Registered: 02/05/03
Posts: 3293
Loc: Portland, OR
It would appear to be intended to deter animals. If it is electrified, the electrical source is not immediately apparent, but if it isn't electrified, it is guaranteed to be useless. Probably going to cause some terrible cursing if somebody need to leave the tent in the night to stumble to the bathroom.
People do all kind of strange things. Hard to say if this scheme was someone's personal brainstorm, or if they were the victims of an overzealous salesperson.
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Quote:
WAY overkill for that area, lol.
That's for sure
I used to wonder around that area a lot in the `80s. I don't think there was a single bear left around there back then. I know there weren't many. Are there any now?
Registered: 12/26/08
Posts: 382
Loc: Maine/New Jersey
Originally Posted By dkramalc
Or maybe it was lighter than their bear canister...
lol
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"To me, hammocking is relaxing, laying, swaying. A steady slow morphine drip without the risk of renal failure." - Dale Gribbel
Wow that is so lame! Talk about paranoia!! Don't people realize that animals will just leave us alone unless they have a good reason to bother us in the middle of the night; i.e leaving good smelling things in the tent. And let's be honest if a bear actually wanted to go into the tents, that dinky little perimeter is not going to stop him, electrified or not. Puhlease!!
Registered: 10/29/10
Posts: 185
Loc: Central Texas
I embiggened the picture and it does appear to have a ground wire and some kind of device attached to it in the lower left corner of the rig. If it's battery powered it wouldn't seem to have much juice to actually electrify the cords. Maybe it's a perimeter alarm of some kind? Lets you know if someone or something crosses the cords/wires?
I'd guess it has some capacitors for storage and delivers a high-voltage, low-amperage jolt. Think Taser or a camera flash.
It does seem silly. I don't know that area at all but would guess they have mountain lion and wild pigs. I understand the second can be pretty nasty, but I can't imagine myself camping surrounded by a fence that I'd inevitably stumble into and zap myself.
I don't understand why you guys are hating on my security measure?
P.S. I'll use Claymore mines next time.
Edited by ETSU Pride (06/13/1104:43 PM)
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It is one of the blessings of wilderness life that it shows us how few things we need in order to be perfectly happy.-- Horace Kephart
Registered: 02/23/07
Posts: 1735
Loc: California (southern)
Originally Posted By Rick_D
I don't know that area at all but would guess they have mountain lion and wild pigs. I understand the second can be pretty nasty, but I can't imagine myself camping surrounded by a fence that I'd inevitably stumble into and zap myself.
Cheers,
A pig would flatten that rig before it even realized it was shocked. I have spent well over two hundred nights in tents on islands (Santa Rosa Island and Santa Cruz Island) with substantial feral pig populations; I never had anything like trouble from them - at night, that is. Even the rare daylight encounters weren't that bad.
Registered: 07/11/10
Posts: 597
Loc: Fairbanks, AK
I agree that at the location this was overkill. Also it doesn't look well set-up.
However, a couple of years ago two people with experience were hiking in the far North of Alaska were eaten by a bear. At night pulled from their tent. In this area it is unlikely they simply forgot their normal bear routine. Up there I would use a bear electric fence... correctly.
The alaska case was a very extreme circumstance where the persons sought out the bears and camped amongst them.
At least they're (the bear fence crew in the photo) getting outdoors. If that's what it took to get the guy/girl out, great. Maybe after a few trips they'll feel more at home.
I have younger friends whose parents till thinking backpacking is an extreme sport and very dangerous. We tend to fear all things foreign and new don't we?
Edited by Paulo (06/16/1102:56 PM)
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Without a doubt, the hardest thing of all in a survival situation is to cook without the benefit of seasonings and flavourings. - Ray Mears
The Huffmans were attacked while in their tent at a campsite along the Hulahula River 12 miles (19 km) upriver from Kaktovik. Two days later the campsite was discovered by three rafters while the bear was still nearby. The bear chased the rafters down the river for over half a mile until it finally gave up. Later, a North Slope Borough Police officer investigating the scene shot and killed the bear at the campsite.
This was in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska - not somewhere bears are habituated...
OK A long time ago and far far away, I rode a motorcycle to Alaska with a girl on the back and we spent 6 weeks touring alaska. We camped out all but two nights out of 6 weeks. When we left Homer, on the southern end of the Kenai Penninsula, our friends in Homer told su to not stop until we got to Anchorage and NOT under circumstances sould we camp on the penninsula and especially not up by the copper river. So yeh anyway we dilly dallied around and around dark we were still quite a ways from Anchorage so we pull into a very large totally empty campground and set up camp. As it was august it was light very late but before turning in I decided to go check the tent stakes and stuff and be sure we were ready to crash. I WAS STOOPED BEHIND THE TENT WHEN I HEARD LOW BREATHING LIKE SOMETHING WITH 55 GALLON DRUM SIZED LUNGS. The hair on all of my body stood straight out - yes it can - And I lept over the tent towards my rilfe which leaning against the picnic table. Luckily it didn't follow. BTW we're talking about maybe 1,500 pounds of coastal brown bear and it seems we were camped on the Copper River. Two nights later we're in a bar half way to the ferry boat landing and the peolpe at the bar were talking about the recent knews of a bear expert being eaten 2 nights before on the Copper river. I remember that night a Winnabego pulled in, well it seems a large bear grabbed one "bear expert" and ate him and it may have been the one behind our tent and it may have happened while we were there. Jim - this is why I mentioned claymores around a camp site
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These are my own opinions based on wisdom earned through many wrong decisions. Your mileage may vary.
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