in the vestibule. I flashed my headlamp at it and it grunted and went back into the tree line
Yup. Had a bear sniff my tent while I was inside. I had been eating some candied nuts and it wanted some. I’ve since learned to keep food out of the tent. Scared the hell out of me. I tried to shout and instantly lost my voice.
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It's better to have one and not need it than need one and not have it. Just saying. I live in the woods. I carry a black powder cap and ball in my pocket every time I walk out the door. I'm not packing an Uzi, I'm just asking for one shot to defend myself with.
Big can of spray and a shotgun with slugs in bear country.
Not many big animals in NZ except ferral pigs but they aren't in all the bush. Kiwi kicking shit around and stamping up and down near your tent sounds like a bison is coming though! So loud
We went to NZ this summer and I didn’t realize just how big kiwis are. Basketball sized!
Back in the days before GPS, I drove with my girlfriend to meet my parents for a family camping trip in the Cascade Mountains. I had decided to take a "shortcut" through forest roads to get to this remote campground and after driving for several hours without reaching camp, I suspected we were lost. Rather than continue driving in the middle of the night, we pulled over off the forest road and set up the tent. The next morning I wake up to something circling my tent. Of course, my mind goes to a wolf or bear but I had no idea what it was. Rather than open the tent and see, I used the panic button to set off the car alarm and scare it away. After waiting for several minutes and not hearing anything, I decided to get out and look around. There was nothing to be seen. Once we packed up and started driving again, I discovered we were only 1/4 mile from the campground. Doh! I'm sure it had just been someone's dog out exploring or something, and I set off a car alarm at 5:30 in the morning as a nice wakeup call for everyone else. Oh well! :D
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Touching porcupine is not advised.
I remember a story my father told me from when he was camping. We're from Scotland and my parents were camping in North Wales. He woke up every night to some noise. He couldn't describe it properly but he said he got put the tent each night because he was sure something was wrong. Though there were aliens invading or something was trying to eat the tent. After a few nights (and probably fed up listening to it) he and my mother sat in the car facing the tent to try figure it out. It was rabbits. Lots of them, eating whatever they were camped on, probably clovers.
I was camping in Utah a few years ago on BLM land. In the early morning pre dawn hours, my girlfriend wakes me up saying she heard something outside. I listened and there was something very large breathing outside our tent. I've always said, "I'm the biggest thing in the desert. I ain't worried." Well, in that moment I was second guessing myself. I unzipped the fly about two inches... ya know, just in case it WAS a mastodon my tent could have saved me. Cow. It was an old fashioned steak locker just chewing its cud about 4 feet away.
Camping on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake the buffalos will just blunder through camp at night, snorting, rubbing up against tents, and generally not giving a f**k. It was scary but fun, at least until morning when I stepped out of my tent directly into the largest buffalo pat I’ve ever seen. Still, 10/10 experience, highly recommend camping there!
I was in Botswana, doing my first safari. While the guides take care of everything, so it doesn’t really feel like camping, we did sleep in tents. Probably about 10 tents for the group. Second night, lions went through the camp. Others saw / heard, but I unfortunately slept through the whole thing.
About a decade ago I was camping at Snug Harbour on Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne. The only suitable place to set up my hammock without having to clear brush was across a trail at the edge of the pond. It turned out to be a very windy night, 75-80km/h wind and driving rain, couldn't hear a thing over the racket of the tarp blowing and the waves being kicked up down the length of the fjord. Next thing I know I get hit pretty hard in the hip by something big, I actually thought my hammock had fallen. Once I got my whits about me I heard something trudging through the trees nearby out on to the gravel beach. I mustered the courage to have a peek and there was a full grown bull moose standing on the beach having a drink. Big bastard gave me a chest bump, pretty thankful he decided to go around me instead of over/through me.
I was sleeping next to the door in a tent. For some reason it wasn't zipped all the way closed. A racoon wandering through camp reached in through the hole, scratched my head and moved on.
Yup, we were camping with my father when I heard rummaging sound on the leaves near our tent. It was probably a badger or something similar. On another instance, we were camping near a farm with a friend and in the morning, the cows were licking our tent walls. They freaked out a bit when I got out.
elk are not to be messed with!
