Raccoon encounters

They are very smart, and fearless.  I once spent the night in the restroom of a campground in winter because the raccoons were so determined.  Definitely not fun.

Yup.. keyword.. campground!!

This was not a campground, but may as well be with all the traffic it gets with day hikers coming there and leaving trash around.

As a kid in campgrounds, we found them able to open latches on coolers. I doubt they could open the newer rubber-latches typical of the Yeti style coolers, but I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if they were capable of cutting through the rubber. Our only hope against them, was placing the coolers under a picnic table’s bench – too heavy for them to physically move.

They are extremely smart creatures, and though I’m told “wild” racoons are terribly fierce when cornered, I’ve never seen, or heard of human-acclimatized racoons being outwardly aggressive.

I wander if your defensive behavior may have triggered more curiosity & determination in them? I’m certainly not faulting you, but I wander how they would have reacted, if you had let them simply scope the place out, to find that there was nothing of interest.

One could speculate rabies, but I doubt it. Like you mentioned, perhaps they had cubs in a nest nearby.

I thought that too. It was not aggressive in the way of hissing or maybe sick.

Definitely curious and not scared at all.. I mean.. after all this,  it actually came to my head and was standing directly over me looking at me in the bivy.. and jumped across my lap by my knees.   Perhaps my dramatics of trying to scare it away.. it found entertaining and wanted more?  Either way,  i doubt it would have left me alone all night,  as this began at what I think was 7 or 7:30 ish and went on until about 9 ish.. when I finally decided to pack up and move on. Its one thing if I was in a tent.. but sleeping on the ground under a tarp.. and it actually ran under the tarp 2 times.. and made contact with me.. lol. It was a crazy night.

Sorry, this made me laugh out loud, but I know it wasn’t funny at all. What a nightmare, that critter totally killed your trip.

I think I avoid encounters like this because I am almost always with one or two dogs. Raccoons are pretty aggressive and will try to intimidate a dog, but when a big dog goes after them with no fear, they go up a tree pretty quickly and then move off. Only once has a raccoon decided to play chicken with one of our dogs, and that was a huge raccoon right in our backyard and our smallest dog (only 50 lbs). The dog ended up with a couple of small bites/scratches on her jowls, but it did not go well for the raccoon.

I have had similar issues in high traffic areas where we had to use campsite.

My most memorable raccoon was when I accidentally / unknowing left an apple inside my pack which was inside a GoLite Hex3 with me and to kids. Middle of night the raccoon pushed under the tarp (we had pitched flush to ground) and tried to haul my pack away.  I pulled the pack back and yelled.  The raccoon went away and then would returned after a couple of minutes.  This continued for around 30 minutes. I then looped a shoulder strap through my leg and went back to sleep, knowing the pack wouldn’t disappear into the woods.  In the morning I discovered that the raccoon realized he couldn’t drag the pack away so crawled into the pack and ate the apple inside the pack making quite a mess.

We had raccoons being a pest a few times in the lower 48. For some reason they don’t come up to Alaska so not an issue here.

Now that I think about it, I wonder how effective a bear hang would be? I wonder if a raccoon could figure out how to climb down a rope?

Trained. Looking to be fed.

As crazy as this is, im surprised the raccoon didn’t go for my food bag.. it was in opsak in the the Ursack tied off to a tree.. away from where I was.. I guess it was far enough away and they didn’t know about it. I did read that raccoons roam within a mile or 2 of their dens and that they can be more persistent on rainy nights…

Hum. Probably just expecting food near the humans and not looking other places then.

Based on bears and muskrats (very different I know) I would guess that racoon was rewarded with food there multiple times, and it expected food around the camper. Sort of like bears that break into empty cars because they got food there once. Or bears that visit a bait site after it’s cleaned out just to make sure. Or the muskrat that followed me and a little buddy around trying to steal our fish when we were ice fishing. The animal just know people have food, not necessarily how/why so they keep looking for it. Probably similar to scavengers watching wolves for kills.

My guess is you would have had an unwelcome visitor regardless of what you did with your food of where you ate. Once an animal associates you or the campsite with food they’ll keep coming back.

