Bear? Moose? Red squirrel?

[Stick in Mud]

Hello all,

So I was up camping on the Superior Hiking Trail last weekend, and on Saturday night we had a very big critter walking around the perimeter of our camp. At first, we thought there was a person walking into our camp...it sounded like someone purposefully dragging/shuffling/kicking his feet through the fallen leaves, of which there were many.

At first, we said "Hey" rather softly, thinking it was a hiker coming into camp (it was 8:30 p.m. at this point--about pitch black), but it kept coming closer and didn't respond to our shouts, which got quite loud as it approached. It finally stopped and shuffled away through the leaves. It came back once again shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, we never actually saw it, as our one headlamp (mine was in the tent) was just about out of batteries and it couldn't shine very far.

Does anyone have any idea what we heard/saw? We were thinking bear because this thing sounded BIG, though I know all anmials sound bigger when they're trudging through dry leaves. Bear? Moose? Red squirrel?

Carmike

[reinhard1]

dry leaves can make a lot of things sound big. by your discription and the area you were in i would say moose, then bear, and then deer. deer run away from humans the quickest, bears would also with loud noises, moose realy dont care at times if you yell or not especialy when rutting. i was on a road in the finland/isabella area and a small racked bull moose was standing in the middle of the road. i stopped my truck, honked the horn got out of the truck and started to yell, then it actualy made small steps toward me [ i was trout fishing in the fall]. i got back in my truck and slowly went forward. it didn't move till i was about 15 feet from him. then he just walked slowly off to the side. good luck.

[OnAFly]

I hate that feeling! Could have been a bear, probably wasn't a moose, could have been a martin or some other similar animal. I've been camping and had those watching us all night. I've also woken up to bear tracks through our camp. We then realized that we camped on the narrow part of a long peninsula and we were probably between him and mainland.

Animals will walk through your camp. If they smell food, even just pan drippings or spilled trailmix, they will stop by and see what's up. I now make a point of peeing multiple places around my sites so my scent is very clearly there. The most important thing is hanging food a ways away from camp on a long hanging limb...and not putting myself between the food and places where animals will travel through.

One thing to note, the smallest animals for some reason make the most noise in the woods!

[Stick in Mud]

Yeah, we discussed whether or not we were over-reacting to the apparent size of this thing, but it was big and shuffling/dragging it's feet, not stepping more or less cleanly through the leaves. We compared it to the sound of other animals walking throug the leaves--well, only squirrels--and there was no comparison. The closest we could come to re-creating it was to walk through the leaves, kicking the leaves loudly.

For what it's worth, we only cooked one packet of ramen in camp, and dishes were washed immediately afterwards. The food was in one of those little black bear barrels, sealed tight.

I will definitely have to try peeing around camp, though. We've tried to make it all the way around the fishhouse, and with enough adult beverages, it becomes pretty easy. Now the camp will be a new challenge.

[reinhard1]

when we camped up in Canada years ago on White Otter Lake, we camped on a peninsula. we put moth balls in nylons and hung them around the camp. never had bear problems. good luck.

[Stick in Mud]

That's an interesting idea, Reinhard...I've never heard it before. Have others had luck with it?

[Redlantern]

Porcupine is my guess.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Axe murderer, Freddie Kruger, Jason? Scary if you're camping alone sometimes!

[Stick in Mud]

It sounded like an animal with a definite gait, but who knows....I am beginning to think it was either Jason or Freddy.

[DonBo]

Haha, probably just a pack of snowshoe hares. We've had them surround us in Canada probably just looking for marshmallows. Small critters can sound huge when moving through dry leaves. Just heard about a women who insisted someone was outside the window, turned out to be a toad!

[bobbymalone]

I agree with the big ruckus smaller animals can make in a pile of leaves.

I was staying at a SP campsite south of the cities a number of years ago by myself and I heard some rustling as I was sitting in front of the campfire. I sat really still and listened as it came up towards my fire. My campfire had been dying out so it wasn't putting off much light. I figured it was a raccoon or something, so I waited until it got close and then blasted it with my mag-light.

Nice 8 point buck standing 5 feet away. It stood still for about 10 seconds and then took off in the other way.

[Down Deep]

My guess would be a bear. The make a lot of noise and tend to hang around until they figure out there is nothing to eat.

[Big Dave2]

I agree with the big ruckus smaller animals can make in a pile of leaves.

I was staying at a SP campsite south of the cities a number of years ago by myself and I heard some rustling as I was sitting in front of the campfire. I sat really still and listened as it came up towards my fire. My campfire had been dying out so it wasn't putting off much light. I figured it was a raccoon or something, so I waited until it got close and then blasted it with my mag-light.

Nice 8 point buck standing 5 feet away. It stood still for about 10 seconds and then took off in the other way.

Had a similar situation this summer at Jay Cooke state park. My friend went to chase the "racoon" away and suddenly started to run the other way when he noticed that it was a skunk instead.

[ShoreGuy1984]

Could it have been a raccoon?

[Stick in Mud]

I've made the mistake many times of overestimating the size of an animal by the sound it makes walking through dry leaves. The only way I can describe this sound is that it sounded EXACTLY like a human kicking up dry leaves as he walked through them--we both actually yelled out "Hello?!?" because we thought a hiker was walking into our camp. It had a definite gait the same way people do...it wasn't a constant rustling, and it was definitely pushing a lot of leaves with each foot placement. I dunno....I'm still sticking with sasquatch/freddy/jason/red squirrel.

Carmike

[LindellProStaf]

Sasquatch!!! Did you have some Jack's Links? :-)