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Nightwatch for deer?

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 8:47 pm
by hikerduane
Anyone have problems with deer making off with stuff at night? I ran across some teenagers on a trip into the Marble Mt. Wilderness, who had to post a watch to keep deer from making off with there stuff the night they were there. They were getting a late start as I was ending mine for the day at the lake they were at. Here I thought they were just lazy teenagers. I made camp before they left, so I didn't use there spot, I ended up camping a couple hundred feet from the lake, between a couple old logs that were far enough apart to allow me to lay my ground cloth out. It was shadier then where they were so I thought it was great and the walk to water was level. All day while I was there with my dog, I had deer trying to slip by me, trying to get to the lake. I was not in the way, just in the way that they wanted to go. At night, I could hear noise close by, so all I had to do was feel around on the ground by me for a piece of bark and give it a heave over the logs. A little funny laying there and hearing the deer scatter when the bark hit the ground.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:33 pm
by JM21760
That's a new one for me. I've never had deer play camp robber.

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:35 pm
by hikerduane
On the same trip, something knawed (sp) on the trim around the front pockets on my hiking shorts that were left out on a log and my brand new day pack which matched my new pack got chewed up a little on the last night out. I had it tied between two trees to keep out little varmits and they just climbed on the line to it. A very terrrorized-by-animals trip. Some mice at another lake were getting into my food with it right by my head and the dog was there with me. A owl must have swooped in, because the activity stopped after I heard what sounded like something in the air. Plus, I eliminated one by grabbing my day pack and made a lucky grab which squeezed the little guy to death. We slept out in the open a few nights on that trip.

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:49 am
by sierra cyd
Actually, this reminds me of a great story. Pull up your stump!

We had our camp raided by deer one night.

It was a warm, dry night in the Trinity Alps in 2003, and we were a few days in. We had a group of 5 people, in three tents, all within about 30 feet of each other. My brother was sleeping alone in a small tent. Early in the morning, it was just becoming light, I kept hearing this repetitive raspy noise near the tent. shhhhhhhkk shhhhhhhhk shhhhhhk shhhhhhk and I kept thinking (not wanting to wake up completely) "why is someone up walking around camp wearing their rain pants so early!" shhhhhhhhhk shhhhhhhhk shhhhhhhhhk

But after a while, in my sleepiness, I realized that it was too constant to be someone walking around, and, laying on my back in the tent, with the screen door by my head, I opened my eyes. The image I saw is ingrained in the back of my mind forever.....picture an upside down (I was on my back looking up thru the door) huge 5 point buck with velvet antlers and his face was less than five feet from mine! I immediately sat up and my husband next to me must have seen him at the same time because he did too, and when we moved, the buck ran away.

We jumped out of the tent and found that actually nobody else was up yet, and the buck had been licking and licking and licking the straps and belt of my husband's pack which was laying just outside the door of the tent. The pack was absolutely saturated with buck slobber.

Just about 30 feet away, the buck and several does of all ages where standing and watching us with interest. Then, we looked around and saw fragments of my brothers clothing scattered about, and went to recover the items. The items, a cotton t-shirt, shorts, socks, and underwear, were for the most part, destroyed. In the night, the deer had dragged them all over the area, and apparently trampled them and chewed on them and god knows what. Each item was thoroughly covered with holes ranging in size from about a centimeter diameter to a pinhole and was slobber-saturated and muddy. We had to wake up my brother and tell him the bad news. It turns out he had neatly folded and stacked his clothing for the next day and placed it just ouside the door of his small tent (the weather was great, so no worries about it getting wet) in a tidy little stack. Anyway, somewhat humiliated, he washed out the shirt in the river, and it took quite a while to get it "clean". All the while the buck and several does stood around our camp, watching and waiting with great interest. My poor brother wore that shirt the rest of the trip, and I'm still wondering if he got any kind of polka dotted suntan from it. He had backup clothing for the rest of the items, luckily! I've heard of racoons srewing peoples items about, but never deer!

Soon after the trip, we were reading a book about the Trinity Alps, and there was mention in the book to be aware of the "salt starved deer" in the area. I got a good laugh from that! My husband's pack straps are usually coated with white crust from all the salt he expels, so that is definitely what they were after!

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:42 pm
by hikerduane
Funny. That got me to thinking, one trip to Green Gem Lake I think it is in the Marble Mt. Wilderness, where I had buried my spit after brushing my teeth, I noticed the deer were digging it up.