Bear Cannister or bag?

[Silverbak]

Just wondering everyones take on bear cannisters. Anyone use one on the AT? Are they worth the extra weight?

Thanks, Silverbak.

[hikerboy57]

Welcome to WB!! There is no better site for information if you're seriously considering a thru(or section hike for that matter).There are a gazillion forums available for you to check out comments on bear canisters. Most wil tell you its not worth the extra weight, many sleep with their food in their tent without incident, and bottom line- if you ask 1000 people youll get 1000 varied responses. I hang my food, and in areas where bears are prevalant, some have bear boxes, others have lines to hang from. I just use a sea to summit water resistant sack for my food and garbage.

[ScottP]

I might not be the world's smartest hiker, but I've never even considered using a bear canister (even where there's grizz and/or it's legally required). Seems like such a hassle, weight, expense, discomfort, etc.

[map man]

I always hung my food until the first time I hiked somewhere a bear canister was required. I bought a canister, used it, and found it to be much less hassle than searching for that perfect tree limb (usually very hard to find if one can be found at all), getting the cord over the limb, attaching bear bag, etc., etc. repeat night after night. So I would rather carry the extra 2.5 pounds for the canister and know my food is secure. I always use a canister now on the AT and elsewhere.

I know I am in the extreme minority on this.

[ki0eh]

I do use a canister as they are proof against mice, etc (more common than bears) and I hate fiddling with equipment. Plus I also backpack some on trails that have no shelters or picnic tables so the seat comes in handy.

[Lone Wolf]

Just wondering everyones take on bear cannisters. Anyone use one on the AT? Are they worth the extra weight?


depends on your fear level, experience, knowledge and gullibility. i've never hung my food for fear of bears. always sleep with it in my tent and i've slept more nights in a tent than 99% of WB members. do what you gotta do

[Blissful]

I never used one, but after the incidents in Georgia this season, I would consider for that state - spring and summer.

[rsmout]

Silverbak, many of my friends here on WB will tell you I'm the canister/container guy, ignored by several, loathed by a few. Canisters (what I call them) weigh 2-3 pounds, cost $40-$70+ depending on size and technology, and can be tough to open and use on occasion. They are legally required in some national parks (and you can rent them at the park, provided they have any). I use a BearVault original and a BearVault Solo (half the size of the original). Not the easiest to open, but the sides are straight, the opening large, and the clear polycarbonate let's me see what I have left without dumping everything out. Here are some of the reasons I a canister:

1. At present, there is only one bear in the world (Yellow-Yellow in the Adirondacks) that has successfully opened a canister, although her cubs might learned how. Almost all bears know how to open a bear bag once they get it on the ground (except maybe an UrSack - not a canister, and not NPS approved as a canister).

2. Other than the Yellow-Yellow exception, you can be sure the bear will never get your food, only waste a lot of time trying to open the canister, which gives you the opportunity to take a really good picture.

3. That bear won't waste its time on the next canister it sees, saving that next hiker from the horror of seeing a tent destroyed for the food bag the bear thought might be in the tent (Bear Fence Mountain Hut, SNP, last month).

4. If you get to a shelter late, it's dark, and well past hiker midnight, you won't piss everyone off by wandering around in the woods looking for a good tree for your bear bag, or jangling the bear cables for 30 minutes, or ringing the "come and get it" bear pole, or bumping into the bear on his way down to the shelter to shake the cables and/or bang the pole.

5. It's easy. Stick it under a log, put a rock on top, and you're done. I have always found it in the same place in the morning, untouched, on more than 50 trips in Alaska, Shasta-Trinity Alps, King Coast of California, Yosemite, Washington State, and the AT in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

6. It's extra weight that can be off-set by something else, usually something you're going to send home anyway.

7. It makes a good camp stool and it's hard to misplace. Better than sitting on a slimy log or a piece of sleep mat that you might forget you were sitting on.

8. I know I'll never get a $500 ticket for not having one where it was required by law (except that place in the Adirondacks, where I'm not planning to go anytime soon).

But all of this doesn't make me right, or wrong, just me. You asked for input, there you go. Hope it helps. Have fun on the AT!

[rsmout]

And just so you know, Lone Wolf has polled every member of WB to be sure he's slept out more nights than 99% of the membership, and given us all tests on fear level, experience, knowledge, and gullibility. It's a fact - we're not as brave or as smart as he is.

[Lone Wolf]

And just so you know, Lone Wolf has polled every member of WB to be sure he's slept out more nights than 99% of the membership, and given us all tests on fear level, experience, knowledge, and gullibility. It's a fact - we're not as brave or as smart as he is.

i ain't brave or smart. i just know stuff. instinct. i'm good that way. i'm comfortable in the boonies. 99% ain't :cool:

[Northern Lights]

I'm taking my bear cannister, only because I am a germaphobe when it comes to mice picking at my food. And thanks to a member here I will be sleeping with my food. That canister should make a nice foot rest. I'm not skeerd :)

[Sarcasm the elf]

I'm taking my bear cannister, only because I am a germaphobe when it comes to mice picking at my food. And thanks to a member here I will be sleeping with my food. That canister should make a nice foot rest. I'm not skeerd :)



That may be the best reason for carrying a cannister on the A.T. That I've ever heard.

