# Bandits on the Rogue



## oarframe (Jun 25, 2008)

Frito bandito got us as well.
I didn't think to look for the battery (duh), the ranger had told us the fences were down, so when we saw them we thought they were live....
Fortunately they didnt get much. I was amazed that they were able to unscrew a gamma seal lid.


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## Don (Oct 16, 2003)

*Masks*

Were they wearing masks?


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

There is a bear fence and you left your food unattended and unsecure? That's probably why they've had bear problems - people that have no sense. Hope you feel good about the animals you helped kill.

Please don't come camp in Colorado.


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## henrylightcap (May 11, 2012)

Well said Randaddy! I was amazed at the intelligence of the above posters, even more amazed that they were so blown away with their findings that they needed to share their brilliance.


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## jpbay (Jun 10, 2010)

Randaddy said:


> There is a bear fence and you left your food unattended and unsecure? That's probably why they've had bear problems - people that have no sense. Hope you feel good about the animals you helped kill.
> 
> Please don't come camp in Colorado.


He did say the battery was removed from the bear fence.


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## briandburns (Jan 12, 2010)

jpbay said:


> He did say the battery was removed from the bear fence.


There are also metal bear boxes at that camp. No reason to leave your food out.


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

jpbay said:


> He did say the battery was removed from the bear fence.


Yep. A foolproof sign that the bear encounters are over in that camp. No battery? Leave your picnic basket out. Then a kid gets mauled and a bear dies.


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## oarboatman (Jul 20, 2006)

Just a little perspective.... 50 rogue trips in the past 6 years. I be never had a bandit successfully take a single piece of food or trash. I've never used a bear fence but we bring dogs. I have however listened to a treed cub 50 feet from the kitchen for many hours.


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## oarframe (Jun 25, 2008)

Well i do feel like a fool now. Thanks folks. I guess there are no excuses. We did put all our stuff in the enclosure, made sure the switch was on and locked it up. Didn't think to look in the friggin box. Every thing was in locked cooler or gamma bkt. Don't know how much more i could have done. Sorry.


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## mkashzg (Aug 9, 2006)

oarframe said:


> Well i do feel like a fool now. Thanks folks. I guess there are no excuses. We did put all our stuff in the enclosure, made sure the switch was on and locked it up. Didn't think to look in the friggin box. Every thing was in locked cooler or gamma bkt. Don't know how much more i could have done. Sorry.



I always learn my best lessons from my worst mistakes! Live and learn and kudos for owning up imo 


Sent from my iPhone using Mountain Buzz


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## Learch (Jul 12, 2010)

We have camped there before, but the fence was always working for us. There is a bear box up by the trail, and a food hoist also. I doubt the hoist would help with the raccoons, and the bear boxes only hold so much. 
Every group is different, but I doubt that with the fence out of service my group could get everything required in the bear box or hoisted above ground. We pretty much rely on the bear fences being operational.


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## elkhaven (Sep 11, 2013)

So somebody posts a warning to reduce the risk of this happening again and a bunch of you chastise the guy the for his mistakes! Nice, I wonder how many warnings will get posted in the near future? I sure hope you never learn anything the hard way!


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## kengore (May 29, 2008)

There has been increased bear activity on many of my favorite rivers. As the ranger at the Smith pointed out there have been bears in the ecosystem long before there were boaters. It is not the bears fault that they take advantage of a new food source. The only solution is for us boaters to clean up our act and not provide a free lunch.

So educating the boating population on good bear-safe protocol needs to be a high priority in our community. As a teacher I can testify that publicly chastising someone and calling them a fool is not a successful method of education and is more likely to achieve a negative response than a positive one.

Kudos to Ezcruzr for sharing his 'learn from our mistakes' experience so that others like myself can avoid similar problems.


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## elkhaven (Sep 11, 2013)

kengore said:


> There has been increased bear activity on many of my favorite rivers. As the ranger at the Smith pointed out there have been bears in the ecosystem long before there were boaters. It is not the bears fault that they take advantage of a new food source. The only solution is for us boaters to clean up our act and not provide a free lunch.
> 
> So educating the boating population on good bear-safe protocol needs to be a high priority in our community. As a teacher I can testify that publicly chastising someone and calling them a fool is not a successful method of education and is more likely to achieve a negative response than a positive one.
> 
> Kudos to Ezcruzr for sharing his 'learn from our mistakes' experience so that others like myself can avoid similar problems.


Well said! Sorry for my chastisement of the chastisers


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## bucketboater (Jul 9, 2012)

This is pretty funny. We were on the rogue last week. On our last night at clay hill just downstream from tacoma, a gang of em came in our camp around 3am. We feed them a bunch of ganja food. Sounds like those rascals got the munchies and headed up stream. 
I wouldn't pay much attention to the Colorado crew. These guys dont realize animals get hungry too?


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## bucketboater (Jul 9, 2012)

Randaddy said:


> There is a bear fence and you left your food unattended and unsecure? That's probably why they've had bear problems - people that have no sense. Hope you feel good about the animals you helped kill.
> 
> Please don't come camp in Colorado.


