Snacks: Good. Bears: Bad.

You mentioned peanut butter. There are a couple of brands that have 5–6 ounce squeeze packs of various nut/seed butters. One I have used in the past is Yumbutter.  I would assume a bear or mouse can smell peanut butter three time zones away but it is a very clean package.

This is such a weird topic that I caught my attention.  So I did a Google search on odorless calories and got a hit.  I don’t know if it will work, but here it is.  330 calorie a dose.  Good luck.

https://www.nestlenutritionstore.com/benecalorier.html

For reference: Podcast Episode 99 & The Nose of a Bear presentation @ Trail Days Online 2024.

We’ve had hypoglycemic clients who have had to do this, and on our guided treks in “beary” areas, this is our policy:

• All food in a bear canister, no exceptions.
• Bear canister must be lined with a Nylofume liner.
• All food inside the canister must be stored in zip-sealed mylar storage bags.
• Bear canister must be clean of food odors (soap and water) inside and out prior to bed.

If these conditions are met, we will allow a hypoglycemic participant to keep the bear canister in their tent vestibule.

The only exception is this:

• IF the food is stored in unopened, factory-sealed mylar packaging AND
• the package is cleaned with soap and water prior to bed AND
• that package is stored in a freshly-cleaned zip-closure mylar bag

Then that can be stored in the vestibule.

For context, these are strategies that will require a bear to be within “several inches” of the food source to detect.

Obviously, this is a very conservative approach, but this is the best we were able to negotiate with USFS and NPS – and we had to personally walk them through our Nose of the Bear presentation to get them to buy in to these strategies.

Your risk tolerance may vary…

You mentioned peanut butter. There are a couple of brands that have 5–6 ounce squeeze packs of various nut/seed butters. One I have used in the past is Yumbutter. I would assume a bear or mouse can smell peanut butter three time zones away but it is a very clean package.

Yep, we definitely use those.  Haven’t used Yumbutter but I’m always up for a new one.  The normal go-to snacks at night are peanut butter, a handful of wheat thins, apple/veggie-sauce packets, or two spoonfuls of yogurt (assuming we’re next to the fridge).

This is such a weird topic that I caught my attention. So I did a Google search on odorless calories and got a hit. I don’t know if it will work, but here it is. 330 calorie a dose. Good luck.

Yeah, it’s a hurdle for sure…and when you pair it with a list of no-go food additives that cause severe reactions, we have to be VERY careful.  But, your search idea is good: thank you for working on that!

We’ve had hypoglycemic clients who have had to do this, and on our guided treks in “beary” areas, this is our policy…

That’s an impressive procedure, Ryan; thank you for that and the links.  I’ll give them a good twice-through.

I agree that the steps are…well, as close to conservative overkill as it comes, but I see the reason behind them.  Regarding risk tolerance: for black bears, I don’t worry a great deal…but if I was heading to brownie country it would be an entirely different matter.  In this particular case, we’re dealing with black bears in the Olympic Peninsula…and mostly in the National Forest, which does not require food protections (that I know of).  I’ve been around curious bears in the southeast before, but I’ve only dealt with them from a distance out here.  I’m honestly more concerned about curious mice and irritating mountain goats than bears, but it’s all in the family, so to speak.

Just a thought…

Low odor

Just a thought…

And it’s a good one.  We can definitely do things like crackers, because those are simple to pack, light, and she can almost always eat them: Wheat Thins are one of our go-to options.

I looked into the Nylofume bags; definitely looks like a good option.  I’ve had issues with the closures on Loksak bags; OpSacks were the best of them, but still not very good…some something lighter and cheaper would be welcome.  For most of my trips in a National Forest where food-conditioning isn’t that prevalent, I think I could just replace my OpSacks with something like a Nylofume and be better off.

For an in-tent container, I’m wondering if we can find a very small canister of some sort…or maybe even repurpose something.  I thought about a BV425, which is kind of an overnight/two-nighter canister for me, but that’s a lot of weight to carry just to store a few baggies of crackers and a packet or two of peanut butter.  Like, even a small peanut butter jar would be enough…so I’m wondering if something like that could be used in conjunction with a small odor-proof bag as an overnight canister.  Sure, it won’t be 100%, but it’ll be less-attractive than nothing at all.

Alright, so, we did some testing, and we realized that for overnight snacks, we can literally get away with something as small as a 16-oz. plastic jar.  That’s enough space for a couple of peanut butter packets, honey or glucose (if needed), a bar of some sort, crackers, trail mix, or any given two-item combo of those.  Problem is, I can’t find an odor-proof bag that small…so that kind of pushes me back towards a larger container of some sort, and just practicing the best odor control we can with it. 🤷‍♂️

Bonzo – check out Smelly Proof for small bags.

Thank you!!  How have I not seen that one??

@Matthew/BPL Why was my post removed on this thread…