Bears: What to do with the clothes you cook in

Where are you hiking?

All around BC as well as a bit in the Canadian Rockies.

Serious black and grizzly country (their population is much greater than the human population in many areas) though they're not typically aggressive or 'trained' for human food. Still, we get a few bad incidents a year and not all of them are due to pure human negligence. Food can be scarce for their large populations at times.

Yeah, that's important info! I've never been in grizz country so I can't give advice.

If I were traveling in grizz country, I would cook in one set and sleep in another. Not fool proof, but I would want every advantage I could get against brown bears.

Yes, I get that's the way to go, but my question was, where would you put all the cooking clothing while you're sleeping?

"Serious black and grizzly country (their population is much greater than the human population in many areas) though they're not typically aggressive or 'trained' for human food."

Hi Bradley,

Have you considered going "cold food" and limiting your cooking to heating water for tea(coffee has too strong an odor). No cleanup, no food odors from cooking volatilized and ending up impregnating your clothing and wafting out into the forest for bears to pick up. This way you wouldn't have to change clothes. Just wash your hands, brush your teeth(perhaps with no toothpaste), and bag your food and trash. It's my standard technique when in bear country.

Thanks for the advice Tom; it makes sense but the unfortunate thing is that ALL of my trips are in bear country. Every now and then it might be fine, but it is rather important to me to have some fun and cook decent meals especially on longer trips where the monotony sets in.
But maybe you're right, and that is the only real solution.

Tough choice, Bradley. I can empathize with your dilemma, especially on longer trips. I've done it that way for 9 days and, for sure, it gets pretty old after about 5-6 days.
I ended up going cold after considering the potential consequences of a bear encounter, likely to happen at night when I am horizontal and sleeping, or half asleep, and at my most vulnerable. Still, not an easy decision. I hope you figure something out.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always been told that bears are not normally active at night.

Maybe not normally, but after years of training they seem to know that sleeping campers (sniff…sniff…) mean "dinner is served" somewhere. (I believe it takes "just once" for them to make and remember the connection.)

May after a few generations of "re-education" they will again be sleeping at night.

They're typically most active around dusk and dawn… and I do sleep in a bit.

…

I wear one set of clothing for the duration of a hike. I try to limit the amount of odorous food that I wipe on my clothes.

Focus instead on keeping a clean camp, and keeping your cooking, sleeping, and food hanging areas a good distance apart (30 meters).

You shouldn't be cooking in your clothes anyway. Seems quite impractical. Use a pot like the rest of us. ;-)

One big factor is if the local bears are habituated to the people/food equation. If they are, more precautions make sense.

I think it's important to remember that an average of about 1 person a year is killed by bears, and close to 20,000 people a year are murdered and over 40,000 killed on the roads.

Bears DO commonly destroy gear and raid food. I store food as regs require or as the situation dictates. I never worry about keeping separate "cooking clothes." I don't know anyone else that does, either. Cooking gear goes with food. If it doesn't fit in with the food I hang it separately. If in treeless country I'll seal it in plastic as best as I can and hide it well downwind of my camp.

Bottom line: take reasonable precautions and then don't sweat it.

Unless you wipe food off your hands onto your clothes,I do not believe you are going to get much food oder on clothing to attract bears. I found one way to get rid of smells from your clothes is to set them or stand near a smoking fire.
Your clothes will soon smell like smoke!

I won't suggest the clothes sequestration strategy is for everyone. I'm a Scoutmaster responsible for the safety of the kids in my troop. We take bear country safety practices very seriously.

While changing the clothes you wore while cooking and eating may seem like overkill, for group of 11-17 year-old boys it's simply a precaution we take to separate them from anything that may smell like food in bear country. Personally, my cooking and dining habits are practically perfect ;-) but my scouts are less meticulous. It's not uncommon for them to spill food or wipe food on their clothing. It's equally likely that one of them has a partly eaten bag of gorp or a Clif Bar in a pants or jacket pocket. Prior to going sleep we remove the outer layer worn during meal prep and dining and either wear a sleeping layer or skivies to bed. The only thing we let them take to their tents is what they're sleeping in and a bottle of clean water. The clothing is stowed with packs under a gear tarp more than 100ft away from the tents. Clothing with food spilled on it is stowed in the bear bags like all other "smellables" until is can be rinsed in a creek or pond.

Smoking your clothes over a smoldering fire would probably be just as effective. But in many backcountry areas open fires are prohibited. Sequestering clothes is always possible.

BTW: We practice the "food is fuel" approach to backcountry cuisine and only "cook" water. We heat water twice a day: for chocolate, coffee, and oatmeal at breakfast and rehydrating soup and dried meals at dinner. Everything else is "peel and eat." This minimizes clean-up, smells, and waste. We don't typically hang cooking gear because it rarely comes in contact with food.

I listen to the advice given by the rangers/dept. of fish & wildlife/park service entity in the area I'll be hiking in. Being totally meticulous about what you do with pots, clothes, etc. is good practice but might be overkill in many areas. Where I live, bears are so rare that I don't bother changing clothes. I'd worry more about squirrels here.

There are a lot of lines of clothing marketed towards hunters that absorb and block odors. They're not particularly light or eco-friendly, but they might be good for people who are very concerned about picking up food odors.

I will be honest. I don't wear deodorant or antiperspirant when I hike. I don't wear sunscreen or bug dope.

Every synthetic shirt I own reeks of BO after 15 minutes on (from that synthetic fabrics hold smell even after washing). The smell of my clothing is not good after 2 hours going uphill. After a couple days…yuck.