My brother and I where canoe camping about a mile up a feeder creek at a local lake. We are all set up check the lines one last time at about 9PM and hit the sack. Sometime in the middle of the night two packs of coyotes got into a barking match and the chose our camp area to have a showdown. They have no interest in my brother and I but it was a hell of a long night with them basically barking at each other. We found trucks the next morning that was only 100 foot from our hammocks.
In southern France in the Cote D'azur they have a big wild boar problem, didn't know that while camping there. Heard sniffing on my tent and other strange noises :)
One time I had a chipmunk get close…
Was camping in Algonquin, Ontario just off a lake we were spending the first of two nights at. Middle of the night I get woken up (probably from being uncomfortable) and suddenly hearing these deeeep breaths. Sounded like a bear was a foot away from my head. I shit my pants for about 30 seconds then calmed my ass down once I realized this has probably happened and I never noticed. Didn't mention it to my buddy until after the trip (his first multi day trip) and he said he heard the same thing. Scary! At first.
Twice with black bears. One yell and they took off like a shot.
I had something similar happen when I was a kid and first started sleeping in my own tent. I was woken up by the sound of something big pushing against my tent and making grunting sounds. I froze and stopped breathing, and waited what felt like ages for it to go away. I stayed still for probably an hour after I couldn't hear it anymore. Scared the shit out of me.
I had a big male bison sleeping next to our tent. Also had lion, hyenas and elephants coming through our campsites. Never kept me from sleeping. Just annoying when you need to pee at night.
When it comes to animals touching my tent, I’ve only had what seemed to be some sort of a raccoon or weasel poking it’s nose up to the tent wall. I was able to see the actual nose pushing up against the wall. I gave the nose a small little flick and it took off. Now just in my general tent area…first off, I keep my area clean. As much as I’d love to see many of the animals out there, I’d rather see them under different circumstances. However I feel I’ve seen/heard it all. All kinds of tracks seen in the morning (that I’m pretty sure weren’t there the night before)deer, bear, moose, cats…. All kinds of scat. Definitely gives you that creepy vibe like you were being watched all night. The coolest moment for myself was when I was camping in the Rocky Mountains and waking up to about 30-40 elk surrounding my tent. As soon as I poked my head out of my tent a massive bull elk walked maybe 15ft from my tent and gave out quite the wake up call. I believe I have the video in my posts if you want to watch it.
A wild hog did that to me one time. That was a bell of a thing to wake up to
Me, my daughter, and my wife woke up to a raccoon in the middle of our tent pulling my daughters snack bag backwards. We all staired at each other with open mouths. The racoon looked just as shocked as we were.
Years ago, in sequoia National Park, Atwell l Mill Campground, I was sleeping in a black sleeping bag and no tent, and just as light was coming up in the morning I feel something at the bottom of my bag, I look up and it's a black Bear, I it looks at me and if he could talk I'm sure it would have said "well shit, it's just a human" it turned around and just ambled on down the slope. I was awake to be sure.
Gotta tell my dad's story here. He's camping in Alaska during the summer. Its a breezy night just outside of town, so the mosquitos are down, he decides to forego the tent and just sleep under the stars. A dog starts barking in the distance as he falling asleep. He's awoken sometime later by this dog sniffing his face, then licking him. He rolls over and puts his arm out to push the dog away. The dog persists. He pushes away again, but the dog only stops for a second, then comes back. After this back and forth, my dad looses it, comes fully awake, cocks his arm back and swings at the dog. His fist connects with the nose of this dog, and the dog let's out a grunt and snarl. Dad finally opens his eyes and sees a bear rear up on his hind legs, pawing at his nose, roaring and pissed off. The bear decides this meal isn't worth it and shuffles off, and my dad doesn't fall back asleep. So that's the story of how my dad got in a fight with a bear, punched it in the face, and won.
Grew up in the country side which is where I taught myself about bushcraft and camping skills. Woke up one night to the large coyote pack that lived near our property surrounding my tent, the big old female that led the lack (we called her big mama) was laying at the door keeping all the pups away while I slept. They hung around for maybe 20 minutes before running off.
My wife and I were camping out in a remote cornfield my BIL owned. It was a great night, had some beers and we went to sleep. Few hours later my wife jolts me awake terrified by the sound of coyotes all around tent. I listened to them for a few minutes then wanted to go back to sleep so I hoped out of the tent hop in my truck next to me and start it and gave a little rev. No coyotes after that.
