A bear story

[Grumpeyyy]

On July 30th my daughter and her new husband were on their honeymoon. They barrowed My truck and teardrop so they could go camping and fishing in the northern part of Pa. Wed evening they were set up at a campground up by Kinzu Dam. Around 9,30 pm they went down to take a shower. My daughter finished her shower first and started walking back to the campsite. as she got close to the site she heard noise coming from her campsite. since they were off by their selves she stopped and shined her flashlight at the site and saw a large black bear at the side of the truck. When she shined the light on it, it ran to the edge of the woods. She turned around and went back to the shower house to get her husband. They found the campground host and he drove them back up to scare the bear away.
The bear would not leave, it went to the edge of the woods and stopped but it would not leave the site. By now more people showed up and a few more vehicles were there with their lights on the bear but it just would not leave. My son in law was looking around with a spot light and shined it in a tree and saw eyes looking back at him. There were 2 cubs up the tree, that's why Moma bear would not leave. So when they seem the cubs they backed off and gave the bears some space and the cubs came down out of the tree and ran off with moma.

After the bears left they went in to inspect the damage. She ripped the sun visor off the passenger side door. She pulled the rubber around the window out and forced the window down about 4". She pulled some of the rubber from around the rear window. She broke the mirror off the truck. There were paw prints all around the truck. The cubs climbed up on the bumper then up on the tonnaue cover then up onto the roof and belly slid down the windshield and off the right side fender.

On the camper there is a piece of rubber roofing over the hinge for the galley she look a bite out of the one end of it and tore the other edge about 2' in from the edge.
She also left claw marks in the aluminum trim around the galley hatch where she tried to lift it up.

My camper has been fixed already and my truck is in the body shop getting repaired and repainted.

I guess my point to this story is when camping you should always be aware of your surroundings. Be alert as to what is happening around you and don't think twice about getting the heck out of a bad situation. Luckily my daughter was aware and she got out because they figure the bear was about 450 pounds and she is only about 100 pounds she would have only been a lite snack for a bear that size.

They cut their honeymoon short by a couple days but they have one heck of a story that will last a lifetime.

I put a couple pictures in my gallery

Grumpy

[pchast]

Cool story. Glad everyone is ok.

[S. Heisley]

Wow! They did some damage alright! Glad everyone is okay.

[Grumpeyyy]

Pete and Sharon

Thank you. Everyone is great and no bears were hurt during the destruction of my truck and camper.

I was telling a friend of mine about it and he says to me "man you have the worst luck with vehicles" I sad " no sir I have the best luck because the only thing that was damaged was the vehicles. NOBODY got hurt"

Grumpeyyy

[sctrooperretired]

Pete and Sharon

Thank you. Everyone is great and no bears were hurt during the destruction of my truck and camper.

I was telling a friend of mine about it and he says to me "man you have the worst luck with vehicles" I sad " no sir I have the best luck because the only thing that was damaged was the vehicles. NOBODY got hurt"

Grumpeyyy

It was a bit of bad luck but you have one great attitude.

[S. Heisley]

It was a bit of bad luck but you have one great attitude.

[ae6black]

Last year during buck season in the Chapman Dam State park which is fairly close to where you had your bear encounter, I made the mistake of having a slow cooker cooking in my closed galley of the TD while I was out in the woods. I figured that since it was so cold out, having the galley shut would help moderate the tempreture while every thing was cooking. While out in the woods, I discovered fresh bear tracks that were heading in the direction of the campground. I got back before anything happened but won't make that mistake again. the bear came to the edge of the campground but never entered the campground. Never actually saw the bear, just the tracks where it was checking out the sights and smells. You're experience reminds us that even although bear encounters aren't that common in Pa, they still happen and we all need to use common sense while camping.

Art

[Grumpeyyy]

Art

Your right Pa does not have a lot of bear encounters but these 2 stories show that it is possible and we should all be aware of the possibility that it can happen. I know that while we were camping this past weekend I was a little more cautious of how I left things when we left the campsite and when we went to bed.

In my daughters case I don't know what they could have done different to prevent this from happening. All the food they had in the truck was in sealed containers and they had the hatch on the camper locked. The only thing that I can think of that the bear smelled was maybe fish smell from their hands on the truck. They had been fishing all morning so maybe from them touching the truck the bear smelled that.

Truck is all fixed up and so is the camper ( except for the claw marks in the trim around the hatch, they are staying there.) so all is well.

Happy camping to all

Grumpeyyy