Bear Canisters

Hey Codger,

I really hope you make it to the river this year.

AFAIK, there is no regulations anywhere in Ontario that require food vaults, when canoeing. I've hung food bags for many years and had zero problems.

It seems like, in some ways, you guys in the USA have more restrictions than we do, although quite often it is seen as the reverse (especially gun laws).

I also read that in some backpacking areas you have to carry out your own feces? That's the day I'll be staying home. :(

Doc
 
I rowed a raft through the Grand Canyon a few years ago and all fecal matter must be stored and rafted out. You are required to take your whizzes in the river (or the wet sand on the banks, for women). With at least 24,000 people per year descending the Canyon, I can see where that's necessary.

Otherwise, I haven't encountered the fecal carry out requirement in my travels.

DancesWithKnives
 
If you are in the Mt Whitney zone you have to carry out feces. They issue wag bags at the trailhead.

Back to the subject of canisters, they say that now the bears are so used to them that they may sniff them and see if they are open, but if they are closed they will move on. My own experience bears this out. Last summer I was camping at Charlotte Lake in Kings Canyon, and one morning when we got up my canister had been knocked over. There were some huge bear tracks (the biggest I have ever seen) around it. It looks like the bear knocked it over to check if it was closed properly, but didn't roll it around any (otherwise I would have heard it).

A few years ago I had my scouts at Thousand Island Lake, and one of the scouts did not close his canister properly. Apparently, he thought that the thunderstorm we had would keep the bears away. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the canister being rolled around on the rocks. The bear cleaned him out, he had no food left. It was the third day of a six day trip, so it was good that his father and brother were there to share food with him.
 
Glad I'm not a Whitney climber (well, not in the last 30 years, anyway)!

I've heard the same thing about bears in heavily travelled areas. Two of my backpacking pals have had bears walk by containers without even checking them. Some bears see them, know what they are, and don't waste the effort.

I have had similar experiences using paradichlorobenzene mothballs. Went out for a hike during the day and came back to big Griz tracks through the middle of camp. Didn't even walk in the direction of the stinky zone created by the mothballs.

DancesWithKnives
 
I've never carried/used a canister (yet) and have really only had one run-in with a bear in all of my years in the woods, and that was over a fresh raccoon kill. Bear wasn't afraid of gunshots (pistol shot in the air), so I retreated and let the bear have my coon.

I haven't been anywhere that required poop to be caried out either, but I have read that some places want backpackers to carry out their used toilet paper. I don't remember where that was though.

Doc, my old 15' canoe was stolen last winter and I only have the little 10' Dagger Tupelo left. But the way my body is reacting to the cold this year, I doubt that I could handle a winter canoe trip like I did in years gone by.

Spring hiking/backpacking may be my key to getting out again beyond a day hike if I can flenagle a way to get the gear all together by then. I'm picking up pieces here and there now. A mate in Australia sent me a stainless billycan last year. One magnanamous member of this forum is sending me a new Air Core sleeping pad! Man! That guy is a champ! And no, I didn't ask anyone to, I just got a "Merry Christmas" email from the guy saying to expect it in the mail! How can anyone not love (in a non-sexual he-man sort of way) these guys!:thumbup:
 
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