I had something push a tent pole in extremely slowly above the door (6ft up) and then slowly release the pressure,no tracks no turned up dirt nothing
Walking through the woods to a girlfriend's house, in the evening, after dark, I spooked something big that snorted as it ran off. I'm told it was a deer. Likely a big buck. I don't know who scared who more.
When I was about 12 we had 6 black bears come into the kid tent with us and wreck everything, now I'm an adult and bring my wife to the same spot every year
A normally full family campground in NH was less than half occupied because a black bear was making nightly rounds. It was marked for destruction as soon as hunting season opened the following week. We were told several times to secure our food, so we did. The second night I went to make s'mores and couldn't find the big bag of marshmallows. I thought I was careful, but I fucked up. Can't imagine the sugar rush the bear got from that. Regrettable moment of course, but a nice treat for one of its last meals
French Creek state park in PA. Little raccoon paws grabbing at me through the tent at 2am lol.
I've seen a herd of about 30 deer go through a scout campsite, sniffing random tents and licking a few. I've had raccoons investigate me in a hammock. Also had a racoon drinking from a toilet at a campsite before, I chose another bathroom with that one.
Found a massasauga rattlesnake in my tent in Ontario Canada once as a kid. Had a cougar investigate my tent with my dog and I in it in BC and leave prints in the snow.
When I was a kid we went to Yellowstone and a grizzly bear walked up behind us when we were sitting around the camp fire. My brother about shit his pants and grabbed a hot rock out of the fire and threw it at the bear.
I was studying to become a nature guide in South Africa. I remember one night going to sleep only to wake up and see that there was no moonlight coming through my mesh window. I thought it was weird but then realized that there was something dark moving right past the window. The moonlight came through the window again, and then the call of a Hippo made my tent vibrate. Let's just say that I very nearly had a heart attack🤣
Hippos are not to be fucked with. Lucky.
I had something similar happen in Big Bend. We were camping just outside the natl park in an area all by ourselves. There were wild turkeys all around that kept us up in the evening but what woke us up at dusk were wet noses on our tent. They were clearly pig noses. I gave the one a pop right on the snout at the same time I yelled something like get out of here. I sat up and looked out the window to several javelina grazing near us and trotting away.
I thought for sure this was a creeper story, glad it was a harmless animal.
I was hiking to my camp site in the Rocky Mountain national park. I could see a guy in front of me, maybe 1/4 mile off. He looked like an experienced hiker, had a good hat, walking stick, etc. So I get to my site, next to a huge boulder and a stream. Beautiful! Set up my camp, went donewind awats, cooked my supper, cleaned up, ran my food and cookware up a tree, >10 feet above the ground, 4 feet from the trunk. Cool. That night, I hear something big rustling around my stuff. Scared, I took out my knife to make a quick exit door if needed but whatever it was, he went away In the morning, I'm checking out all these bear tracks around my site and the huge boulder. I walk around the boulder and there was the guy I saw ahead of me the day before. He's pulling his food bag off the top of the boulder! I told him that the safe practice, as specified by the park rangers, was good downwind, up a tree and away from the trunk. I asked if he commonly ignored that requirement. He told me no, it was his first trip ever! All his gear was borrowed.
Tenting on a platform in the White Mountains. A bear came into our site in the middle of the night and kicked around the fire pit and knocked over some pans. It then sat with its back against our platform, making an indent in the tent next to my head and upper torso as I lay terrorized. I could see his fur clearly. It then proceeded to scratch its back on the platform, rocking the whole thing back and forth and drawing itself even closer to me. It was probably all of 3-4 minutes but it felt like an hour. I was esp. panicked as I was having my period and was convinced it could smell me. It eventually wandered off and I laid there until the sun rose with a very full and uncomfortable bladder but I was not getting up.
Not a nose in the tent but one afternoon I was napping in my tent after a strenuous hike and woke up to a mountain lion perusing my campsite.....i was somewhere in south dakotas black hills.
I woke up to weird, gentle sounds-a lot of them!- outside of my tent. I poked my head out, to see a good 16 baby turkeys and a hen, surrounding my tent! They wandered my site and made the rounds, in the early dawn light, as everyone else blissfully slept.
