Raccoon Tales

Raccoon Garbage

Night after night I would hear very loud THUMP THUMP THUMPS. One night I was annoyed enough to go investigate. It was raccoons trying to open the heavy hinged lids on the rectangular wooden trash receptacles that were hiding 55 gallon drums for garbage. Apparently they were willing to spend hours each night trying to open the can. Occasionally a lazy camper would throw garbage in the can without closing the lid. On those nights the raccoons had a field day shopping, eating and spreading the garbage liberally around the park.

Raccoon Shrimp Fest

In another campground they stole 30 pounds of shrimp. The camper was preparing for a youth camp. He set up a day early. The next morning he stocked his cooler with 30 pounds of shrimp for the 30 kids expected to arrive that evening.

He went surfing as his last fling before the kids arrived. When he returned, he came over to ask us if we had seen anyone near his camp. We had been gone hiking all day, so we had nothing to offer. We all walked over to his campsite to look for clues.

I pointed out the wet paw prints all over the sides of his cooler. There was also flattened grass leading to the river, if you looked carefully. Walking towards the river we eventually found the six empty shrimp bags. Somehow the raccoons had managed to open his cooler, then drag off the 6 bags of 5 pound shrimp to eat elsewhere.

Raccoon Catsup

I fed several people at my campsite. While clearing the outside table, the bottle of Catsup was left behind. The next morning we found the bottle cap to the Catsup with a trail of Catsup and drag marks leading into the woods. There we found an empty catsup bottle with little raccoon hand prints all over it.

Raccoon Fight

My camping neighbor was too lazy to carry his garbage to the dumpster. That night before going to bed, he tossed all his bagged garbage into his pickup truck bed.

A horrendous noise woke up many campers. Looking outside we saw two angry raccoons having a food fight in the back of his truck. They were throwing garbage at each other while screeching!  It was incredible to watch and we laughed ourselves silly.

A brave camper ventured forth to wake up the occupants of the trailer. They came out to find their truck bed thoroughly trashed with garbage flung all over the campsite. The raccoons were still fighting oblivious to the flashlights trained on them or the owner making his own screeching sounds.