Immense gratitude for this post as I am now not obligated to work Thanksgiving Day to resolve the issue ... years later I am witnessing exactly the same behavior as you described and the remedy of removing the update-strategy="reload" attribute also resolved the issue.
The only insight I can contribute at the moment is that the undesirable behavior is only exhibited when more than one bundle accesses a particular property persistence id; if a property persistence id is unique per bundle, all is copacetic. This seemingly innocent defect causes catastrophic failure without even so much as a single log statement as to why every Camel Context in every bundle is being bounced over and over again. - Version 3.0.4 <http://karaf.apache.org/index/community/download/karaf-3.0.4-release.html> of Apache Karaf <http://karaf.apache.org/> - Version 5.11.1 <http://activemq.apache.org/activemq-5111-release.html> of ActiveMQ <http://activemq.apache.org/> - Version 2.15.2 <http://camel.apache.org/camel-2152-release.html> of Camel <http://camel.apache.org/> - Version 3.0.4 <https://cxf.apache.org/cxf-304-release-notes.html> of CXF <http://cxf.apache.org/> -- Mark P. Mullally Cherokee Nation Technologies, LLC (CNT) Contractor to DOI, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ECOS applications for USFWS 2150 Centre Ave., Bldg C Fort Collins, CO 80526