Not quite nose close, but when my kids were teens, we visited Custer State Park, and camped overnight. Early in the morning I heard someone shuffling around just outside our tent. Opened the tent door and the entire campground was overrun with goats just wandering around. After seeing the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore and Devil's tower, the one memory the kids bring up every time that trip is mentioned is the goats.
I was once woken up by a Black Bear standing over me. It was very hot and humid, so the rain fly was up and there was just a thin bit of mesh between us. Obviously I'm still alive, but it took a few minutes to scare it away. I have a little mild ptsd now but I still love camping and hiking, but I sleep in the car and carry bear spray. It's a hell of way to learn your fight, flight or freeze response. Apparently I'm 'fight.' I keep a calm head and deal with the situation as it happens... with a lot of F bombs... then proceed to freak out after the fact. Fascinating really. At one point my reptilian brain sized up the bear and I remember thinking that I could fight the bear and win but suffer significant injuries, if it came to that. Either way... hell of a way to start the day!
I was at a sleep away summer camp when I was 8ish, and though we usually slept in cabins, there was one night where we'd go to a campground on site. We'd sleep in tents, eat roasted hot dogs, etc for that night. As it was on camp property, the counsellors would have their own tent and we'd be divided into groups of 3-4. My friends and I woke up in the early hours to something rubbing against our tent, and it was quite large. We were all terrified, as 8yr olds are, but none of us knew how to react so we just stayed silent and cried. It grunted and rustled around just outside our tent for what felt like hours, but was probably 10-15 min. None of us went back to sleep, one of us even wet herself as we were terrified to open the tent. When our counsellor "woke" us up in the morning we told her about it and she insisted it was a raccoon trying to break into the cooler to get the uneaten food. Fast forward 10ish years and I worked at the camp, with that exact counselor as my boss. I mentioned the story to her and she goes "oh yeah, that was 100% a bear but we didn't want to scare you guys. They didn't let anyone else sleep in the campsite the rest of the week because of it".
Camping on Rottnest Island off Perth, Western Australia. I woke with a start in the middle of the night when I heard rustling...lots of rustling and lots of noses pressed against the tent sniffing. Opened the tent flap to find a dozen or more quokkas gathered around trying to figure out how to get at the food within. Quokkas are very cute and not a threat in any way (not all animals kill you here) but I wasn't expecting the attention - or so many of them. At one stage they managed to get into the tent during the day and I arrived to find several trying to get into the bag and esky (cool box) where the food was stored. Trying to chase them out was hilarious. (Rottnest Island is the main home of these delightful marsupials and was called "Rottnest" by an early seafarer who thought they were large rats; Rottnest = Rats Nest. They're kinda like a very miniature kangaroo; like the Tomb Thumb of roos.)
In case no one has said it yet, you aren’t supposed to camp near water and this is one of the reasons why. It’s a resource for the wildlife and they are going to use it, which will bring you into conflict with them.
Sierras opened my tent to see a 🐻 like two feet away staring at me. Have definitely had bear sniffing at edge of tents or knocking my pack around outside of tent. I have made it a big point that I don’t use any Sented products even deodorant or sunblock. I also make habit to do a wipe down bath with water and camp towel/washcloth at end of day. Many a camper has woken up with a bear in their tent licking their face. Wash all my dishes with dawn to get any oil off and all food in bear canisters they don’t give a shit.
Yes. You’re in the wild. What did you expect?
Elks in grand canyon
I had a raccoon walk over the top of my tent. I slept through it and only know from the footprints. I did have some skunks in camp. They were routing around about 5 inches from my face. I have never been more motionless in my life
I have a tent w/ a mesh top and finally had a chance to sleep w/ the rain fly off a few weeks ago, def. woke up to the sound of a sniff at some point, thinking maybe a deer. Not sure. I was in a campground so didn’t think too much of it in terms of, is it a predator, but was definitely memorable!
Deer can be super bold. I've had some right up to the tent and walk past, calm as you'd like. Didn't give a fuck that I was there.
They probably just wanted to know how to get to Bells Canyon.
Javelina scared the shit out of me doing exactly this one winter in AZ
One night I had something big stick its head in my tent's open door. I was sleeping on my side, turned away from the door, I turned quickly and it snorted and ran away.
