Bear trashed our cabin trip.

[Rock Doctor]

So, the fire evacuation order came off in the area where our cabins are located about 2 weeks ago. I think it was a Thursday or Friday, anyway, we planned to load the family up on Monday to head out for a week. I received a call from a friend who has a cabin beside mine, that was Saturday at about 1:30.
Bad news, a bear had broke into one of my cabins. It broke a front window, entered and made a crazy mess.
Wife and I discussed options, and decided to load up some machines and head to the cabin that evening. My brother offered to come with us, so we took a couple Argos and wife drove a quad out. Arrived at cabin at about 7:30.





We spent Saturday evening and Sunday cleaning up. For that first round of cleaning we ended up with 9 “Pig Bags” of garbage and 3 full of laundry (clothes, curtains, bedding). 3 Argo loads of stuff hauled out to the truck and back to town on Sunday night.
We decided we could still make the family trip, we just had to modify the plans.
Most of Monday was spent picking up supplies and keeping the laundry mat in business, but we did manage to get the family back out to the lake. The 10 mile ATV trail to the cabins is fairly easy right now, with the dry weather we have had.
We made it back to the lake at 8:30, a little more heavily armed than usual.




[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/6KsAe2Y.jpg[/IMG



Continuing

[Rock Doctor]

Even with the dry weather, there are still a few bad spots on the trail.



So, we made it in. I borrowed a friends cabin, and we set the kids up there. My brother, wife and myself set up in my guest cabin.
It took us 5 more days to make the main cabin livable. Lots of cleaning, and of course I had to fix the windows. One of the really crappy parts of this deal is that I had replacement windows already out there for the windows that the bear broke in through. I had intended to put the new windows in 6 weeks ago but we were asked to leave the area, due to fires close by.
Anyway, the new windows were not an exact fit, so the whole thing needed to be reframed.









Continuing

[catnthehat]

That simply sucks!!
Hope all gets back to normal soon!
Cat

[Rock Doctor]

We still managed to catch some fish and have some fun








Continuing

[Rock Doctor]

So, we did get the cabin sealed up and acceptable to live in again. There is still a lot to do inside.





It was not the trip we had planned, but you make the best of what you have.


RD

[Savage Bacon]

Crappy news. But it looks like you guys are making the best of it and still enjoying yourselves.

Dang bears!

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[Grizzly Adams1]

Bears and cabins. All those big windows with no protection, an invitation for trouble.

Grizz

[Tommy]

Wow that bear did some nasty work. Glad you and yours still made a great family outing of the situation. That pic of the tangled fishing line is priceless.

Tommy

[Rock Doctor]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams1

Bears and cabins. All those big windows with no protection, an invitation for trouble.

Grizz

Yes, I agree, I know.
The cabin was old when we acquired it about 20yrs ago. In all that time without issues, you might get complacent. I’m not bashing on the bear.

[Phil McCracken]

Oh man...Sorry to hear that.

What we have been doing at our hunting camp for many years is placing "bear mats" under the widows and main door. Simply a bunch of OSB boards with nails hammered into them. Never had a problem.

Good luck with the clean up...

[sns2]

Great attitude you guys have. Good on you. Memories. But still sucks major major major.

[Fish along]

Great post thanks for sharing,nothing better than time with family,bear problems are just part of the life experience that makes for a great story for the kids to talk about when they are older,having some fun,catching some fish.you guys are living the dream,congratulations.

[fordtruckin]

Amazing how big a mess a bear in a confined area can make. Glad you were able to “rebuild”!

[CDNOutdoorsman]

Sorry to hear of the bear troubles but happy to hear you made the best of the trip. Fishing looks to be good and you were eating well by the looks of it. I had to laugh at the expression of your one daughter in the last pic prepping dinner, I have one of those "hating getting her pic taken" daughters too... LOL
What lake are you at if you dont mind me asking? Love the only way in is a long trail ride.
sounds like paradise to me.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Well, that sucks! But you definitely have a handle on it!

You are definitely raising those kids right - great to see them pitching in to help and having good clean (sic) outdoor fun!

[Rock Doctor]

Originally Posted by Phil McCracken

Oh man...Sorry to hear that.

