Where to leave your bear canister

[Wolfclan]

When at a shelter, one would obviously use the bear box or hanging system for their bear canister. However, what do people do with their canister at a site where nothing is provided? Do you leave it on the ground at least 200 feet from your tent?

[chknfngrs]

Yes. Walk well away from your tent, and then take a few more steps away. I always try to place it in a manner that a bear couldn’t move it, jamming it under a log or between a rock and a tree or something. Never next to a cliff. The goal is that you’re making it harder for the bear to get your food.

[Deadeye]

Just like chknfngrs says - leave it someplace where if a bear finds it, he won't be able to roll it so far away that you can't find it. I usually put mine on the uphill side of a fallen tree; I don't bother trying to jam it in.

BTW - in 20 years of using canisters, both on trail and for resupply caches, I've never had one disturbed.

[One Half]

When at a shelter, one would obviously use the bear box or hanging system for their bear canister. However, what do people do with their canister at a site where nothing is provided? Do you leave it on the ground at least 200 feet from your tent?

Why would you take up space in a bear box or on a cable?

[scope]

...I always try to place it in a manner that a bear couldn’t move it,.... Never next to a cliff...

I find both of these statements humorous for different reasons.

Why would you take up space in a bear box or on a cable?

While the food is similarly secured by just being in the canister, having canisters slung about could be an issue. Its a better idea to have all food secured in one location. That said, canisters probably take up additional room and some concern for others is always warranted (if not always given). I've seen the bear boxes and they don't seem real large, so your concern is valid, but that's the first place I'd put it if space available. Alternatively, I'd hang on cables if available since we know some bears are able to figure out the hangs. And then if camping around a full shelter, then I'd place it elsewhere.

[LazyLightning]

I wouldn't even use most of the cables when I hung my food, it was a joke how low they hung when full. They did have some good ones but I usually felt better with my own hang. Also I always heard that you don't want to wedge your canister between anything as it could possibly help them get leverage or use to their advantage.

[perrymk]

You didn't ask, but I'll add this anyway. Put a few pieces of reflective tape on your canister to make it easier to find. I also use a tracking device that beeps when activated from my phone.

When I've gotten an early start hiking and needed to make a pit stop, leaving my canister on the trail made the trail easier to find my way back to. Reflective tape really shines in low light.

[wornoutboots]

Remember when you place your vault, it needs to be not too far away and within view of your headlamps shine, so if a bear is bothering it, it is Your responsibility to chase the nuisance away.

[LazyLightning]

Within view of your headlamps shine could be pretty close depending on terrain and vegetation. I don't think I could ever see mine from my tent but I know the direction and it's not long before I can see it. I could certainly hear if something was messing with it though.

[peakbagger]

If there are food habituated bears in the area, no sense trying to chase them off, they have learned that humans can be ignored. The problem is the bears have gotten to the point in some areas that they wait until people are actively cooking and then charge the area where people are cooking to get at unsecured food. High Point shelter in NJ had that issue for many years and 13 Falls in the whites also had the same issue. No doubt other shelters with bear issues get to that point. The former caretaker at 13 Falls got fed up and brought his hunting gear out and filled his bear tag with one of the habituated black bears.

[LoneStranger]

The hosts at the camps in NH ask me to put my can in the boxes. Unhosted I will use the box or if full of bags I will drop my can next to the box. Wilderness camping I just look for a depression in the terrain so if anything wants to roll the can around it won't go far.

[soilman]

In the Great Smoky Mountains NP you are required to hang your canister from the bear cables. They also recommend you hang your entire pack.

[Time Zone]

Those bear boxes or cabinets seem pretty secure, but it's got to be expensive to equip designated sites with those things. I'd think a cable system would be much less costly to set up, and would (should?) have the added advantage of being more likely to be set at proper height off the ground, and distance from tree trunks, compared to the average person's bear bag hang. Does anyone know how often cable systems fail to keep food away from bears? Aside from bears shaking loose packs that aren't fully clipped in? PCT method strikes me as superior, but so few do it well that a cable system is probably a better practical soltuion when you need a very high rate of compliance with an effecive standard.

[No Match]

The canisters 'roll.' A determined bear can roll one uphill three-quarters of a rocky mile! Just weeks ago, a guy wedged his outside of the Russell Field Shelter in GRSMNP. It was not there the next morning. It was found the next day several hundred steep yards below the 'toilet area.' If you are familiar with that area, you can't go as far as you would like for privacy due to it becoming so steep, hence the canister was 'over the near bluff.' Many AT campsites are on the crest. You are required by Federal law to hang the canister inside the GRSMNP, and to store it in all provided bear boxes out West in places like Sequoia/Kings Canyon. If you were unfortunate to lose your food in many of the Western mountains, it becomes life threatening. The Ursacks may not roll, but I did quit counting how many were ripped open this last summer along the AT.

[peakbagger]

I was part of group of four very experienced backpackers on the PCT in Washington State this fall , two who have done the AT, the other two have been backpacking for 40 years and do major yearly trips. At least in that section and section to the south I did years ago, the PCT hang or any other hang is fundamentally flawed as the majority of the trees are softwoods designed for heavy snow packs so they are very tall and skinny with branches that slope downwards steeply with very dense growth around the trunk. The concept of finding a branch sticking out without interference from a throw line were slim to none. In most cases it took 30 minutes to an hour to get the initial cross line up and usually the ropes were not on hard points so there was lot of sag in the line once the food was hauled up. Add in 6 nights of food for four people and it was quite an effort to get the food up to recomended height. I only saw one backpacker for 6 nights with a bear can and plenty of PCT thruhikers, they tended to skip the established campgrounds and I think hit the smaller sites called out on the Far out ap. When we did camp near them, none had bearlines. The PCT in that area had no bear warnings except at one site quite close to trailhead and tended to be near the ridgeline so it just may be that they were taking a chance as they were only a couple of weeks from the Canadian border and would have blown by that site to get to next road crossing.