Bear Shakes RV, Shreds Tent in Alaska Campground

Park rangers near Fairbanks, Alaska, are asking campers and picnickers to be careful after a bear shredded an empty tent at Chena Lake Recreation Area and later rocked a small RV back and forth while a person was inside, according to the Juneau Empire.

Borough recreation area manager Matt Steffy said rangers have posted warning signs on trails and at campgrounds.

Steffy said the bear visited an empty campsite Monday evening (May 24), destroying the tent and the pillows and sleeping bags inside. The bear also got into some garbage or food that had been left out.

The campers initially reported the incident to some firefighters who were battling a small wildfire at the recreation area. Troopers were called, but the bear had left the scene by then, said Sgt. Scott Quist, with the Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Fairbanks.

The bear returned to the other side of the campground about five hours later and shook the RV. The woman inside honked the horn, prompting the bear to climb a tree before leaving a short time later.

The woman, who is from out of state, was rattled by the incident but not enough to prevent her from spending another night or two at the campground, Steffy said.

Steffy isn’t certain if it was a black bear or a grizzly; either way, it was big.

“We’ve got some pretty good claw marks going up the tree,” he said. “It may be a pretty large black bear.”

Quist said there’s a chance the bear was rubbing against the RV, not rocking it.

“At this time of year, when they’re shedding, they scratch on just about anything they can find,” Quist said.

With the Memorial Day weekend approaching, park rangers reminded campers and picnickers to clean up their camps and garbage.

Quist said a “game plan” will be needed if the bear comes back.

“If it continues to show fearlessness, we’ll have to take action,” Quist said. “Hopefully it’s just passing through and isn’t a local resident.”

No word on the make or style of RV that withstood the bear incident.

SOURCE:   RV Business

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Cavendish Music Fest Wants RV Campground

More than 40,000 people attended the Cavendish Beach Music Festival in 2009. (CBC)

  Organizers of the Cavendish Beach Music Festival have applied to set up a campground near the festival site.

The campground would be the size of 10 building lots and would accommodate 80 to 100 campsites, complete with an access road, hook-ups and a washroom facility.

Jeff Squires, a spokesman for the festival, said the campground would help event staff.  "What we're finding this year is we've been inundated with the demand for people who want to put their fifth wheel [trailers] and their RVs close to the site because they are working there for a week to 10 days," he said.

Squires said the campground would be used by people working at the festival, with leftover spaces made available for the public to rent.

The property would have to be rezoned for the campground to go ahead and there are plans to use it beyond the festival weekend.  While some people in the area have no problem with the campground proposal, other neighbours expressed concern.  Norm and Paula Hansen have a cottage near the site.  Having a campground there with 100 sites would create a lot of problems, I think. Just young people drinking and partying," Norm Hansen said.  I think once it has been rezoned, then anything goes there and we're going to have some problems down the road and we did not buy this property with that in mind," Paula Hansen said. "We thought it was cottages only going up there. That's what we were told."
 
A public meeting on the rezoning application will be held on June 2 at the North Rustico Lions Club hall.

The Cavendish Beach Music Festival runs from July 7 to 11.

SOURCE: CBC NEWS

Nudist Camp in Canada Goes Clothed After 40 Years

By ROSS ROMANIUK, QMI Agency

Former president Bob Mogliore looks out over the pool at Crocus Grove Nudist community. (QMI Agency file photo)

WINNIPEG - No more will everyone just hang out at a Manitoba nudist campground, as the park's owners try to better cover their costs by limiting their exposure to hefty water improvement bills.

After more than four decades of a "clothing-optional" attitude, what's been known as Crocus Grove Campground is changing its name this month to keep in step with a shift away from nudity among its users.

The newly named Sandhill Pines RV Park and Campground, about 40 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, is requiring campers to begin wearing clothes when out and about at the facility, so that its owners can try to attract more customers and maintain their site's viability.

"It's too bad that it's had to go this route. That's just the way it's happened," Susan Ryynanen, who owns the park with husband Ray, said Thursday.

"We've had declining numbers in terms of clothing-optional campers, and we have to do something differently."  

The 60-campsite park is asking users and guests to wear clothes for the first time since it opened in 1969. The owners say it's because of new federal and provincial regulations requiring that facilities like private campgrounds chlorinate their tap water and undertake related engineering studies. 

It's going to be between $15,000 and $50,000, depending on the size of the campground, to comply," explained Susan. The Rynnanens had continued to allow nudity since purchasing the park in the Rural Municipality of Brokenhead more than three years ago.

Because their revenue potential is "extremely limited" by appealing to a naturist niche market, Ryynanen said, it's necessary to woo a wider array of campers.

"We just have to cope with the additional costs, and maintain the same size of campground," she added at the park on Provincial Road 317, where the couple live.

"So we need to go public and expand our horizons."

To distance the park from the nudity image, she said, they're using advertising and signage under the Sandhill Pines name and "don't have any affiliation with Crocus Grove at all any more."

The end of Crocus Grove's nudity, however, doesn't mean campers can't go naked anywhere in that region east of Lake Winnipeg. Ryynanen pointed out that the Patricia Beach area, a short drive north, continues to maintain a "clothing-optional" section along the lake.

The shift doesn't appear to be steering users away.

After talking to campers who have regularly used the park, Ryynanen said about 98% have indicated they'll hang around -- even if not hanging out.

"They understand. They're here because they love camping," she said.

"Everybody is sad and disappointed that we can't maintain the clothing-optional status, but the reality is that the big draw here is camping and being out in nature. It's a bit of a change, but not a complete change."

Posted in CNEWS Across Canada