When bears attack... geocaches

My most recent geocache was recently routed by a bear. At least, I think it was a bear. I hid it while out with my kids on July 30th, so it had been out in the wild for a out a week. It had already been found by 3 letterboxers (before it was even published on Geocaching.com) and I was getting good feedback. Seems like the letterboxer community appreciated our idea. The first geocachers to find it went on Saturday and reported that it had been torn apart by something. They found the stamp, logbook and toys scattered all around the area, and teeth marks in the containers. The geocachers had spare ziploc baggies and replaced stuff as well as possible. Luckily, nothing was wet, so the animal must have attacked recently.

As chance would have it, we were planning on driving back up to Fontana Lake again, this time with my wife, so I would be able to check on the cache and make repairs. As we walked up to the cache from the road pull off, the dog was definitely smelling something interesting in the area. The cache was definitely messed up, but since I used a large metal mailbox as an outer container, it probably would have been ok for some time. The animal must have smelled something inside the cache, and then pulled off some of the rotted logs I had used to hide the mailbox. It then opened up the mailbox and bit into the peanut-butter container that held the logbook and stamp. Peanut-butter container... that is what I think is the key detail here. I had washed the peanut butter container pretty well and couldn't smell anything from it. I had painted it, and replaced the gasket to make it seal better and used it as a container. I've done this before, and seen it done with good success in other places. But I'm guessing that there was still some lingering peanut butter smell, and that is what clued in this animal. Judging from the teeth puncture marks on the peanut butter jar, it had to be something larger than a raccoon or possum. And a coyote or large cat is highly unlikely. Plus, the cache is located on the Southern boundary of the Smoky Mountain national Park, which is know for having a healthy black bear population.So all evidence points to bear.

What was really cool to see was the teeth marks on the stamp I had carved. The bear had obviously chewed on the stamp, cracking the wooden backing and putting teeth marks into the rubber. I tested out the stamp on my letterboxing book, and it still looked ok. I brought with me a container to replace this one... another peanut butter jar. I've got my fingers crossed that it will survive longer than the first one. One small bit of irony, one of my popular caches in New Mexico is themed around what you should do when caching in bear country, Bear Necessities.