Hanging Bear Canisters

Waste of time.

Besides, it might completely defeat the purpose. I don't know of a way to hang a canister unless you put it into a bag. If it is in a bag and the bear actually gets to it, then the bear can drag away the bag with the canister in it.

If you place a food-filled canister on the ground, then that is sufficient. At the most, I put a few rocks around it so that the bear cannot easily roll it away.

In black bear country, I generally leave it on the ground about 30 feet straight out from my shelter (because my camera can shoot with flash that far). In brown bear country, I would make that about ten times as far.

–B.G.–

Yeah, I thought the whole point of the design was so that the bear couldn't bite it.

Makes sesnse.

Get any good photos that way?

IIRC, hanging a canister up high is one of the most common ways of making it fail. Pretty much the only way a bear can open a canister is if it the canister drops from a considerable height and cracks open.

"I'm making my first foray into bear country in a couple of weeks, so I'm curious what you guys (and gals) do."
What's worked great for me is simply avoiding areas that are extremely heavily impacted by human beings. If there are so many people camping there that the guv'mint has seen fit to put in bear boxes, then that's probably (a) a place that won't provide me with the solitude I'd like, and (b) a place where there are a lot of bears habituated to humans.

Don't stress out about it too much. Black bears are usually about the size of a large dog, and they virtually never harm a human being. If you see one, count yourself lucky for having had the experience. If you don't see one, count yourself lucky for not having had the hassles.

Some people like to seal their food inside an odorproof bag that's thicker than a normal freezer bag. This makes it less likely that the bear will be able to find your food cache by smell. The brand I use is OPsack, but they're kind of expensive. Don't leave food in the car at the trailhead.

If possible, put all scented items (soap, toothpaste, etc.) inside an odorproof sack, and inside the bear canister. Put your canister far away from where you sleep, to avoid losing sleep while a bear messes with it.

If you don't go no-cook, many people suggest cooking an afternoon meal, then hiking some more before camping for the night. That way bears won't find your campsite by the smell of the cooking food. This also has the positive side-effect of making it less necessary to sleep near a source of water; areas near water tend to be extremely heavily impacted.

If you tell us more about your route, people familiar with the area might be able to give more specific advice.

-Ben

Am going to be placing a Garcia canister this summer as a food cache, so was interested in all of your thoughts on this issue. Was going to hang it high, with the cloth cover, but after reading these posts, am leaning toward odor-proofing the contents as much as possible, digging a shallow hole, and covering it with rocks.

Back here at home, noted recently that the local critters attacked some old canned dog food put outside to take to the landfill. Thought that the sealed cans would be an odor barrier. Not!

In any case, will take along some soup poweders, just not to starve, in case the canister does not survive until I arrive.
Sam

@Sam, I would think you'd want to use OPSak or similar with any kind of cache.

@Ben – the trip is through the Tetons. I had some preliminary discussion about it in this thread

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=33883

But the route I decided on is around Grand Teton- Avalanche Canyon (off trail) then around South Teton/Ice Floe Lake, then up through South and North Fork Cascade canyon, back down through Paintbrush. Even the off-trail segment is pretty well-traveled, from what I understand, but I've been led to believe it's not as bad as Yosemite Valley, etc.

Anyone with any thoughts on griz safety, food storage or otherwise, are welcome.

@Joe: I have no experience with grizzlies or grizzly country, so please take everything I said as applying only to black bears.

@Sam: I think the Garcias are pretty thoroughly tested with bears in zoos, so I don't think there's a chance in hell that any animal will get your food. You do hear about bears playing around with them and knocking them around, so it's conceivable that the canister could end up moved somewhat. People say that for that reason it's a good idea not to put them uphill from a river or anything like that. I'd guess the much more likely problem would be either (a) not being able to locate the site again, or (b) getting it stolen by a hungry human. The first possibility could probably be eliminated with GPS.

Thanks, anyway, Ben.

I still like to be ready for anything :-)

"People say that for that reason it's a good idea not to put them uphill from a river or anything like that."

And, it is even harder to put them downhill from a river!

–B.G.–

Probably not worth hanging anything given what we saw out our back deck last night…This at about 50 feet on the way down.

Do not hang them!!!! They are not designed to be hung – the whole point of a canister is ease of use/lack of animals getting rewarded. Yes, canisters do put off smells but that isn't an issue – the bear or other animal cannot get it, then they leave out of frustration.

Don't leave it near a cliff, river, lake, etc. You can leave it in camp though.

