Camping is one of the best activities on the planet. It’s so nice to relax and just get away from the insane amount of technology that is all over the place now. Camping is cheap, too. The average camping trip costs less than $400, while the average U.S. vacation costs nearly four times that! In my opinion, there is only one negative aspect about camping: being eaten alive by a bear.
There are foolproof steps you can take to lower your chances of being eaten by a bear to almost 0%, but they usually require staying as far away as possible from any bears. These tips are for people who love camping, fishing, and spending any amount of time outdoors. If you want to be able to have a beer and enjoy a meal while in the wilderness, follow these steps:
- Cooking — If you’re not going to cook up a nice steak while you’re camping then what is the point? To avoid being a tasty treat for a bear while you’re enjoying your tasty treat for a human, be sure to cook at least 100 feet away from your camp, and make sure to be downwind.
- Have Durable Equipment — To have make sure your boat cooler or any other product is “bear-proof,” they are tested by spending an hour alone with a bear. If the boat cooler survives, you’re ready for your fishing trip! If it doesn’t survive, you probably shouldn’t go near that bear to inspect it.
- Bear Deterrent Pepper Spray — If you think a bear is terrifying when it’s happy, wait until you see how mad they get after you pepper spray them. It might just save your life, though.
- Avoid Shouting the Phrase, “Hey, Bear! Come Over Here and Eat Me!” — This one is pretty self-explanatory, it’s best not to do this.
- Store Food Properly — Bears have a sense of smell that is seven times more powerful than dogs, so be sure store your food in a container that successfully holds smells in. They can detect food odors from over a mile away. If you look, you can find the best boat coolers for fishing, custom camouflage hunting coolers, and even backpack coolers that have bear-deterrent technology.
Hopefully these tips will help you out if you’re ever surrounded by bears while out in the wilderness, or the city, for that matter. Who knows, maybe they will be friendly and accept you as one of their own. I wouldn’t risk it, though.