Bear Cannisters & tp

“vix
Here's what not to do if you see a bear.”

“MaryPhyl, Hubby has a arc tryex Bora 80, and the bucket fits in perfectly. Yes it is the white canister with the lid.

rad, I find that we need the whole bucket to put our cup 0' noodles, deodorant, toothpaste, snacks and garbage in without squashing the noodles cups.

I've never gotten a plastic container that smelled inside, and if it did, I would never take it.”

“LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Maple and I are going to Saranac Lake in July. They recommend taking prercautions for bears. I want to know what might be an applicable cannister to shop for. Remember that it has to be transported in a canoe, also. Any ideas?”

“Pennsy has a nice Can.”

“I'd think any canister large enough to hold a bear wouldn't fit in the canoe.”

“Maybe it's a really big canoe...”

“Or a really little bear, store near me has canned bear.”

“or a really small bear..... sorry had to say it!”

“Does a bear use tp in the woods?”

“Ha beat you by a second ynaminaminmai”

“I asked for this, I guess...”

“Tree lol sorry, Pennsy has a Garcia I think seems pretty nice, water proof I think. Not too heavy.”

“Tell Pennsy to bring his can to Manhattan. I know where he can park it...”

“Thanx, Lt.”

“Nope it was not a Garcia”

“damn - one second..... must type faster!!!!”

“Thank you, guys. BTW, I needed a laugh too!!”

“Don't have one, don't hike where one is needed, so can't really help you treebeard.”

“so, nothing about TP, then?”

“Everybody needs TP”

“lyra - Just for you.”

“aww, how sweet! now i just have to decide who to get the roll that says "HO" for. hmmm...Tarpy? LOL!

when i'm rich, i'm getting the money one!”

“The Garcia.. holds 6 days of food and weighs a little under two pounds pounds empty. Made of Plastic $75.00
The Bearicade from Wild Ideas.... the Expedition holds 10 days of food and weighs a little more than 2lbs. It is made of Titanium. $250.00

Both work:”

“By the way, the Garcia is not water proof....
The Bearicade is sealed... And should be waterproof.”

“Tree Pennsy has the Bearikade
http://www.wild-ideas.net/index2.html

It stayed out in the rain all night he said that it was waterproof, I think it had an O-ring.”

“Good going, guys. I have something to go on now.”

“Dang it is expensive, I was thinking about one but I thought they cost around $60!”

“one more edit. The Garcia weighs a little under 3 pounds empty. It is smaller and heavier than the Bearicade. As for being sealed.. if your are being price concious, then place a large plastic bag inside the Garcia and make sure it is sealed. If it falls into the water your food should be ok. If pirce is not object. Get the Bearicade. It is a much better bear canister.”

“Don't use the waterproof bags often used for canoeing. They are not bear-proof even when hung properly.

Perhaps you can add some weatherproofing around the lid of the less costly canister to increase the time before water will seep in?”

“Hey Treebeard - you can rent a bearikade pretty cheap from Wild-ideas.net. It really is a great piece of equipment but very expensive. I rented one and was so impressed that I bought one.

Like Lt said, I had mine out in the open during a heavy rainstorm Fri night and everything stayed dry.

So, what do ya wanna know about toilet paper? I generally use it. Otherwise, things get messy.”

“Pennsy, one sheet for the whole weekend was cutting the weight alittle too light though.”

“Thanx, Penns. I will look into that rental thing. And BTW, too much info on your tp habits :)”

“HA!!

What do ya mean too much info? YOU are the one who stuck TP in the subject line. Hmmmmm??

note to Geobeet who I am sure will chime in: No No No!! Using a 'kade for a toilet is NOT one of the 1001 uses.”

“Nah he just recycled an old thread.”

“Do you really need one?? How often are you planning of going into bear co.? Look to rent or borrow maybe first . P- cord is really cheap and light and if you know how to hang you food you won't need a canister unless of course you are lazy and/or above treeline.

Don't own one and doubt I ever will !!

I'm curious if you canister people keep you cans a good distances away like you should or if you are keeping them closer to base since they are bearproof. That security thing. Since a bear can bat that thing around enough so much so that you may never find it in the morning”

“Batter up........