Use rocks and trees as a natural block to keep it from rolling.

Painting the canister with neon paint is good so you can find it if it is rolled.

Garcia's may be heavy but they work well.

-On people who hang canisters….they really need to read the directions! Hung it is a pinata of sorts and can be smacked into a tree and or ripped down and smacked hard. This CAN cause failure – a crack in the canister.

Along with the neon paint, OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) has a huge selection of reflective tape and stickers.

They really help with locating the can at night.

Holy crap that is a fantsastic idea.

Crazy question – should I put my pot and cup in the canister as well? I have read I should definitely put the fuel (den alcohol) in.

As others have said, hanging a canister is a bad idea. What I usually do, if I can, is find some bushes and stick it in the middle, on the theory that what I want to avoid is having the canister roll away, and the bushes should help with that. If no bushes around, I look for a shallow depression in the ground, where a bear would have to roll it quite a ways in order to get it anywhere. That said, I have never had my canister disturbed by a bear, despite having had a bear walk through my campsite. Rangers I have talked to in the Sierra seem to have the impression that the problem bears are learning to recognize the canisters, and having tried and failed to get food out of them in the past, are not wasting their time with them anymore.

I don't put my items in a canister at night except for my utensils – small animals love stealing those! If all you do is boil water you are fine with leaving your pot out – it makes a good animal alarm on top of the canister. But…if you have messy dishes do put it inside the canister.

Sarah wrote: "You can leave it in camp though."
To me, the advantage of putting it at least 100 ft away from camp is that I know I won't lose sleep if a bear decides to spend a few hours playing with it.

"Garcia's may be heavy but they work well."
For people willing to spend the money, the bearikade weekender is the same volume as the Garcia, and it saves 13 oz. They can be rented, too.

Joe wrote: "should I put my pot and cup in the canister as well? "
Since almost all backpacker's diarrhea is caused by poor hygiene (not contaminated water), my highest priority would be to wash the pot and cup out really well. That will have the side-effect of reducing the smell. After that, if they fit in the canister, why not put them in it?

"I have read I should definitely put the fuel (den alcohol) in."
The conventional wisdom is that bears that have been habituated to humans have learned that pretty much any artificial smell (suntan lotion, toothpaste, DEET, …) means that there is food available. So if you can fit the fuel in the canister, it sounds like a good idea, but it would be my lowest priority. As an alternative, you could just put the fuel far from the campsite and canister, so that if a bear finds it, it will rapidly lose interest.

BTW, don't put DEET inside your bear canister. It acts as a solvent on them. (A Garcia is ABS resin. A Bearvault is polycarbonate. Both of them get dissolved by DEET.)

Yeah, no DEET for me.

If it dissolves ABS… I don't want to put it on my skin :-)

I usually don't use anything, but when I was in europe I was introduced to picaridin, which works when I really need something.

Though it probably is bad for you in a whole host of other ways, I don't know about it yet :-)

"Yeah, no DEET for me. If it dissolves ABS… I don't want to put it on my skin :-)"
I would rub plutonium paste or battery acid on my skin if it would keep the bugs off.

"…your pot out – it makes a good animal alarm on top of the canister."

Exactly!

I try to pile up a few items like a cook pot. If the bear paws at the bear canister, Sarah's alarm sounds, and it is time to get the camera flash readied up.

I would never leave messy dishes out. In the morning, they would be halfway clean with little tongue marks all over.

–B.G.–

Yeah, I don't mean to judge, but why would anyone leave dirty dishes out overnight?

It's like the RV people leaving the bag of groceries on the picnic table.

I recently returned from a 16 day backpacking trip in the mountains of NC and TN and had my two BearVaults swatted down a hillside and chewed, though not punctured.

A couple years ago I walked through a camp area (and by this the idiots had set up camp along the trail – their tents went into the trail!) – the camp was covered in food everywhere. Dirty dishes, packs of hot dogs and more. It was pretty sad indeed. Ugh. It is due to people like that that more places are requiring canisters. Don't get me started!

Sam Farrington,

If you're gonna use a Garcia bear can for caching you'd better use a waterproof plastic liner B/C Garcia bear cans are, sadly, NOT waterproof.

Also you could bury it upside down on some golf ball sized rocks (for drainage)to improve the chances of keeping the contents dry. Never trust "Ziploc" type storage bags for total waterproofness. I suppose vacum type dtorage bags would be much better than standard storage bags.

Neat, Walter! Nice to see those things doing their job since I've got two of 'em.