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I have found the easiest process for me is to place everything in an opsack odour proof bag(s) and then inside an ursack. If I can find a decent place to hang it as well great if not I just hang off the ground on a branch.
Small animals can't get into it and worst case if a bear somehow smelled it through the odour proof bag and got a hold of the ursack my food would be crushed but still in the bag.
Assuming I tied it closed properly.
Last edited by ShawnD (7/21/2017 4:17 pm)
I won't keep my food in the camp in APP. Algonquin bear knows where to look for it. I will hide my non-smelling food container in the bush some 50-70 meters away. This is Cliff Jacobson advise I follow.
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To the original question about toothpaste and stuff... yes I know you're supposed to hang it with the food, and I typically do, but it raises questions for me. Even if you hang all your dishes, cooking clothes, and everything with your food, the smell of toothpaste is going to be on your breath, probably more strongly than from inside a closed tube. So if that's an attractant, how is brushing your teeth any better than keeping the toothpaste in your tent overnight?
RobW, your point about wear and tear on the trees is something I hadn't considered before. Have you seen that concern raised by researchers or park/forest managers? Note that some trees such as pines are "self-pruning" in that branches naturally die and fall off as they get overshadowed by higher branches, so there may be a natural reason you're not finding rope-level branches on older trees.
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Really interesting post, because I thought everybody either hung their food sack or used a barrel (I hang). I've never given a thought to the personal care items, but the container I keep that stuff in, as well as medications, is a small waterproof plastic container with these brutally difficult clips to open/close it. I'm sure a determined bear would have no problem with it, but I have to think it would sniff out something of greater interest or much greater scent than what might sneak through the rubber gasket/seal on that box before it ever decided it would be something worth ripping my backpack apart to get at. Hope so anyway....
Also - the thing that really caught my eye was deodorant in my backpack?? NEVER!!! That's almost like taking a razor or a comb with me (not that a comb has any practical application for me...). The deodorant comes on the trip, but it lives in the car while I'm off stinking it up in the woods 
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RobW wrote:
Rob, what do you do with your food now that you've stopped hanging it?
Food is in the barrel, camp is kept clean. barrel and other items are usually tucked under a tarp too. No the barrel isn't bear proof, but the bear will make enough noise that I'll be waking up.
When you say that barrel and other items are tucked under the tarp, does other items include the clothes you wore while cooking? Or are they in the tent with you?
Have you ever had a situation yet where you needed to defend your food?
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Clothes are in the tent with us. I doubt that I would ever actually put the clothes anywhere else. Other loose items that get tucked away are things like chairs (yes we often carry chairs, especially in the early spring), tackle boxes, kitchen pack, etc.
No we have never had a situation where we had to defend our food. In fact I have never seen a bear while canoe tripping in Algonquin. We saw 10 in 3 days on a Killarney trip, including one about 40' in front of me on a portage trail. I politely said "Hello" but he was kind of pissed off about all the people yelling at him and banging stuff so he just swore at me and took off into the bush. The closest I've ever had a bear to a campsite was car camping as a kid in the Rockies back in the 70's and 80's when the grizzlies would wander through the campgrounds.
This summer we did a trip in the NWT. We saw bear tracks every day - grizzlies higher up in the mountains then black bears as we got lower - but didn't see a single bear in 10 days on the river. Some of those tracks were at places we camped.
The loudest, biggest, scariest critter we have had on our campsite at night - the one that made me get out of the tent and look - was a snowshoe hare on Booth Lake. The critters that we had the hardest trouble keeping out of the food was a chipmunk or 2 on the French River.
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I put my hygiene stuff in the barrel or bag. Solo or tandem trip, hang the bag away from camp. Simple dry bag. No Ursack for me. Bigger trip / group trip, leave the barrel in the middle of the camp! As part of a group I want to be able to see and hear when something is trying to get in. If I'm feeling ambitious, maybe tie the barrel to a tree trunk, maybe.
I've seen videos of people hanging a 60l barrel. Never actual seen someone do it in real life. Seems a crazy idea! Algonquin is about the only canoe tripping destination where that is even possible. Boundary waters, Quetico, Wabakimi, Woodland Caribou, good luck finding branches that can hold a 50-60 pound barrel. Temagami, Northern Ontario, Quebec they've been packing food in wooden boxes for generations. Further north there's no branches. This idea that you have to hang a barrel in a tree because it's not bear proof is dogma.
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This idea that you have to hang a barrel in a tree because it's not bear proof is dogma.
I wonder if this comes from other wilderness areas that have a lot heavier/smarter bear activity. I know in the Sierra Nevadas there are areas where you can't even leave food inside your car. Parking lots in Yosemite and King's Canyon have food lockers for this purpose. If you're in the wilderness, it is required by law to have a bear proof canister (not a blue barrel like we have up here but a truly bear proof canister). It's not enough to hang food at all; I've seen videos of California bears cutting lines and scaling trees to easily access hung food.
I suspect it's simply population (of the bears AND of the hikers) that make things to different there but bear safety in those areas is Very Different from bear safety in Ontario wilderness. Or, maybe California bears are simply savvier than Ontario bears!?
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Personally I only bring one set of clothes and will wear them for up to 2 weeks (I would go longer but have never been on a trip that long).
Except for base layers no spares so won't be hanging my clothes. I use an ursack or bear vault and anything scented goes inside. I hate hanging and most of the hangs I've seen in APP are pretty bad. One time I couldn't help myself and asked a hiker at a campsite I was going by if they planned on moving their food to a different location (they had hung it on a branch 6 feet of the ground) they looked at me all perplexed "what's wrong with this"?
Last edited by human (10/21/2018 8:06 pm)
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I use a bear proof canister. One of these days I should video my attempts to properly hang a bear bag. Always fun. The canister I just put away from camp. The 'bear-muda triangle' - cook waaay over there, sleep waaay over there and cache the food waaay over there. I include toiletries. I do not include clothing but avoid savory food while camping (need to change that some day).
The canisters are a pain before the trip - always seem to small, rather heavy. But I like them on the trip - an impromptu stool, super easy to secure the vittles. In the NY Adirondack High Peaks you are required to use a canister rather than a bag.
I am sure I have had bear in the site after hours, shopping for food. My only two positive encounters were both in Massasauga. First one no mischief. Only evidence was a big steamy pile of incontrovertible proof close to tent in the morning. Second time I kept the bug spray out after hours. Bug spray rides in same baggy as sun tan lotion. Sun tan lotion smells like a pina colada. So my mistake. Late that night I saw him grab and run. He came back a bit later to make sure he did not miss anything. And on exploration in the morning I caught a fleeting glimpse of him as I recovered bottle.
Daughter did not mind the bear hair and spit - just slathered what was left on. A father's love knows no bounds.
Last edited by tenderfoot (11/21/2018 8:43 am)
