A group of friends and I have been taking backpacking trips out into the Allegheny region for a couple of years now. Just recently someone brought up the suggestion of bringing some cigars along however I was not sure how a bear might react to the scent of flavored tobacco. While we would put the cigars with all the rest of our stuff in a bear bag, Cigars tend to have a strong pungent smell that sticks to you for awhile and I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on how a wild bear would react. I know generally bears tend to stay away from smells like cigars, cigarettes, cologne and deodorant. I was also curious as to whether you guys think flavored and scented tobacco like that from a hookah would be an attraction
They DON'T like noise. Wear your pots and pans on the outside of your backpacks. This is important. I do not know for sure, but I would think they'd rather avoid a place that smells like "smoke". Keep your food away and sealed whenever possible. Oh and PLEASE don't start a frigging forest fire with your very trendy and cool cigars.
Typically, unless a rogue, you're safe. Unless you intimidate, or their is a mother/cub situation. Most will avoid denser populations, so try and have good company around. Might want to set up some noise device as well. Snickers draped over a branch on fishing line with cans on the other end higher up in the tree work well. If a bear wants to see something/someone, though, it's about like trying to keep out a nosy friend when you want self-time. They'll circumvent anything if the can/want.
After my Bear scare camping one yr I no longer will go camping up north in a tent lol. You can do all the right things sometimes......and it makes no difference. I remember a while back in Ontario a couple were found half eaten by a black bear. They were avid campers and did everything by the book. When they found the 2 half eaten bodies there was a pound of ground beef on a picnic table that was never touched....Who knows what happened but they did eventually find the bear that had their remains in its stomache. I am terrified of bears......and you never know wild animals are unpredictable.
I'm kind of a wuss with bears myself. I prefer public parks where less fit people are around to get chased down and eaten first. There is no macho way of dealing with them. If you have ever felt the sheer bulk of their weight when they walk around near your tent, you'd never even think you could reasonably take one on and be a challenge to it.
Well, we usually hike for a day into the valleys that are nearby and camp up and down mission creek or a few other small creeks in the location, my only question was whether or not the smoke would actually attract a bear. If it was really bear country id be more worried about the pots and pans thing but 9 guys hiking through the countryside makes enough noise as is. As for starting a fire with my trendy cigars, I'll try not to, but we're generally very conscious of our area and leave nothing behind, and generally don't bring anything that is not safe to burn up to make less weight on the way out anyways, anything that is unsafe to burn or otherwise we always take out with us and throw away properly so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Besides, even in the heat of summer if you've ever been deep in the forest (We're talking miles away from campgrounds even, literally hiking in and making camp somewhere and hiking out after a few days) it's usually very moist. We were considering taking along a Modular hookah as it is an experience we all enjoy and the ultimate goal is relaxing, but may be too much of a hassle. I was mostly curious if someone thought the aroma (such as incense would be) would attract a bear
I think they like Cubans, so don't smoke them - they will come begging for a smoke, and they get pissed when you tell them they can't have one. They are such pains in the ass - I hate it when they beg. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Generally, as you sad, they generally avoid human contact (depending on the type of bear, I once called a black bear over because I thought it was a large dog, and it started running at me playfully) unless they think they can find food. If it is one of those new apple or grape flavored skins, they might be drawn to it. I've never had a problem with bears being attracted to cigarette or cigar smoke, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. If one bear learned to asscoiate cigar smoke with humans a food, he just may come along curiously. I would keep your bear horn (or whatever deterrant you use) handy while smoking, and make sure to either fully incinerate the butts, or dispose of them far from camp (like in running river water) to be safest.
I've hiked for decades in our nearby Canadian Rockies and have had zero bad incidents with bears. One sniffs around our campsite now and then but we just back off and let him/her have their space. There's all types of advice on what does and doesn't attract bears... what to do in an encounter and so on. Basically we just back off as the ultimate decision on what's going to happen is up to the bear. It's a pain going backpacking with a scaredy cat or someone who is worried about bears, cougars, falling off a cliff, bugs, is hungry, thirsty, hot, cold and so on. Suck it up or stay home. What's the difference between Black bear and Grizzly scat? Grizzly scat has bear bells in it. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And remember, when push comes to shove you can't out run a bear so just be sure you can outrun your hiking partner. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
One of my sisters went camping with a cigar smoker. The black bear that visited their camp ate a big hole in her tent, not the cigar smoker's.
to make yourself safe with regard to bears is the same way ypu make yourself with most dangerous animals some basic knowledge about the animal and commonsense
