Stealth camping

imported
#1

We’re taking a bear canister for the 2 of us. Of course, after our last resupply we’ll have way more food than will fit into it, and from that point we’re planning on stealthing. (away from trail, away from water, higher elevation, dinner a couple miles before camping, storing food IN the tent)

My question is would it be best to leave the bear can, with the smelliest of the smelly (but hopefully still not smelly) items in it, some distance away outside of the tent? 50 yards? Or does it make more sense to keep the can in the tent with everything else and as covered up as possible to maybe improve the chances of not attracting bears to the vicinity in the first place?

Emma doesn’t like my idea of 24-hour nonstop eating and walking until it all fits inside the bear can. :stuck_out_tongue:

markv

#2

p.s. if anyone is coming off the trail around 9/4, we’d gladly pay gas from Whitney Portal to L.A.

markv

#3

As of last week, the rangers I met in Sequoia-Kings NP said that there hadn’t been a bear incident reported this year due to the amount of natural forage available. They fully expected this to change as the number of backpackers increased.

The strategy we used when we had too much food was to pack our most critical food in the cans and hang the stuff that we “could” live without. We kept our food at least 50 yards from our campsite. I wouldn’t sleep with my food. Your plan to stealth camp is smart, one of the two bears we saw on our hike was checking out an established campsite shortly after the occupants had left (at Little Pete Meadow in Le Conte Canyon). Obviously it had been waiting nearby.

Snowball

#4

Everyone has this problem after resupplying. Kiss your food goodbye if you try to hang it or hide it! Sleeping with your extra unopened AND sealed food packages is much more reponsible. Just be sure to keep your camp clean and tidy. Also eat away from your camp site. You will be fine. Most PCT thru hikers sleep with their food every night. A tent invasion is super super rare. Bears getting food from a tree happens all the time.

Gary

#5

My favorite quote when researching my hike was from an unnamed Yosemite Ranger:

“Our main problem with bears is that the upper end of the intelligence scale of the Yosemite bears is higher than the lower end of the intelligence scale of the Yosemite tourists.”

25 - 30 years ago we were told to hang our food as tent invasions did happen in certain problem areas. The bears learned how to get the food we hung so now we carry canisters. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Sierra bears develop opposible thumbs in response.

My point is that they will learn to look for food wherever we attempt to hide it. In addition, bears have really bad breath. I found this out the hard way in 1979.

Snowball

#6

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. However, i’m not really in the market to be convinced either to sleep with my food or not sleep with my food. My only question is, well, what i asked. WHEN sleeping with my remaining uncanistered food, what should i do with the bear canister? Hide it or also sleep with it?

thanks!

markv

#7

dont sleep with the cannister, but make sure to secure it somehow so that a bear doesnt end up batting it around like a toy and end up who knows where.

why not just get two cannisters so that you wont have any food that is not secured? you both can carry one each. that will really seem like going overboard to some people, but hey if you or your hiking partner are really concerned about the food it is always better to be safe than sorry.

have a wonderful hike out there!!

TYVEK

tyvek

#8

A canister is a visual deterrant. Sierra bears are familiar with them and know that it is not a food source for them. Put your canister out away from your tent.

When we camped at very busy Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite a bear came into our camping area just before dusk. He saw our canister, made a u-turn to another group where we then heard hikers beating their pots and lids.

Our canister in Kings Canyon was in a shallow rocky area. In the morning it was very slimey from a curious animal with a runny nose. (Both deer and bear were in the area.) The rocky hollow kept the canister in the area.

Marcia

#9

Ok, got it. Canister out, food in.

We’re not doing 2 canisters because it doesn’t seem worth carrying the weight for 17 days just to have it for the ~4 days (post-VVR resupply) in which we won’t be able to fit everything into one can. Especially because when reading a zillion JMT journals, all the bear problems seem to happen in Yosemite and King’s Canyon, on either end of the trail…and i don’t find any instances of bears in camps during that south of VVR/MTR stretch when we’ll have the overflow food. You can read my journal in a few weeks and see if we regret this plan…

markv

#10

By this date, I suspect that markv has both departed and returned from his hike! However, in response to Gary - “kiss your food goodbye if you try to hang it” - this need not be true, if you avoid established campsites and don’t cook before sleeping in camp (i.e., make dinner somewhere else, then hike some more), then hang food properly - between two trees, more than 15’ high, away from branches thicker than 4" diameter, and more than 8’ away from each tree trunk. This is not a legally permitted method; however, my belief is that lack of discipline to adhere to these guidelines is why hanging is no longer sanctioned. Last year I thru-hiked the JMT in September, used bear boxes where available, used this method where they were not, and had no bear problems. No canister. But now I have an Ursack, and I will be happy to carry that where required.

Shelly Culbertson