nancy sv

We considered the bear canisters, but the quantity of food we had to carry made them impossible. Food for 4 people for 15 days is a LOT of food!! We went with the dry bags and didn't have any problem, but if the bear canisters are doable, that's probably a much better idea than what we did.

dwmckee

Oh boy. I had one of those situations where we were in heavy bear country and only had scrubby trees so could not hang a bear bag. We tied dry bags together tightly then tied to a stump so they could not be dragged off. In less than five minutes we had our answer as to was it good enough. No. The bear (who MUST have been following us!) first grabbed the bags and tried to run off. The bags pulled out of it's mouth when he hit the end of the rope but he just came back and had the bags open in less than two seconds (and did not use the nice buckles to open them). After five minutes of eating and ignoring our noise making he started to lumber off with a bag of gorp. I decided to be sure he kept going and started to chase it and throw rocks and pinecones. Bad idea number two. Now I was running at a bear three times my size and was between the bear and the rest of our food. The bear turned around a d charged me. Bad situation as I was still running at a four hundred pound bear that was now running at me and i was armed with only pinecones. I have to say that the old joke momentarily came into my mind that I do not really have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun my friend. I turned around and must have looked like something out od an old roadrunner cartoon with my legs spinning like a paddlewheel. Fortunatelly once I got past the food the bear just stopped at it and ate the rest of what he wanted. Dominance was now clearly established. We went two days more on a single can of tuna and a packet of Spatini dry spaghetti sauce mix before we could restock.

charly17201

Love the sign - thanks for the laugh.

Dean7

I've backpacked in to bear country. We had trees though and tied up all of our food / smelly items in sacks high up in a tree. We found bear tracks right next to our camp area, but didn't have any problems (might have been the season... I think the bears had plenty to eat, and their habits depend greatly on this).

Scott Thalacker

If you didn't have problems with bears, it is partly because they haven't been habituated in that area to associate people with easy food. Please don't just leave out your food for the bears to eat! When in areas with poor trees, you can use canisters or rig up a line between multiple trees. Look for aspens or dead trees that lean against others. Few places with trees have no options. But, as other people said, sometimes you're in the plains... Use a canister. If you have a lot of food, it means you may have to find multiple trees, but you have more people to do it! Every once in a while I've just left it hanging on a low branch (away from mice) or sitting out...

i wish

Would bears eat dry grains such as rice or oats? Or should those things go up in the air, too...
I've never been in bear country before, so have absolutely no experience. Is there any food stuff that won't attract bears?

clasher

Bears will eat anything you will and more. The poster above that charged the bear is lucky he got away, what a stupid thing to do. Bear attacks are rare but it's pretty easy to avoid them if you follow simple bear country rules.

fietsbob

Never eat in your tent, the food smell will remain ,
and some claw may wake you in the night.

i wish

What are basic bear country rules? I really have little idea what to do, other than don't run, and don't have food near where you camp.

gamecock

White Blaze website offers a compendium of bear country advice. My advice is to read it there, i wish. In my previous post I was wrong to say, "do nothing." It is our responsibility to protect the bears from "others," of course "we" would do nothing to harm bears. Human supplies, from apples to Z-Bars, must be kept from all animals, bears, especially, but also coons, possums, rats, squirrels, etc. lest they become acclimated and become "pack scavengers." Many dollars worth of equipment can be destroyed overnight by ambitious animals, and they will continue to raid when the raids are successful. Just clarifying....

Bear Vault is heavier than hanging options, but it serves as a stool, and on the occasional rainy day, I find it pleasant to stay in camp, sit on the Vault, under the extra silnylon tarp that I carry, since I sleep in a hammock, eating the emergency rations and reading a book.

Machka 

These articles are from the Parks Canada website.

This one is entitled, "You are in Black Bear Country". Read the whole thing ... all the sidebar links.
https://www.pc.gc.ca/docs/v-g/oursnoi...ear/index.aspx

"As a national park visitor, you share this natural area with bears and other wildlife that depend on it for their survival. Although bears are naturally wary of humans, they are unpredictable. By increasing your knowledge of bear behaviour, you can help reduce the likelihood of an unpleasant encounter, and at the same time, help protect the black bear population."


And this one is "Keep the Wild in Wildlife - You Are in Bear Country". This article also talks about other wildlife, like Elks which can be an issue too. Read all the sidebar links too.
https://www.pc.gc.ca/docs/pc/guide/nature/nature02.aspx

This is a brief part of all the information available on those links:

Bears are naturally wary of humans, and generally choose to avoid us. However, bears may threaten and even attack people when they become accustomed to humans, when they are surprised, or when they are forced to defend them- selves, their young or their food.