What we have been doing at our hunting camp for many years is placing "bear mats" under the widows and main door. Simply a bunch of OSB boards with nails hammered into them. Never had a problem.

Good luck with the clean up...

I have hauled some plywood, nails, lumber, etc out. I think I’m going with the nail boards covering the windows version. I did consider laying the boards on the ground, but I have to consider possible children and pets that might randomly show up, especially when I’m not there.

RD

[Brbpuppy]

Thanks for sharing this, very cool pictures. Glad you and your family had a productive, safe, yet still fun trip to the cabin despite the bad luck lol.

God bless!

Edit: Where is your cabin located roughly?

[Drewski Canuck]

Wasn't that a Party!!!

Drewski

[Big Grey Wolf]

Sorry to hear about your bear problems. We deal with bears at our cabins on trapline. Best thing for windows is rock crusher screen.
One trapper had a grizz dig under his cabin and try to come in through the floor. Another grizz tried pulling ship lap lumber off walls, needed to add angle iron on corners. One grizz comes around every halloween , tried to throw our John into a forty foot valley behind cabin. Good luck with them bears.

[58thecat]

You got some stories that will be passed on for generations, it’s the journey and sometimes it sucks.

Next pics will be a fine bear rug in front of a fire place.


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[KGB]

Your daughter cleans the fish? Man oh man, you are my HERO! My daughter will only touch it if it’s a filet 🤣🤣

[Phil McCracken]

Originally Posted by Rock Doctor

I have hauled some plywood, nails, lumber, etc out. I think I’m going with the nail boards covering the windows version. I did consider laying the boards on the ground, but I have to consider possible children and pets that might randomly show up, especially when I’m not there.

RD

Just put a very visible sign were they are at Rock...bears can't read...

[Athabasca1]

Words from a very old song, "shutters and boards cover the windows"

[Rock Doctor]

Originally Posted by KGB

Your daughter cleans the fish? Man oh man, you are my HERO! My daughter will only touch it if it’s a filet 🤣🤣

Lol, that’s my middle daughter. The upstanding young gentleman watching her cut fish is her boyfriend, he banned himself from the filet table soon after seeing her knife work

RD

[59whiskers]

Not only cabins get destroyed by bears, so do unattended travel trailers that store food. My hunting partner and I came across a travel trailer destroyed by a very large grizzly in an outfitter staging area north of Ram River Falls about 30 years ago on a late October hunt. Electric fences can help sometimes.

[roper1]

There's hunting stories, and fishing stories, and bear stories, but you do a great job with the pics & the prose. Thanks!

[Zip]

Glad to see that you decided to make the most of what could have been a no holiday tragedy, you guys did awesome, thanks for sharing the good with the bad…Great Holiday!
Zip

[Rock Doctor]

Originally Posted by 59whiskers

Not only cabins get destroyed by bears, so do unattended travel trailers that store food. My hunting partner and I came across a travel trailer destroyed by a very large grizzly in an outfitter staging area north of Ram River Falls about 30 years ago on a late October hunt. Electric fences can help sometimes.

The electric fence is also on my radar, that seems like a great extra security measure

RD

[Rock Doctor]

More info on Cabin Bear.

One of my neighbours along the lake is a nice guy, he has a small guest cabin on his lot. He leaves this little cabin UNlocked for anyone to use at need (raining, injured, broke down, etc).
At some point, earlier this year, someone made use of this cabin. Whoever it was, they cleaned a bunch of walleye in the cabin on the counter. They left blood/guts on the counter, bloody knives as well, AND a bucket of walleye carcasses inside the cabin.
I’m sure you can see where this is leading. Of course a bear ripped into his cabin and made a hell of a mess there. He found the mess shortly before the fire bans came on a couple months ago. Cleaned up as best he could, but the smell will forever haunt that building.
So then the fire bans came on. First responders were sent to the lake to set up sprinkler systems around our cabins. At some point the responders reported an aggressive bear in the area.
Que the end of the fire ban, we made our trip in finding our cabin in shambles.
The bear had also returned to that neighbouring cabin, breaking in again. It also made a run at 3 other cabins around mine.

RD

[Pioneer2]

If it's a black bear.