This is a valid point. Spoke with a rogue river ranger last year. She said each year thousands of raccons have to be killed due to poor camp behavior. Millions was spent on the raccoon relocation program. When will people learn. The plight of the **** is in our hands people! .


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## Ezcruzr (Feb 27, 2008)

Hey, I was just trying to give people a heads up. In my 50 to 60 trips down the Rogue, I have never had any problems with racoons.I have always taken precautions to protect my food from the bear during their season. Good luck fitting all your stuff in the bear box. The bear fence is not operational and it looks like the racoons have already dismantled the food hoist, as if it would work for them. I however did not mean to set the scene for some young child to get malled to death by a raccoon. I guess next time I'll take my own fence charger.


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## rivers2run (Jun 7, 2012)

Rogue is my backyard river, we broke down and bought portable electric fences, if the exclosures aren't operating or we stay at camps without them we set them up around our boats. They were very useful in Alaska and in Montana. It is an easy mistake to put stuff in an enclosure and assume they are working. I don't understand why some feel the need to take a superior attitude about this.


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## gh (Oct 13, 2003)

Don said:


> Were they wearing masks?


 nice


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## Duce (Sep 5, 2011)

Bears have been hitting that camp and Tate forever (typical bear behavior). Get tuned up or be a heavy sleeper and you might have a problem. Either way it has been that way for years. how dare you camp there.....kidding. Silly to hear people talking smack. Bear hunters know what I am saying as they are creatures of habit. We do the noise makers on top of the coolers if there is no bear fence but again that depends on how hard you are sleeping. Bottom line is if you camp in those spots expect critters.


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## GratefulOne (Jun 12, 2010)

Orion Cooler- Grizzly Bear Proof - YouTube


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## FrankC (Jul 8, 2008)

I use a long sliding cable lock to secure my cooler. Get one long enough to wrap around the cooler a few times and you should be good. While car camping, I woke up to see a bear trying to get in my cooler. It managed to push it over but could not get in.


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## Schutzie (Feb 5, 2013)

Well, as someone once said;
When in bear (racoon) country it does not do to leave a bear (racoon) out of your calculations.

In other words, one should assume, when in bear country, that bears will invite themselves for dinner.

We had a visit once on Desolation from a hungry racoon. Some lazy guide left a box of dehydrated potatoes out (yes, as a backup we carried dehydrated potatoes in case, you know, the real ones somehow got ruined) and the raccoon thought they were tasty. The thing is, eating dehydrated potatoes makes one thirsty, and drinking water with a belly full of undigested, dehydrated potatoes leads to, um, complications.

We found the poor brute a mile or so down stream, doing what bears do in the woods. Explosively doing what bears do in the woods.


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## 90Duck (Nov 19, 2012)

Schutzie said:


> Well, as someone once said;
> When in bear (racoon) country it does not do to leave a bear (racoon) out of your calculations.
> 
> In other words, one should assume, when in bear country, that bears will invite themselves for dinner.
> ...


That is an awesome story. And now that poor bear is habituated to avoid human camps. Excellent work.

I've taken to carrying bear spray down there the last couple of years. Plenty of late night encounters in the past, but no opportunities to use the spray yet. I started carrying it after reading an article in Backpacker magazine in which the author was suggesting that if everyone carried bear spray into the backcountry and used it every time they encountered a bear, that the bears would very quickly get habituated to avoid all human contact and that would be better for bears and humans alike. Plus, I injured my rotator cuff chucking rocks across the river at a bear sniffing at our Dutch Oven lasagna just before dusk at Tacoma one evening.

Also, if you ask, the rangers at Rand have several portable bear fences that they loan out for free. I've used them several times and not had a bear in camp, so I guess they work. The nice part is you can just put the fence up around your kitchen before bedtime and avoid hauling everything up to the permanent fence.


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## tripple (Nov 4, 2010)

*My Wussy dog...*

Thanks heavens for my wussy dog, she may smell and sound big but that is about it. After permit season on the Rogue last year had a solid trip with no up close and personal bear encounters just because we had a dog. We did see them around but they all seemed to think swimming to the far side and then heading down stream was the best plan of action. Talked with others out there and one outfitter staying at a lodge and two privates on beaches had bears on their boats in the same night. 
Our only burglar encounter was when the cook crew got a bit sloppy and upon finishing the dishes decide to pass out under the cook tarp before securing the trash. O'dark'30, Mr Peppy-Le-Pew enters for his night snack and wakes kitchen crew. One heads off with pad and bag to find a less crowded area to sleep and deal with the garbage dump in the morning. Kitchen crew member #2 rolls over, grasps the situation, and decides to fight fire with fire. Blasts the little bugger with bear spray… I guess when you play on that level of nuclear nose warfare there is no return fire. Only thing was kitchen crew slacker #1 had a skunk rolling in agony right next to his new sleeping pad. So don't be that guy...


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