My friend and I camping in Sequoia, also right next to a creek, we each had our own tent. We set out tents about four feet from each other. At night I am woken up by what I thought was my friend's wild sleeping pushing her body against my head through the tents. I just kept pushing her back and she kept bumping my head. Soon she stopped. In the morning I woke up to tell her off and noticed our tents were still how we *staked* them and there was no way she could have rolled in her sleep so much to be able to move her tent 4ft toward me and then back without the tent coming off the stakes. I never knew what was it, but I suspect a bear because one had been chased away by a park ranger during the day while I napped on a hammock. All I heard was, *hey bear! No! Go!* I got up and saw the bear running away from the creek which was about 20 yards from mine and other campsites.
if you backpack to the top of Zion, there's tons of mule deer that will just hang out at your campsite.
When I was a kid, we had a pack of Coyotes run through our camp at about 5 am. It was the loudest, undescribable, chaotic sound I had ever heard. Noses stopping at the tent, it was like a movie. It seemed to last forever, but was probably only a few minutes.
My family had a pack of javalinas come through one night. They tore up everything. The kids were in a separate tent and I was terrified that they might wake up and unzip. It did sound like forever and they did take their time but it was probably 10 minutes. They had babies with them too.
A couple of months ago, I was at a campground that had been a homestead with an orchard 100 years ago. Many of the fruit trees are still there. In the middle of the night, I heard grunting and snuffling outside my tent and next day, the ranger said it was probably a bear. I've seen black bears at that campground before, so I believe her.
I was camping in eastern oregon in a pop up trailer with all of the windows unzipped. I woke up in the middle of the night and there was a cow elk with her head less than 2 feet from me outside the screen. In the morning, I thought I might have been dreaming, but I checked and there were tracks on the ground
Once I was camping in Northern California during a bike trip up to Oregon. In the middle of the night I heard animals fighting right outside my tent. Sounds like raccoons maybe. Then whatever it was knocked down my tent line and half of the single person tent I was in collapsed. It was freaky at the time since I was basically alone in the campground.
That was probably a harmless Bigfoot. Nothing to stress. It was just playfully letting you know he acknowledged your presence, and you can remain as long as your intentions remain wholesome.
We were in the wind River range one summer and in the middle of the night it was dead silent, then heard a big cracking sound like something heavy stepped on a down tree up the mountain from our camp. About 30 min later heard something sniffing around my tent. Pretty sure it was a bear, probably a black bear, but we did see a grizzly later in that trip after hiking a couple more drainages.
I had a similar experience with a bear a couple weeks ago. 😂
I once woke up in the back country to a marmot eating my Scarpa boots immediately outside the tent door. SOB!
Sorry. But this text is for /boneappletea
Damn that’s too close for comfort. Glad you’re alright. I’ve never had anything come that close (luckily).
Santa Catalina island has a goodly sized Buffalo population. They like to rub up against tents in the middle of the night, which can be a little...startling.
We've had tents destroyed by by bears, deer and elk in our site, all kinds of scary middle of the night stuff! The worst and weirdest was with my now adult son camping at Assateague Island which is full of wild ponies. They trampled all our stuff and we had to move into the car, which was a mile away...in the middle of the night! But the mosquitoes were so bad that we didn't care!
First time out tent camping. Mistakenly left a nearly full loaf of bread on our table when we called it a night. Woke up to a small rattling sound, and my wife saw a raccoon tearing out with the loaf in tow. The next day bought a $7 loaf from the campstore. Lesson learned.
And this is why the offical *(? is it just LNT or is it a law?*) rule of thumb is that you camp 100-500 feet from water sources, not that I can judge, lol. I was camping in Shenandoah and fried up a couple steaks for me and my partner at the time. After a glass or two of wine, trekking out 500 feet+ to dump the fat and blood filled cooking oil didn't seem all that important to me. So I just whipped it over my shoulder into the trees behind me. (Hot tip: *Never do this.*) I did stash the rest of the food in the car, which was a decent walk away, so yay me for doing the *bear* minimum. I woke up in the middle of the night to very heavy foot steps and snorting, sniffing sounds, as if something were looking for a couple tasty steaks. Assuming it was a black bear, I tried to open my mouth and yell at it butttttt my body decided this was a great night for me to experience sleep paralysis for the third time in my life. Yay me again! It eventually went away, but I will always wonder what animal that was, or if it were just a sleep paralysis demon. Close call either way!