I worry more about salt hungry mt. goats wanting me than bears. And in truth, I have had issues over the years with trekking poles being moved at night from under my tent (the straps).

I sleep in my tent with my pack under my feet, my shoes next to me inside. The only thing I leave outside is my Ursack tied off or my BV in the bushes.

I choose to not worry – but I am careful. A better solution is to cook a couple miles before camp then hiking on after dinner. That way you have no cooking smells in your camp.

As for my clothing…I don't bring a lot of extras so again, I choose to not worry. I do though make it a habit to not wipe my hands on my pants ;-)

I boil water, add to meal, and try not to get it on my clothes or wipe my hands on my clothes… I hang everything that's "scented" inside an odor proof sack then I head to bed. I make sure that I either eat before I ever get to camp or I walk a good distance away within reason to boil my water. If fires are allowed I burn the trash, which is what they recommended one of the last time I was in the Olympics. If I don't have a fire the dirty Ziploc goes in the odor proof bag.

Isaw my first B.C. Black Bear around 1952 and my first Grizzly in 1956 and have had hundreds of encounters with Blacks and about 60 with Grizzers since. I am a retired bush forestry guy, project supervisor, fireboss, lookoutman and have spent hundreds if not thousands of nights alone in the most remote wilderness of B.C. and western Canada.

I backpack and have since 1956, I am careful about bears and will sometimes hang my food, etc, however, I only carry the bare minimum of clothing and live in the same clothes, except socks and gonch for the duration of my trips. I cook where I camp and, quite honestly, do not worry much about bears.

Your REAL danger where bears, especially Grizzlies are concerned is surprising one or more on a trail, especially near a kill they are feeding on. To avoid this, learn to watch the Crows and Ravens or Magpies in the Okanagan and perhaps carry a small airhorn of the type used on boats; use this when entering vision restricted areas to warn bears of your presence and give them a few minutes to move on.

We had a Grizzly hanging around our waterhole in the South Chilcotin in Sept., 2007, when my buddy and I were packed in by horses on a hunting trip. He came into camp about 02:30 one night and awoke my buddy; I woke up, shone my LED flashlight on him and told him to, well, there are ladies here….

He was just curious, as they are and not aggressive, we both had heavy rifles and are good shots and I was not too worried. This is one of VERY fEW times in 45+ years of camping that I have ever had a Grizzly enter my camp, they usually avoid people…I think that they hold us in a kind of contempt…….

If, you are really concerned, buy one of the 2.5 lb. electric bear fences and an airhorn. These have a very good rep. and I am getting one for my base camp to protect my substantial investment in gear as soon as I can afford it.

You know, I have dozens of highend rifles, a .44Mag. and carry permit, three custom-built Grizzly defence rifles and lots of close-up experience with them and I HAVE NEVER had a difficult time with one, not even once and that includes running camps of nearly 100 workers in various parts of B.C., in tents, lots of young women, funky "granola muncher" food and so forth.

Relax, be aware and the chances of being mauled in your tent, at night, with the exception of habituated park bears are so slim that worrying about it is more likely to cause your demise by a coronary!

Dewey,
Thanks for a very enlightening post. It is what I would expect in country where bears haven't been habituated to associate people with food.

Not to take issue in any way, but just to gain your perspective, what is your take on the couple that met their demise at camp, while kayaking around (I think) Glacier Bay?

My view is simply "wrong place at the wrong time". A very unfortunate turn of events, but also very very uncommon. I recall that recommendations now include traveling in a group of four or more.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always been told that bears are not normally active at night."

Art,

Early on in my backpacking career, I had two bear encounters. The first was along the JMT and it occurred just after I dozed off. I had had a long day, was exhausted, and told myself that I didn't need to hang my food because I was at timberline. Dumb mistake and it cost me a small part of my food before I ran the bear(a yearling I think) off. The second, far more serious, encounter occurred in Upper Vidette Meadows. This time I had hung my food using the standard technique of the time, i.e. tied off to a tree. Around 11 PM or so I was awakened by the sound of my bag hitting the ground. A serious face off ensued and again I got most of my food back, this time by running the bear off with firecrackers. This bear was full grown and, I think, very nearly came at me instead of retreating. I'll never know for sure what was going on in his mind, but I was plenty scared as he paced back and forth about 20 yards away growling and "whoofing" before he finally beat it when I threw a whole string of firecrackers at him. My buddy and I made a fire and took turns the rest of the night feeding the fire and guarding our food.

The common threads running through these incidents is that they both occurred at night and could have been prevented. So I personally consider you corrected, at least as far as the Sierra is concerned. I sure wouldn't wait up until 9 PM and then go to sleep with my food lying around on the assumption that bears are not active at night.

Greg, I am not familiar with the details of that specific tragedy, however, your opinion is probably correct.

I DO bag and hang all smellables when any fresh sign is around, I am VERY cautious and careful as most of my longterm wilderness experience has been solo and collegues of mine have been mauled.

However, I do not sleep in my clothing, wear u/l merino for sleeping and am not especially afraid of bears, never have been. What really freaks me out in B.C.s mountains is avalanches and a couple of friends of mine, REAL "mountain men" with expertise in this aspect of wilderness travel have been killed by them.

Wilderness backpacking IS inherently dangerous, but, getting away from the "bear spray " mantra so often preached on forums of this type by those with minimal or no bear experience and learning about bear behaviour is, IMHO, the wisest "safety factor" that one can obtain and use.

I DO very much advocate large groups of hikers/campers and am somewhat opposed to people going solo, unless you really KNOW what you are doing and are capable of "self rescue". So, yeah, I think that you are pretty much "right on", as we used to say way back in the days of "flower power".