Heading up north west BC next month.

Noticed how expensive bear bags/bear cans are.

I also noticed some sites and doc depts specify a type of bear protected food storage. But there seems to be no reasoning behind which they have chosen other than that they hire them if you don’t have. We plan to wild camp often so best we have some form.
R
So if we are going to carry one Which is the more often accepted solution ? Bear bag or a specific kind of bear can?

MEC gonna be the place to get it ?

I did a two night backcountry trip in Alberta last year we booked onto what they call ‘backcountry campgrounds’ one of them had a communal cooking/fire pit area away from the tents which also had bear bins/lockers to put all your food/smelly stuff in,the other site just had the bear bins away from the tent area, both camp grounds had a ‘H’ frame structure to string your food bags up but no one was using them.

MEC would be a good call also try ‘Atmosphere’ or ‘Bass pro shops’ for your bear aware stuff, we carried bear spray each and went to sleep with a knife and bear spray handy in case we needed to make a quick escape!

Did some backpacking in BC, mostly Vancouver Island.

I hung stuff from trees inside odourproof sacks, or used bear lockers where available. I might have preferred a bear can though because with the best will in the world, hanging bags in trees can be a pain in the bum, and that’s assuming you’re even camped anywhere near suitable trees.

I believe in Yellowstone there’s one bear that’s figured out a particular brand of canister, hence they recommend a certain type, but hadn’t heard of that in BC.

People are muppets though, if you’re anywhere busy you can pretty much assume the bears will go for someone else instead, like the idiots barbequeing next to their tent, or the morons who appeared to have scattered trail mix and M&Ms all over the beach surrounding their tents… 😯

Not to mention the woman who had decided to bring her dog into the Cape Scott Provincial Park, despite repeated warning notices about wolf attacks due to dogs in their territory, because ‘she’d already driven all that way’ 🙄

Anyway, if the weight and bulk isn’t an issue I’d probably say bear canister with odourproof bags. The bags are relatively cheap and I’m still using them back in Scotland just because they’re cheap and sturdy, good way to organise food in the rucsac.

The bear canister you wouldn’t have to tie to a tree though they are heavy but secure.

If you can contact the park administration/ranger ahead of time do that and ask them for their advice always useful.

Ian.

What bear bags you using ? The ones I’m seeing at 95bucks

We have 4 panniers this trip so given I generally carry the square route of **** all there will be plenty room for food and bear can.

Sorry misread . Odour proof bag inside a can . We can do that. Will be handy here in Angola too keep jeemy my pet mouse out of my food an all.

Aye, they’re the LokSak OPSak ones, think they come in different sizes.

The idea is that by being odourproof inside the can, there is no chance of a frustrated bear finding the can, failing to open it but then hoofing it off into the brush in frustration.

Need to treat them with a little care, my mate managed to tear one below the ziplok just by being hamfisted, and I think it’s possible to cross-zip the ziplok, best to press it home rather than try to ‘zip’ it by running finger and thumb along it. Sure that’ll all make sense if/when you buy a set.

Re: the $95 ones, I’m not actually 100% sure what the point was, sure the bear mighten’t manage to get into the bag, but he’ll just pulverise the contents from outside? 😆

In some of the NP’s in Alaska, you can hire bear cans, as its a requirement for you to use them before you are given a back country permit. I think several outfitters in AK hire too, so it might be worth having a Google to see if a similar hire is available in Canada. We were backpacking – they are a pain the arse as add so much bulk to your kit, but a necessary evil. Often where I have camped, there isn’t many trees (tundra etc) so dont rely on being able to hang it up.

Dont forget the Bear-muda triangle!

Just as a afterthought the Park advised to put all our wash stuff in the bear bag/locker as well.

Yep anything with a scent. I’m cool with that just not sure on what to buy to do the job .

^^^ yes – this too. Its a good idea to buy as smell free toiletries as you can, but they also need to go into the bear box. Also advised, if women can, they carry on taking the pill or similar, during back country trips.

This is the type of thing I’ve used in the past. But like I said, if this is a one off trip, just look at hiring them and go with whatever you can get from a rental.

My issue is it’s. A 4 week point to point. Starting in Vancouver going as high as port Rupert and back down to Calgary.

MEC dont hire them and let you drop them off at another store?

Sounds like a great trip – jealous!

To be honest fella we got chatting to a geologist guy who did a lot of field work around Banff and Kananaskis and he’d never seen a bear in 20yrs in the back country.

The parks advise you to just make noise as you travel, talking and such and when coming to a bend in the trail you cant see round make a whooping/loud noise so you don’t startle a bear gives them a chance to move out of the way.Everyone seemed to have a small bell clipped on somewhere so it tinkles away so the bears either know to get out the way or its meal time!

There’s some clips on youtube of a guy who goes solo for days on end in the Canada backcountry ‘martyupnorth’ might be handy for research ?

When I did singletrack six round golden, fernie and Kimberly last year there were bears seen close to the trails on three of the stages and we passed one going back to our hotel one evening. We had a bear bell and bear spray on us during the race

he’d never seen a bear in 20yrs in the back country.

I saw several – two very close up by accident in california without trying to hard to be off the beaten track as well as a rattler on the trail.

he’d never seen a bear in 20yrs in the back country.

I saw a bears bare bum on a highway outside Banff, a bear on the bike trail on the bow river, another on opposite bank when rafting and was warned of a bear nearby at Squamish when climbing – all in 1996 mind…

Everyone seemed to have a small bell clipped on somewhere

Yeah always wear a bell and carry pepper spray in bear country. You know when you are in bear country because the bear poo smells of pepper and has bells in it.

all in 1996 mind…

Yeah the bears of ’96’ were in a whole different league Matt.
They are all mostly tame now and cool with sharing space with humans 😉 A lot of the Canadians we biked with said ” Worry about the mountain lions” 🙂

I would get a big tin of Mountain Lion Donald Trump spray,nothing would come near.

I was in Banff few years ago local news reported that a lady out jogging got attacked by a cougar as she bent down to tie her shoe lace, apparently they stalk you and wait till your at your most vulnerable before pouncing !!