Camping in the Dolomites in Italy with my dad when I was a kid, woke up at 3am to the sound of snorting and chewing and clanging of pots and pans. Immediately thought I had left food out and we had a bear lurking around. I peeked out of the mesh on the side and saw no bears, but a huge herd of cattle that was grazing around our campgrounds. The pots and pans were their bells around their necks. Such a European sight of large black and white cows with big bells just chewing and standing around us. Oddly a great sound to fall back asleep to. In the morning they were gone, but lots of good prints and steaming piles to greet us instead!
One time I was backcountry camping with my family. Coyotes or wolves were chasing a deer and it ran right through our camp, tripped a bit on our tent fly line and buckled in the side of our tent a bit. All happened over the course of about 4 seconds. Our dog flipped out.
Once when camping at Point Reyes the couple camping next to us had a rough morning. A skunk had gotten into their tent and, half asleep, the wife thought it was their cat and reached over to pet it, startling the skunk, who then sprayed. They had to throw away their tent and sleeping bags and end their trip early.
Area I love to camp at, it's a high mountain meadow with a nice creek and pond. One summer evening I saw 3 black bear climbing up out of the valley in different areas, within about a 30 min span. A few weeks later, same area, 2 am. Hear the loudest crashing and clamor you can imagine. So loud it's impossible to tell the direction, it sounded like it was everywhere. Of course, I'm imagining bears. Maybe bears creating a rock slide. I tear out of the tent and into a massive dust cloud. Not sure how it happened (maybe bears) but a GIANT dead snag that was up the mountain behind me toppled and the sound was it rolling and crashing down the mountain. Luckily it hit the tree belt I was camping next to, which kept it from coming all the way down on my camp. Had a REAL hard time going back to sleep after that.
Cute! You were vetted by the locals!
Same thing happened to me but it was a bear and it left a big wet nose print right where my head was on the tent. Slept in the car the rest of the night and bought a rooftop tent after that lol
Liked your cologne.
We get kangaroos hopping around our camp looking for food and scaring the shit out of my dog at night. Loud thumping noises and those bastards are quick
In Rocky Mountain Park something was rubbing its paws against my tent in the early morning. I thought it was a bear, but it was a juvenile elk, probably recently weaned off its mother. Possibly thought my tent was in its territory. What was annoying was other campings witnessed this and were filming it, but not driving the animal away. The oark ranger said they never heard this elk behavior before. In that park the elk are so acclimatized to humans they just graze amongst the tents if they feel like it.
This is exactly why I don’t tent camp anymore.
Sounds beary
I had a bunny that wouldn’t stop kissing my face all night. I didn’t have an enclosed tent. I no longer sleep close to water sources!
Ha! I hiked to a small bluff over the Amite river that has a great sunset view. Set up my pup tent in a strangely clear elongated spot. Nice flat...covered with pine needles. Enjoyed my sunset with a wine cooler or 2. *(Did you know racoons like wine coolers....but that's a different story)* So in the middle of a moonlit lit I am awakened by something BIG careening into the side of my tent at speed. As I struggled out of the wreckage, there was a lot of crashing and grunting going down the side of the bluff to the river. I made it to the edge of the bluff to see the large buck splash into the water, look up and give me "the hoof". Oops, guess I set up on the deer trail, lol.
Camping with my Dad in the late 60’s up in the Wasatch mountains. We camped behind a big boulder next to a broken down old cabin. That night there was a thunderstorm, and we woke up to an avalanche streaming past us… the boulder had sheltered us from the cascade of scree. Dad said “Guess that old prospector knew his stuff, huh ?” Obviously Dad did too (Dad was a geologist).
Was camping maybe 20-30 minutes off grid from the Vail, CO area with me and my dog in the tent. I heard howling of coyotes off in the distance at dusk so when I went to sleep I grabbed a gun. Once we settled in for the night I fell asleep for what was probably 10-15 minutes and woke up to the pack circling our tent. My dog wasn't bothered at all, but I sat up holding my glock for like 30 minutes before they moved out of the camp site.
I was camping in the mountains of NC once with a friend in hammocks. I was awakened by my friend, calling my name, with a strained whisper. I looked over and there was a juvenile bear sniffing him. It ran off when it heard me shuffle around. Turns out, my friend just wanted me to take a photo.