Funny story though. And since I’ve heard racoon can carry rabies i would have left too if he was crawling around while I was sleeping.

Neighbour behind me feeds racoons kitty chow every night on her deck

They fight and hiss like hell for it each night

One attacked my tent in the backyard peeing all over it during an overnight with my 3 year old at the time.  He was terrified and would never go camp back there again.

I could never figure out why my other neighbours kids were never in their yard

Learned that they were always attacked by racoons

People think they’re cute little pets but they’re territorial and vicious

Eventually I resorted to chasing them up my maples and hosing them down for an hour

They learn to stay away after that.

Camping, they learn a stiff wack with a stick causing no harm but lots of pause

These aren’t cute little rascals.

Eventually I resorted to chasing them up my maples and hosing them down for an hour

Your neighbor?

Lol, the thought crossed my mind once or twice!

I have been lucky backpacking – I’ve never had any racoon encounters. Not even at lean-tos and heavily impacted sites. Lots of crazy stories from car camping though. I have had one walk right into a car campsite and try and raid the trash with people less than 5 ft. away – and it didn’t run away when challenged, just climbed part way up a tree and hissed at us.

I had a coyote stand in front of my truck. When I stopped, it came to my window for a handout.

Which brings to mind… Are they really looking for a snack, or just want to share a cigarette with you & the boys?

I live in the suburbs of a major city

Had a bear in neighbours back yard

A moose smash into the doors of my kids school

On my night walks I run into foxes all the time, a coyote once in a while.  Porcupines. I run into up to a dozen deer when I walk into the greenbelt walking distance from my house

Racoons are like mosquitos

The deeper and more remote I go into the wilderness, the less wildlife I see.  Sometimes zilch over days

I only car camp now out of necessity. People always feeding animals like they’re at a petting zoo.  Spending all my time chasing critters wanting to eat my gear gets old!

Ok, so now is where I share some more info and it gets really weird..

I have 3 different tarot decks of cards.  I rotate between the 3 different decks and I tend to pull 1 card in the morning or evening to get a read on the  daily energy or any upcoming energies I should be aware of..

The morning of my trip,  I pulled 1 card from my Anima Mundi deck.. and as I always do, I leave it face up on top of the deck!  I pulled the 4 of Pentacles.. no joke.  so, ok.. on my hike i ended up hiking on a section of a black marked trail.. Racoon Brook Hills trail..  and when I came upon  the trail and it clicked.. “Oh my!! The card I pulled had a Racoon on it and here I am mid day hiking on the Raccoon Brook Hills trail”   Little did I know what was going to happen later in the evening when I made camp!  😳  yeah, Im still trying to figure it out myself…  Ive had some interesting things before, some made total sense and some not much..

I’d keep an eye on the mirror.

some pics of my campsite…

I usually shoot some video but unfortunately my storage on phone was full so I didn’t really film much.. and also I didn’t plan on filming much since it would have been repetitive of other videos I have done.. go figure though..lol. ended up being much different then usual and would have made a funny ass video if some how it was actually filmed.  Not sure I would have been able to film it though as I was very pre occupied with the raccoon!

Amateurs compared to Brushtailed Possums…

I hear raccoons muttering and see them doing cute things in the yard, which is fun. But even though I want to hug one, you’ve confirmed that it’s not as fun as it might seem.

A succinct animal-control officer told me: “Don’t mess with raccoons, they’re related to bears”.

My new neighbor who moved in across the street worked evening shifts. He came home one night to discover two raccoons partying in his kitchen. Food and shiny things everywhere. He chased them and they escaped thru the cat door.

The next evening when he got home the raccoons had come back but gone into his bedroom and shat on his pillow and then split.

He closed the cat door.

Another raccoon thought: I used to work in an emergency department. We would get peeps cut/bit up by raccoons when they tried to save their dogs from attacks.  Not fun.

And… Pt Reyes National Seashore backpacking camps used to be plagued with raccoons until they put bear lockers in so people would protect their food more diligently. Those raccoons were fearless.