The Nose of a Bear

I’ve always wondered how much non-food items are really attractive to bears. As a rule I just put almost all into the bear can, since I don’t care to test this myself. But in the huge expanses of tundra and forest I call home and backpack in, I can’t really believe a bear is going to wander into a camp with 3 tents and lots of human smells and decide that my lip balm left inadvertently in my jacket pocket in my tent, is sufficiently enticing to tear down my tent and attack me. There’s lip balm on my lips too, even if I store the lip balm correctly. I always have my bear spray in my tent; that surely has a smell. I don’t store Deet in my bear can ever, but I’ve seen folks argue that bears will be attracted by it too. I realize this video and article are about actual food, but more info on the other smelly things we carry and any evidence for bears being attracted to those items would be interesting.

Time and place could impact the lip balm argument. Isolating, pinpointing and finding the source of a scent after detection is another variable. Associating the scent with humans and food comes from training, not from nature.

I leave my toothbrush in my tent at night to get air and dry.  I’m more concerned about bacteria growth due to locking it in a opsak sealed bear bag overnight.  Leaving it exposed in the mesh pocket of my pack to dry while I hike, sitting alongside with my washed and wet undies and socks and exposed to dust and bushwhacking mess never struck me as a hygienic option either.

Even in sites festooned with habituated chipmunks and squirrels that will attack an open food bag in minutes, I’ve never had a nightly visitor give a darn for the toothbrush.

I once had something scatter the heavy fireside log seating in the middle of the night in a provincial park back country site that must have been a bear looking for scraps left by messy previous tenants.  There were no signs that it went anywhere near my tent or my ursack/opsak combo.

Then there are best practices for toothpaste spitting which will surely overpower the scent of the toothbrush.  I spit into the fire pit if it’s an established site.  I’ve heard arguments that burned toothpaste can carry on the wind and be picked up by a bear, but damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I try not to carry any non food items with a stronger scent than toothpaste

TBH, when I read the title The Nose of a Bear, I thought it might lead off with a picture of a bear’s nose poking under a rain-fly –the thought of which I’ll admit gives me the willies.

I think of a bear can as similar to a seatbelt or bike helmet; it’s an easy safety measure for an unlikely but potentially catastrophic occurrence. Side benefit is that a bear can also prevents rodents and bugs from eating my food and toiletries so I stuff everything I can inside.

I’ve also wondered about going to sleep with minty-fresh breath or maybe a dinner-stain on my shirt, but I tell myself that my own odor should overpower them.

Yeah, bear cans are heavy and unwieldy, but I’m willing to carry one to protect myself and the wildlife. And hopefully keep a bear’s nose from poking under my fly.

that’s what I thought, a bear’s nose through the tent door : )

Toothpaste is not really necessary and, strictly in my opinion, best left behind when heading into the backcountry.  The same can be said for other scented personal hygiene/grooming products.  Lip balm, soap, and sun screen can all be purchased in scent free, or nearly so, options.

Based on personal experience I am a strong advocate of the Nylofume option, double bagged and inverted on each other in remote areas, as Ryan specified.  Closer in to higher use areas add a Mylar bag.  Combined with VERY close attention to scent management, especially on hands when packing/unpacking the bags, camp hygiene, and eating well away from my sleeping area, I was comfortable sleeping with my food for all the years I used Nylofume bags after they first came on the market.  I do think it might have been worth mentioning in the article the option of going cold food and avoiding odiferous foods like smoked/processed meats as additional means of reducing the dispersion of odors.  I do draw the line at hot coffee in the morning, however.  For that, a small alcohol setup worked perfectly for minimal weight penalty.  FWIW.

I enjoyed this. Thank you Ryan.

Question for ya: why insert the two nylon bags vs tie off the first then insert into and tie off the second. (I don’t literally mean to tie it off,I use multiple twists)

Thanks again!

Edit to above: I meant”why invert” rather than “why insert “

Ryan, can you or another member comment on the scent proofness of your common dehydrated Mountain House meal packaging that is unopened?  I always pack them in a bear-resistant container but for proper scent control, would they also need to be put in a double-ended ziplock and/or mylar bag?  There is probably even more scent packing out the cooked, used dehydrated package than unopened.  Thanks, Mark.

Ziploc bags are made from polyethylene rather than PET (polyethylene terephthalate).

In the closeout section of Walmart, I saw a pack of 10 liners for an off-brand Diaper Genie receptacle marked down to $1.  I figured if it keeps the diaper stink in, it will work with food odors and have been using those as my food bag since.  But if you’re willing to pay full price, that’s a potential retail source of odor-proof plastic liners in almost any town.

And there’s a Diaper Genie-like receptacle for used kitty litter, so there’s another source of liners at pet stores or in the pet aisle of a big-box store.

At the very least I know this might sound moderately paranoid, but I’ve always wondered about my pot and spoon.  I don’t use any soap and just clean them by scraping any food away with my spoon and water and then drinking the gray water.  So I’ve got to think there might be something that smells left on them that I can’t see.  If I have space I’ll usually try to put them in my Ursack along with any towel that I used to dry my pot and spoon, however I usually don’t have enough space in my Opsak so I just stick them on top.

Hi Ryan, revisiting this excellent presentation and had a question about the formula used in your barrier combinations at 23:12. If I’m understanding correctly (knowing that this is theoretical, based on zero wind, etc.), it works like this:

Food (100%) x PET (80% blocked) x Ursack (50% blocked):

100 x 0.2 x 0.5 = 10% of full odour concentration at bag

(10/100) x 1000 = 100m from food bag at 0.01% concentration

That’s the result we see in your first slide, but when I apply the formula to what you say about Nylofume, I get a different number than you:

Food (100%) x PET (80%) x Nylofume (95%) x Ursack (50%):

100 x 0.2 x 0.05 x 0.5 = 0.5% at bag

(0.5/100) x 1000 = 5m from food bag at 0.01%

I’m interested to know if my interpretation of the formula is right or wrong, since I’ve used something similar to the latter combination for some time now.

The biology and behaviours of bears, visual cues, and the wind factor are all important pieces of the puzzle, too. The content you’ve presented should be required reading for all backcountry campers.