8P”

“Well Briar Rabbitt. I keep my canisters at least 50 feet if not farther from my tent. You not having a Bear Canister would suggest that you do not spend much time in "Troubled Bear Country" ie: "The California Sierra's" If you did, you would have one! Since it is becoming mandatory Wilderness by Wilderness and because hanging food is ineffective protection from California Bears. Time and time again I have seen scattered wrappers, destroyed hanging Food bags and Backpackers who have lost there food to bears. These were those who for whatever reason felt they did not need a canister. In contrast, I have yet to hear of lost food from a canister. The penalty for losing our food is two fold. One it ends the backpackers trip! Two it eventually kills the bears. As their association of humans being a source of food, turns to humans being a food source. Two extra pounds are not too much to prevent these two penalties. And keep our wildernesses wild. Something they could not really be, without the presence of Bears.”

“The need for cannisters is not necessarily because people don't know how to hang a bear-bag either, it's because in some areas the bears have learned how to defeat just about every bear-bag hanging method imaginable. I'm glad you don't have the problem in Ohio, but to not be aware of the problem in the Sierra is very dangerous to your food supply, and ultimately the bears.”

“Treebeard's post was specific to the Adirondacks where if you use any kind of rope method to hang your food, you can count on going hungry. They simply climb the tree and slash the rope.

Other than a canister, I've only seen 1 effective method of hanging a bear bag in the Daks. Some of the campsites have steel cables hung between 2 trees about 10-15' above the ground. You need to tie at least 2 bags together and find a long stick to prop the bags over the lines.”

“LT said "penzy has a nice can"

So that's why you where hiking be hind him all day....”

“Haha... I noticed that too, but being that he is disabled with blisters and had to put up with you all weekend, I decided to refrain. ;o)”

“Lol I was wondering when someone was going to make a comment on that.
Tea did you get my e-mail?”

“Treebeard, I've been hanging my food in the Adirondacks for a long time and have not lost a bag yet. I have hung my food in areas where other folks who just slung their food around a branch got ransacked and our food stayed safe (this is actually a good technique to keep your food safe when camping near goobers!). Although there is certainly a need to watch out for bears in the ADK, you also need to watch out for the smaller critters as well. Although I am not dismissing the utility of bear cannisters in the ADK, I would think they are more useful out west and in Alaska where you may not have the luxury of always having trees around.

My method is basically the two tree method with two important considerations; getting the rope as high (and far apart) as possible, and good knot and rope tying as far up the tree trunks as possible.
Find two trees 20 to 30 feet apart that each have a solid limb coming off the trunk (or a Y in the trunk) that will hold the weight of your food. Make sure there are no other trees too close to the two trees you choose and the limbs need to be as high up as possible. Attach a rock to one end of your rope and throw it over the first tree limb. Hold the middle section of the rope where you'll tie the food off and then throw the other end of the rope (with rock attached) over the second tree limb. Get the rope as close to each main trunk as possible.
Double bag your food (protecting it from weather and smaller critters) and secure the bag to the middle rope section. Hoist the bag by either pulling both ends of the rope at the same time or tying off one end and then hoist with the second rope end, but you gotta get the bag as close to the middle (between trees) as possible.
Here is where good knot technique is needed; tie the rope around each trunk (not a secondary limb or branch) securely - repeat, securely! Tie off the rope as high up the trunk as possible and continue to wind the rope around the trunk so your extra rope hides the tie-down knot and you have no loose rope dangling. Make sure to pull tight so you limit the amount of sag in the bag.

I like to get the bag at least 15-20 feet in the air. Like I said, this method has not failed me yet and yes, I'm familiar with tightrope walking bears and bears clawing the rope of the trunk and such. It takes some practice, but if Bobo can do it, you can too!!!”

“Bobo - Artex, Fritz, Skiracer and myself camped 2 nights at Lake Colden last summer. I had a canister but the others tied their bags together, found a long branch and propped the bags over the steel cable. A few other groups did the same thing while a few used a method similiar to what you described.

They slung their bags over the cable and tied the ropes high up on tree trunks. The bears just climbed the trees and slashed the ropes and some of these people used heavy duty rope. The same thing happened the following night.

Maybe the bears in the Daks got smarter since your last visit? They don't even touch the canisters because they know they can't get inside. Yogi and BooBoo are getting pretty darn smart and I'm waiting to see a bear walking around with a coin in his mouth.”

“Or we could just get hammered on your special ice tea, stay up all night and fight em off!”

“I know I am going to take heat for posting this old method, but honestly, I have used this method for many many years and I've hanged some damn heavy bags and multiple bags too! It takes some thought and finesse, you can't simply slop a bag over a tree limb (already stated). There are some tricks I've adopted over the years, and my results have been excellent - Of course now, next time I hang...........

Thanks Pennsy, @#%&!@ !!!”