[Paddlewise] Bear Bags

.  How and where and in what do you store your food while camping?

2.  What are the less expensive alternatives to commercial bear bags, yet
are still effective?

3.  Anyone make their own bear bag and care to share the instructions?

Rick - Poquoson, VA


I've taken 2 16-day trips in the boundary waters and one 8 day solo trip.
We rented packs that had a basket liner for our food.  We were supposed to
hang it to the park specifications - I think at least 10' off the ground and
4' on either side and 4' below a branch.

But as to the bag itself, anything will work.  I used a day pack on my solo
trip and could carry my regular pack on my back and wear the day pack
backwards on my chest for portaging.

The last trip was just after most of the trees in the are had been blown
down and there were no places to hang our bag.  We kept a clean camp and
carried the food bag, sometimes by canoe, several hundred feet away.
Sometimes we even had a small island nearby.  We never had any problems.
There are canisters  for carrying food in bear country but I think they
would be very difficult to pack in a kayak. When kayak camping, I use a
duffle bag lined with a heavy plastic bag - I buy the garbage compressor
ones - for my food.  I would just hang this, first making sure that I had
reinforced the straps, or I would take a little hammock and tie the food up
in that.   I also have bought the nylon net bags that target has for
shopping and then took them to a upholstery shop and had nylon straps sewn
around the edges and for the handles - the original was cotton and not
strong.  I use them to haul groceries and other packages up the stairs to my
condo and also load them with camping gear to make it easier to set up camp.
They would be strong enough to hang your food in as well and only take up
about 2 fists of space when loose in the kayak.

You are most vurrnable to losing your food on portages where lots of people
use them.  So if you have to portage with 2 loads like I do, you have to
carry your food pack all the time as the bears are trained to wait for you
to set it down.  But in remote areas, using dried foods, and storing the
pack well away from the camp and the shore will provide enough safety.

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