Camping in Canada (Bears?).

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Brandane

Legendary Member
Location
Costa Clyde
My ambition is to cycle from Vancouver to Toronto. I would need to take an extended break from work, so it would be an expedition on a budget which would not allow for too many hotel stays. Camping being the only real alternative, I am wondering how much of a problem our Grizzly friends are, particularly around British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains. Is there an abundance of proper campsites? As presumably they might have fences to keep the bears out.

If there is a significant risk of being torn limb from limb by an angry bear then this is one ambition which I would be happy to put to bed before I build my hopes up.

I would be hoping to do this soon; either this summer or next summer, before I get too old for all this!
 
Location
Wirral
All the campsites I saw didn't have any fences at all, all your food needs to be kept in a camp cache - a swag bag hung high from a high tree and well away from the camping area. No food in the tent, not even in (supposedly) sealed packets. You could carry a fire extinguisher of pepper spray just in case, but ideally you need to go with a slower running companion...
 

bianchi1

Guru
Location
malverns
I had an outdoor instructor once who told me how to tell the difference between bears we could meet in Canada.

If you climb up a tree to escape the bear, and it climbs up after you and kills you it's a brown bear, if it knocks the tree down and kills you it's a grizzly bear.

He added that you could buy pepper spray and such stuff, but that would just make them angry.

Comforting stuff
 

gavintc

Guru
Location
Southsea
I did lots of backwoods camping when I lived in Canada. The important aspect is to keep your bags free from the smell of food. If you have had food in them, you will need to cache them with the food. A simple system of hauling them up a tree away from the sleep area is all that is needed. A longish rope, you sling over the arm of a tree and leave the food swinging. The only thing to worry about is chipmunks which can climb trees and come down rope! If you are in a main tourist area - big camp site with cars etc, you don't need to worry.
 
OP
OP
Brandane

Brandane

Legendary Member
Location
Costa Clyde
Hmmm; 2 3 replies and I am already reconsidering my ambition :laugh:. That's in addition to the feedback I'm getting on TripAdvisor. Perhaps my original idea of doing France from north to south might be safer and more realistic.

Edit: The one thing I am not understanding is this idea of keeping food out of the way in case a bear smells it. Would they not be able to smell a human lying sleeping in a tent, and be tempted to help themselves to some defenceless meat? Or do we not give off an attractive smell? After a days cycling, I know I don't smell too appetising!
 

bianchi1

Guru
Location
malverns
Hmmm; 2 3 replies and I am already reconsidering my ambition :laugh:. That's in addition to the feedback I'm getting on TripAdvisor. Perhaps my original idea of doing France from north to south might be safer and more realistic.

Edit: The one thing I am not understanding is this idea of keeping food out of the way in case a bear smells it. Would they not be able to smell a human lying sleeping in a tent, and be tempted to help themselves to some defenceless meat? Or do we not give off an attractive smell? After a days cycling, I know I don't smell too appetising!


I got charged at by wild boar while wild camping in France.
 

Yellow7

Über Member
Location
Milton Keynes
Ah, maybe take heed of the warnings but don’t them deter you, after most news stories I wouldn’t be getting out of bed! Have fun!
 

bianchi1

Guru
Location
malverns
A trip's no fun without a bit of adventure!

The sight of my mate, stood up, naked, with his sleeping bag around his ankles, shouting "BONJOUR BONJOUR (that's all the French he knew) at charging, tusked giant pigs will never leave me.
 
OP
OP
Brandane

Brandane

Legendary Member
Location
Costa Clyde
Ah, maybe take heed of the warnings but don’t them deter you, after most news stories I wouldn’t be getting out of bed! Have fun!

Nothing planned yet, this thread was my first enquiry as to the practicality of this ambition. The information I am getting from Canadians over on TripAdvisor isn't filling me with enthusiasm either. There are plenty of alternatives if this one is a non-starter. I would rather find these things out now than at 3am in a forest somewhere up the Rockies in August :ohmy:. I saw that film "Grizzly" back in the 70s (the bear version of Jaws, for those of lesser years!).
 

Canrider

Guru
Hmmm; 2 3 replies and I am already reconsidering my ambition :laugh:. That's in addition to the feedback I'm getting on TripAdvisor. Perhaps my original idea of doing France from north to south might be safer and more realistic.

Edit: The one thing I am not understanding is this idea of keeping food out of the way in case a bear smells it. Would they not be able to smell a human lying sleeping in a tent, and be tempted to help themselves to some defenceless meat? Or do we not give off an attractive smell? After a days cycling, I know I don't smell too appetising!
In general terms, the bear doesn't really want to be too near humans. Most of the time a bear will avoid humans, and attacks tend to happen when people inadvertently surprise a bear, or get too near to a mother bear with her cubs. They certainly don't, as a group, predate humans as a preferred source of food, so that's why keeping 'real' food out of reach works.

People cycle through the BC mountains all the time in safety. It's not (southern BC) nearly as deserted as people expect Canada to be. If you look at the routes, cycling along the Trans-Canada from Calgary to Vancouver you could mostly jump from town to town, meaning motel to motel, and rarely have to camp out. Also, since you'd be following essentially a large A-road through the mountains, most bears are likely to stay well clear of the motor traffic.

Link us to some of this TripAdvisor advice you're seeing--I can't find anything specific on the topic with a quick search.
 

Yellow7

Über Member
Location
Milton Keynes
It's always the bad news that travels, never the good. Stories of failure, rather than success. "ooh don't do this, don't do that". Fear breeds failure.If you've got a plan, got for it.
I'm likewise of the lesser years, Saturday Night Fever scared me, I could never get on a dance floor thereafter. ;-))
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
A trip's no fun without a bit of adventure!

The sight of my mate, stood up, naked, with his sleeping bag around his ankles, shouting "BONJOUR BONJOUR (that's all the French he knew) at charging, tusked giant pigs will never leave me.


I'd not mess with wild pigs myself. Saw a wildlife film of four wild pigs very nearly killing a cheetah. Note that the pigs attacked the cheetah as soon as they saw it, and the Cheetah was a bit too slow realising it was the prey not the hunter. It only just got away quite badly hurt, with a big patch of fur & flesh gouged off its arse, and its tail was broken in several places a la Tom & Jerry. It may not have survived these injuries.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
oh and on the bears thing, one of the biggest risks apparently is startling a bear, hence some say wear bells on your ankles Morris Dancer style, and have a pepper spray as last resort. Apparently it's worth being able to distinguish between the dung of black bears versus grizzly bears, It seems black bear dung has bits of nuts and berries in it, but grizzly bear dung has bells in and smells of pepper..

..... I thank you.....
 

Nigeyy

Legendary Member
As someone else said, there won't be fences around your campground.

On the bright side, so long as you don't keep food with you, you make loads of noise, and/or don't stumble onto a mother with cubs or a bear with a kill, keep your distance, chances are, they'll leave you alone. I've never seen a bear when out cycling and it's one of my ambitions -I once missed seeing one by a couple of seconds when I was mtbing, and had one run in front of the car on the way to camping in New Hampshire (it was right in front of the car; I was so excited to see it, I forgot to reach for a camera -I'd seen it lumbering over the grass towards the road and had slowed to a stop). Both times they were black bears -still capable of killing you (very unusual though) but nowhere near as big or dangerous as grizzlies or brown bears.

Wild animals are always bigger in Canada anyway; mosquitoes are the national bird. If it's any comfort to you, you might want to worry about moose ....and skunks. Or more than likely, other road drivers.
 
Top Bottom