Camp alarms?

[peakbagger]

An alarm would not work for me very well as I typically sleep with earplugs, otherwise I cant get to sleep and get woken up frequently. On the rare times I stayed in crowded shelters they were a great help.

The electric fence for polar bears and dense grizzly country are used, not always with success, there was artic researcher from Maine several years ago that got severely mauled in the Artic by a polar bear that apparently walked right through the fence. I have run of the mill black bears in my area and they were getting into my berry bushes. I talked to a local expert and he recommended a high voltage fence and training the bears that the fence is there. The trick is to take strips of tin foil with peanut butter on them and wrap them around the fence wires before the berries are ripe and then leave the fence on. The bear will come up and smell the peanut butter and try to lick it off. That trains the bear that there is fence there. After a season or two I didn't need to turn on the fence, as long as the wires were in place they left the berries alone. On the other hand beekeepers have to use two sets of fences plus train the bears with peanut butter and even then they on occasion will get raided.

[Venchka]

This discussion reminded me of the book CONGO by Michael Crichton. High tech gizmos in the Wilderness aren’t always effective.
Wayne

[HooKooDooKu]

I've considered making a backpackers electric fence. Wouldn't be all that hard to do. Can probably keep it under a pound.

Them 12 volt car batteries are mighty heavy Slo...

Perhaps that's why he's Slo-go'en

[perdidochas]

Has anyone every used any sort of camp alarm? Either trip wire around tent or pressure release switch activating a light or siren to warn against bears or whatever? Obviously a horrible idea at a shelter but for those who like to set up in out of the way places I can see it having a purpose.

Go to BushCraft USA and search for that topic. I read something about that there. I don't see it as being all that practical, I think it's better to just learn to face your fears.

[scope]

If you're too scared of bears seriously you need to stay home. You won't have fun.

bears gingerly step over your tent guy lines when they circle your tents sniffing you , trying to figure out how to get it that Snickers bar in your pocket. what makes you think they're going to hit a trip line?

Yep. Actually, what is needed is a scent scanner that alarms you to any food scents around you. If you're sufficiently human stinky, you're good since they naturally repel bears and other wildlife that don't like humans. However, get some food, or even toiletry scents in the mix and you replace fear instinct for the bear with food instinct.

Step 1) Alarm goes off.
Step 2) ????

Who you gonna call? 1-800-555-2368 or 867-5309

Ghostbusters or Jenny?

This discussion reminded me of the book CONGO by Michael Crichton. High tech gizmos in the Wilderness aren’t always effective.

Good book, terrible movie.

[Venchka]

Good book, terrible movie.

Yep! Agreed!
Wayne

[evyck da fleet]

Ha. I’d forget about the alarm and set it off during a midnight pee break. That would keep me up more than worrying about bears squirrels etc.

[RangerZ]

My first thought when I read the original post was "Claymore mines." Man, that was a long time ago. I was too young for Viet Nam, we worried more about the Russians and the N Koreans. The more things change....

After not thinking about this stuff for years, today I saw a guy using a Claymore bag for a man purse.

I’ve got a clacker somewhere in my “stuff”, all I need is the rest.

3.5 pounds would be a little bit heavy for the trail. Definitely not LNT if you used it.

[Deadeye]

Ha. I’d forget about the alarm and set it off during a midnight pee break. That would keep me up more than worrying about bears squirrels etc.

Pee breaks and electric fences don't work well together. Don't ask me how I know that.

[Leo L.]

Let me guess - when you was a boy, your neighbouring farmer had an electric fence around his property?

We had one case here when young drunks aimed their pee from a footbridge down to the railway powerlines.
One guy hit, and didn't need an alarm any more.

[thruseeker]

Buy one of your camping lights with a motion sensor and chime. They are cheap and light and small but bright. Good peace of mind. There are also campsite perimeter wireless video with audio monitoring alarms.

Sent from my SM-G892U using Tapatalk

[bighammer]

I employ a bellowing foghorn that goes off 2 to 3 times per minute.

[imscotty]

Let me guess - when you was a boy, your neighbouring farmer had an electric fence around his property?

We had one case here when young drunks aimed their pee from a footbridge down to the railway powerlines.
One guy hit, and didn't need an alarm any more.

Yikes! That is horrific.

[GaryM]

Motion sensing light did cross my mind but the more I thought about it a battery wired to a small light and buzzer with a normally closed push button switch set in some sort of housing. Probably weigh +/- 2 ounces. Just set the bear keg on top, it would activate when the canister moved off of it.
A simple way to notify a person if something was after their food even if it was just a raccoon or skunk. Might run it off, might give a chance to toss a few rocks or at the very least you get to watch the show.

[nsherry61]

An alarm would not work for me very well as I typically sleep with earplugs. . .

Then what you do is set up the alarm to shock you instead of the intruder.

[MtDoraDave]

Though not practical or necessary on the AT, I've seen simple trip wire systems using a clothes pin. Very simple, not heavy, and when the trip wire is pulled, the "alarm" can be an led light that won't make a bunch of noise that would wake up other campers, but would probably scare away a critter.
Google "clothes pin tripwire".

*HOWEVER*
One place online where I was reading about it, a poster suggested that if the authorities were to find your tripwire, the bomb squad would be called in, and it would probably end up being a bad day for you. You see, if a tripwire is found, a prudent person isn't going to walk around looking for the rest of your system, they are going to back up the way they came, not knowing if you have other booby traps set up or how serious your "alarm(s)" are.

So the idea of McGuyvering a trip wire system to alert you of an intruder should probably be left behind.