"Reduce Your Risk
•Make noise! Let bears know you're there – call out, clap hands, sing or talk loudly – especially near streams, dense vegetation and berry patches, on windy days, and in areas of low visibility.
•Travel in groups, on established paths and trails, and during daylight hours.
•Keep food smells away from bears by properly storing food, garbage and food-related items, day and night, wherever you are. Even empty pet food bowls can attract bears.
•Stay alert, stay alive! Watch for bears in the area and for their sign – tracks, droppings, diggings, torn-up logs, and turned-over rocks. Leave the area if you see fresh sign.
•If you come across large dead animals, leave the area immediately and report it to Park Wardens.
•Dispose of fish offal in fast moving streams or the deep part of a lake, never along streamsides or lakeshores.
•Never approach or feed a bear. Keep a distance of at least 100 metres.
•Report all sightings of bears to park staff."

i wish

Wow, thanks Machka!
That was very helpful

Rob_E

Took my Bear Vault on a mini trip this weekend. I wasn't in bear country, but I wanted to test it from a touring/packing/carrying perspective. Personally, if I never have it tested by having a bear actually trying to get at my food, I'm fine with that.

It does add some weight. I have a hard time gauging what effect a given amount of weight has, and I tend to think that shaving off a pound here and an ounce there doesn't make much difference. As a result, I probably carry way more weight then necessary, because I don't examine the cumulative effect of lots of small bits of extra weight.

I have the larger size of bear vault. I thought I could put all of my food and cooking supplies into it, and I probably could have, but 1) I over packed, and 2) I did a little "mod" on my bear cannister that removed some space. In the end, all of my food went in, but my cookware went into another pannier. Would I need to then hang the cookware? Or would it be safe as long as it was relatively clean? If I had to hang it separately, then I might as well hang all my food/cooking stuff and leave the Vault at home unless the other uses of the vault seemed worthwhile.

One large benefit I thought it would have was as a camp stool. It's functional as that, but I also found that even the "primitive" campsites I stayed at had a picnic table or a bench. But after one rainy night, the wooden bench was soaked, so a quick wipe of the Bear Vault and I had the only dry seat in the house. Well, until my traveling companion dropped a waterproof jacket or pad on to the bench and sat down.

I have Nashbar panniers that are pretty roomy. The Vault fits in there quite snugly. Not much room for anything else and, once my food was packed in, it became my largest and heaviest pannier. But again, it's all in what you pack. I had to pitch some food on the way because it had gotten too warm, and I returned home with a good amount of uneaten food, so clearly I packed more than I needed and could have gone lighter. Also, with the Nashbar pannier, the fit is tight enough to make the back of the pannier a little rounded. You have to take extra care to get the hooks on, and some additional measures to secure it wouldn't be a bad idea.

There was another idea I had for the Bear Vault. In addition to a stool and food protection, I thought it might work as a cooler, and I think it works, sort of. I took a blue, closed cell foam pad and cut a circle for the bottom, a strip for the sides (that goes maybe a third of the way up the cannister), and another circle to serve as a lid. I also put pieces of space blanket between the foam and the wall of the cannister. No idea if this had any effect, but it seemed worth a try. Inside I put half a dozen eggs, a chunk of cheese, a couple of veggie dogs, and a flexible water bottle, half filled and frozen. That took up most of the available room in the cooler section and took up at least a third of the whole cannister, forcing my cookware into another bag. Packed up around 8:00 in the morning. There was still ice in the water bottle when I had dinner. It was still cold at breakfast the next day, but I didn't see any ice. By lunch time it was not as cool, and I didn't have any prospects for getting ice for the rest of the day, so I pitched my uneaten veggie dogs, but my remaining eggs and cheese were eaten the following morning with no worries. I need a way to add ice on the road: a sealable container of some sort because the water bottle has too narrow of a mouth for ice cubes, and you don't want to just throw ice in or everything in the bear vault will end up wet. So if you're camping in bear country and you like carrying cold food, the bear vault may do the job.

I may continue to use the Bear Vault even when outside of bear country. I'm not sure. But I like having the option of carrying cold foods, and most other coolers also have a weight penalty and are awkward to pack. I like the idea of having some kind of chair for when there isn't one. And I like not having to worry about my food. Even though I wasn't in bear country, I was warned when checking in to the campground that racoons had learned well that campers = food, and that food left out would be taken, but my bear vault survived a night alone just fine, although I heard the raccoons skittering around the campground almost as soon as we retreated to our tents. This may also be a useful feature depending on your situation. If you're not in bear country, you might pull food into your tent to protect it, but I have a hammock tent, so most of what goes in it is me. I definitely won't be taking my food in with me, so a little extra protection is nice.

Basically in my brief test, I found the vault to be fill a number of useful roles, although it is not the easiest nor lightest item to carry, and the one thing I didn't test was its primary function: keeping bears from eating your food.