I've never personally seen a tent destroyed by bears, but I've seen plenty ransacked by "critters."

[hikingshoes]

I use this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzRuEmdKIJ4 and hang it like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-hY-jwKaE

[AaronMB]

The first video linked above is "Private." The second--PCT hang--is a great method.

I [PCT] hang or use a canister when I know that I should and definitely when required, not so much because I'm afraid of bears or a fine, but because I'd feel pretty lousy if I knew it was 'my' fault that a bear got my food then had to be destroyed. I like not being one of those that prides themselves on not ever using a canister even when legally required. Regulations are there for the protection of the bears and other people - it's not all about 'me.'

[Kerosene]

Wow, a lot more canister using AT hikers than I would have expected. I don't recall ever seeing one on my varied section hikes.

I've never used a canister, and while it would be great to avoid having to find the right type of limb or rig up a PCT hang, there's no way that I would add 2 pounds to my pack just for that convenience. In fact, I traded in a 5-oz Ursack for a 2-oz silnyl for a rodent-resistant 0.85-oz Cuben fiber food bag from zPacks (http://www.zpacks.com/accessories/stuff_sacks.shtml). Of course, I can't sit on it but I rarely would need it as I'm not lugging an extra few pounds of weight which makes a real difference on my aging body.

[rsmout]

Yeah, every time I lift that canister I think about what I could have left out of my pack to off-set the weight. I carry too much food, so perhaps that's the solution. But I like the comments about the mice - I forgot about those guys, probably because I haven't had any problems with them. I would put mice above bears in terms of overall health threat - they pee and poop in everything they touch and they carry germs that could put someone in a hospital. And they gnaw holes in gear. They slide right off a canister, nothing to hold on to.

I've seen a lot of AT hikers that are wizards with hanging bear bags - it's all about practice. But the learning curve is steep in Georgia and that's where the bears learn their tricks.

Sleeping with your food. That's what the folks at Blood Mountain did back in March (I think it was March). Bear came in through the window, chased everyone out, then ransacked all the food bags. That resulted in the 15+ mile prohibition on camping and the identification of the nuisance bear, perhaps soon to be a dead bear. Bad habits, bad outcome.

[Blissful]

i'm comfortable in the boonies. 99% ain't :cool:


I'm getting there, slow but sure. :D Still need more trail miles and trips out west where the bears are more interesting than here.

I just love my tent too much to risk an intruder alert, big or small (esp as I have had my tent circled by a rabid raccoon, foxes etc in the middle of the night). Unless the weather is awful (like in the Whites in which I did use the LW method and somehow survived).

[BigHodag]

I switched to an UrSack after calculating how much of my life is spent tossing rocks over branches along trails. Now I just tie my food bag to the tree and I'm done.

Prior to that bear bagged using the PCT technique.

Interesting to read the canister users thoughts. Never seen a bear canister in use on the AT, but I only meet a very small fraction of my fellow hikers.

[Country Roads]

Only thing ever got into my food on the AT was at the old Stover Creek shelter area. We used the cables and had 2 food bags chewed open by either mice running out the cables and launching to our food bags or a squirrel using the same tightrope and fling method. Lost a small bag of trail mix, but just broke off the nibbled end of my payday bar and ate it anyway.

Mice and other critters probably worse than bears because we forget about them.
I have used a small canister once. It was nice to have it since trees were hard to come by. It made a nice seat. I lined it with an odorproof sack and just sat it along the edge of my camp place. I sure would not want a bear rolling my canister off a mountain side though, but bears only come back to places they have scored food from and at least they would not have scored any food.

That said, I usually just hang it up. I hang it as high as I can get the rope. Sometimes 40 to 60 feet up. I expect even a bear does not want to risk death for a food bag. So far, so good and I hope it stays that way.

[hikingshoes]

The first video linked above is "Private." The second--PCT hang--is a great method.

I [PCT] hang or use a canister when I know that I should and definitely when required, not so much because I'm afraid of bears or a fine, but because I'd feel pretty lousy if I knew it was 'my' fault that a bear got my food then had to be destroyed. I like not being one of those that prides themselves on not ever using a canister even when legally required. Regulations are there for the protection of the bears and other people - it's not all about 'me.'
Sorry about that and thinks for letting me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUaXmBZiKlQ

[GlitterHiker]

5. It's easy. Stick it under a log, put a rock on top, and you're done. I have always found it in the same place in the morning, untouched, on more than 50 trips in Alaska, Shasta-Trinity Alps, King Coast of California, Yosemite, Washington State, and the AT in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.



Thank you! I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it. (I guessed that just leaving it sitting out wasn't the right action, but wasn't sure what to do ...)