Posted on 06/18/2007 8:29:23 AM PDT by george76
An 11-year-old boy is killed by a black bear overnight at a popular campsite in American Fork Canyon. This morning authorities are searching for the bear.
The boy was asleep inside a tent he was sharing with his family at the Timpooneke Camp area, about 10 miles up the canyon. The family was camping about two miles up a dirt road from that campground.
The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent with several sections, and the 11-year-old was in a section of the tent by himself.
Around 11 p.m. family members heard a scream and a loud commotion. They found the tent ripped open, and the boy and his sleeping bag gone.
Harris said the body was found about 400 yards from the tent in the direction of another campsite, where a bear sighting had been reported earlier in the weekend.
Crews are using dogs to search for the bear this morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at ksl.com ...
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Always - always keep food away from you in bear country. I usually store it hanging in a tree at least 100 meters away.
Poor kid....!!!
You can usually spook off a Montana black bear with a few loud noises...VERY unusual....???
Terrifying story.
I wonder if the boy had food in the tent. It is important to keep all food out of the tent when camping in bear country. This includes anything (toothpaste, mouthwash,.. etc) that may have a scent to attract the bear.
Identifying Bears:
If you see a Bear... climb a tree.
If the bear climbs up the tree and kills you... it’s a Black Bear.
If it knocks the tree down and kills you... it’s a Grizzly Bear.
Ghastly. Prayers for his family.
Wondering - black bear? Are bears hunted there?
A bear tried to pull a Girl Scout out of her tent in PA a couple weeks ago - she wriggled free of the sleeping bag and it wasn’t really serious about eating her. The Scouts had been careful with food and toiletries, taking the proper precautions. But bears aren’t much hunted in the north-east and don’t have much fear of humans.
Mrs VS
Shame. But that is nature. Prayers to the family.
There can be no covenant between lions and men
Homer, Iliad XXII
I’ll never understand camping in a tent. Uncomfortable, dangerous and SO MUCH WORK! Sleep out in the back of your house if you want to see stars.
"relieved to have you post that joke on all of the bear threads instead of me from now on" BTTT.
This is completely unusual in Utah. The campground is not far from Robert Redford’s Sundance ski resort.
Amazing and scarey!
Prayers for the family. A very sad and horrible event.
You’re correct. Bear bags strung high in the trees is usually the only safe way to prevent this type of occurrence. Even bear canisters need to be stored away from your tents in an area that doesn’t present an opportunity for the bear to get too curious about the rest of the campsite. Bear canisters only keep the bears out of your food, not out of the storage area they’re in.
A friend of mine had an incident at a campground where they had storage bins for folks to store their canisters. One group just placed unprotected food in the bin and a bear(s) got into the bin. Canisters were strewn all over the place, needless to say, the dopes who just placed their food in there went hungry.
It’s possible the boy had snacks or some such in his section of the tent. I’ve had this problem multiple times with the boys in my Scout Troop. Especially the younger ones who tend to dismiss the threat with the typical “It can’t happen to me” mentality.
SZ
Recently a bear pulled a sleeping boy scout out of his tent...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/943370/posts
A woman from Ohio is hospitalized with serious injuries after a bear attacked her near her home in Ashtabula County ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1636916/posts
If I do that, I raise my chances of being attacked by a black bear significantly. I get black bear at my home in NJ every day, at least once. I choose to camp over the border in PA where I can legally sleep with my weapon.
Loud noises....
Like a few well placed .45ACP rounds...
I simply do NOT understand these camping activities in primitive areas (spelled bear h-a-b-i-t-a-t)....
..Without posting alert, well-equipped & armed adults to provide physical security... as these young people sleep....
Common sense eludes us again...
Morning CC,
Do you know anything about the area? Just curious, as I’m looking for some inside info. on a good camping area to take some older Boy Scouts this fall. Hiking, climbing, biking type of stuff.
Cheers,
SZ
Fawn, I’m with you. If I were to ever feel the need to rough it for a weekend, I’d stay in a hotel where there’d be no connecting air conditioned hallway to my morning breakfast.
It is more comforting to sleep with a 44 mag. under the pillow.
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