Camping Safety

Depending on your choice of a touring destination, you have a possibility of encountering any manner of hazards. Probably, here in North America, one of the foremost concerns, when camping, can be from a chance encounter with wild animals. There are many animals in the wild and many of them are relatively harmless; they may eat through your pannier to steal your food, but otherwise are non-threatening. Cougars, wolves and bears are another story...Bears are one of the most common visitors to campsites and it is very prudent to follow basic clean camp rules and not present oneself as a food morsel! There are many good books written on bear-safe issues and I can highly recommend "Backcountry Bear Basics, by David Smith" - for an easy reading and informative guide. I will not try to repeat everything that I have learned, but would still advise anyone camping in bear country to follow some very basic guidelines...If camping in the bush, check around your intended campsite for bear scat or a food cache that an animal may return to.Don't cook in your tent, the material of the tent will absorb cooking odours and attract wildlife.Don't store food in your tent, bears have an amazing sense of smell and are very curious.Don't store toothpaste, deodorant or other fragrant items in your tent, bears don't know the difference, until they've tasted it. You don't want them that close!Load all your food and other fragrant items in a stuff sack or pannier, and hang them at least 10ft high off a tree branch and 6ft to 8ft away from the trunk if possible. Hang the items as far away from your tent as practicable. If the campground has bear-proof containers, use them.If the bear threat is high, consider cooking and eating items of low odour, e.g. beans or lentils instead of tuna or meat. Or perhaps plan for a cold meal, thereby not producing any cooking aromas at all.Carry your food, on the bike, in a separate sealed bag or pannier, that way clothing etc. will not retain any food odours.Don't dispose of your cooking waste and dishwater close to camp, even if you are leaving; think of the next person that may want to set-up camp there. Take it a good distance away and bury it.The above are just a few tips, but the best advise is to use common sense!With regards to Cougars, beware when travelling at dusk in cougar country, as that is when they are the most active. They will attack from behind and sometimes from above overhanging tree branches. Cougar attacks on full-grown humans are very rare, but have occurred here in British Columbia, Canada (amongst other locations); on two occasions the attacks were on cyclists at dusk! Fighting off a cougar would be no mean feat if you were on your own, and I can only imagine that it could be a very harrowing, if not fatal experience.A wolf attack on a human would be even more uncommon, however I have read a report of a pair of wolves stalking a cyclist alongside a road in Northern Ontario, Canada. And, by all accounts, that is unusual behaviour for wolves, but certainly shows that one should strive to be prepared for the unexpected!Other items of basic camp safety and common sense...Be careful with stove fuel, don't try to refuel a stove when it's hot.If you have a campfire make sure that it's extinguished properly, when you leave, don't start a forest fire!Don't cut down living trees or saplings, use dead-falls and branches from the ground for a campfire.Don't build a bigger campfire than you really need, remember it's a campfire, not a bonfire!Carry a first-aid kit and know how to use it; study up on some basic first-aid before a trip. You won't have time to read the manual when you really need to use contents of the kit.Use garbage containers at campsites and recycle what you can if a procedure is available. If you bush-camp, use "no-trace" procedures; pack out everything that you pack in. If you find that you have something you don't want, don't leave it for someone else, they probably don't want it either!http://www.adamk.ca/bike_camping.html