# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Cooking, Food Storage, & Preserving >  Cooking and camping safely in bear country

## Monkeynick

How it going everyone,
I had a question for anyone familiar with bear country.  I wanted to know the proper protocol for cooking away from a parks designated site.  Could the more experienced give me some do's and dont's concerning cooking where you're going to sleep, burying and keeping food, really anything I should know about cooking and sleeping away from a populated campsite in bear country.  Thanks everyone I appreciate your advice!

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## Rick

Monkeynick - Do a google search for "camping in bear country". You'll get a ton of articles. A couple of things to remember. You don't bury food, you hang it in a tree high enough so a bear can't reach it and away from your camp site. Do your cooking away from your camp site as well. Bear's have a very keen sense of smell and any food that you leave in your pack or tent will attract them. They will smell the cough drops in your jacket pocket or the chewing gum in your backpack. I saw a demo once where they put an empty candy wrapper inside a plastic cooler inside a locked vehicle. The bear tore the door off the vehicle and went straight for the candy wrapper. Their sense of smell is that good. 

Frying bacon is a about the same as ringing a lunch bell for bears. For some reason they go for the smell. Of course, bacon is one of the staples of life. 

That's the extent of my experience. I'll let others fill in with their experience.

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## trax

I've always buried food. What's a bear at a distance going to smell sooner, something wrapped up in a sealed box under a couple feet of moss and dirt or something flapping around in a tree branch? Plus, your food doesn't spoil. Burning food wrappers is definitely out, the smell carries longer for some reason and draws them in. If you catch fish, or have been successfully hunting,  clean them far far far from your campsite. Like bacon, the smell of the fish or animal guts will draw bears from far and wide. A small yappy dog seems to be a good deterrent for most bears if you can tolerate the racket yourself. I understand why the bears leave personally.

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## canid

i'm a big fan of hanging, and i seldom feel inclined to camp away from suitable trees [as evidenced by my hammock sleeping preference]. in that vein:

Do have a weatherproof bag suitable for hanging for your foodstuffs and one for your garbage/dishes/utensils.

Do have enough sturdy cord [50' +] to hang your food from at least 15' in a a suitable tree.

Do select a branch that is at least 6' out from the tree's trunk, sturdy enough to support your load of goods without them slipping even if the branch is given a strong shaking but not sturdy enough to support a 60+ lb animal [cubs investigate hanging food aswell.]

Do make sure the tree is not next to your sleeping site.

Do make sure your cooking area is away from our sleeping site.

Don't wipe hands on your clothing after or while eating. if you do, Do make sure those cloths go into the bag with the dishes [rather than with the food, to aviod contamination]

Do wash your hands [and face if need be] before going to sleep.

Don't take snacks with you to bed. bears can even smell granola in a sealed bag.

that said; when time comes to hang your food, keep it in one bag and your dishes, trash, etc in another, adjusting contents from one bag to another if need be to get the weight roughly eqqual. find a good long stick to help you get your bags down before hanging them where you can't reach. toss one end of rope up over a suitable limb and then tie it off to one bag. pull the free end untill the bag is lifted up about to the limb it's hanging from. now tie the other bag off to that end up as high as you can reach. tie all that free rope left over to that bag so it's not just dangling loose. use the stick to lift that bag up so that both are hanging evenly. you can later use this stick to pull one bag down for retrieving your stuff.

this is most helpful for areas where bears are used to getting food from lazy people, and where they are often most agressive about it. i hae less trouble in more remote areas.

these measures aren't always nessecary, but you don't want to find out that they where one night when you're already asleep and didn't take them. the more you do to keep your food from bears, the less bears where you camp will learn to exploit people and the safer you and the bears both will be.

that's my 2c.

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## Rick

Burying gives the fuzzy camper wannabes a free meal and leaves me without my yummies. If I hang it in a tree then I generally get to keep it.

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## trax

> Burying gives the fuzzy camper wannabes a free meal and leaves me without my yummies. If I hang it in a tree then I generally get to keep it.


I cannot agree, for one thing if the branch will support your food, a bear can probably get to it, they're more likely to climb than dig and they're very unlikely to get a good enough whiff if it's buried properly. I've never had bears bother my camp though, that could just be luck.

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## Sourdough

And if the nearest tree is 117 miles away???????? Then what?????

And if the ground is frozen in the spring down 5 feet??????

And if they eat your Zodiak Inflatable boat that you had 150' from shore????

If you encounter 70 to 80 Brown bears a day what then????

If you have 7 Brown Bears in camp at one time.??????

If they dig a nest next to the tent and snore all night, then what?????

There is an answer to this riddle? In fact two workable answers.

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## Rick

And if the nearest tree is 117 miles away???????? Then what?????
The bear won't bother me.

And if the ground is frozen in the spring down 5 feet??????
You have to dig 5 1/2.

And if they eat your Zodiak Inflatable boat that you had 150' from shore????
Prepare for one giant belch (these aren't that tough, you know)

If you encounter 70 to 80 Brown bears a day what then????
It's a convention and the hotel is probably booked. 

If you have 7 Brown Bears in camp at one time.??????
One of them is without a partner so don't suggest dancing music

If they dig a nest next to the tent and snore all night, then what?????
Snore EZ

There is an answer to this riddle? In fact two workable answers.
Bear Box and Bare Boxing

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## Tony uk

If your eating i would suggest MREs, No cooking smells and really nice  :Big Grin:

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## canid

> And if the nearest tree is 117 miles away???????? Then what?????


then you won't likely find me camping there. where trees don't grow, homie don't go. a few occasional exceptions of course.

as for the bear getting to the limb your food is hanging from, that's why proper tree selection is important. if you want 100% chance no bears getting to your food, set it on fire before bedtime  :Big Grin:

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## Rick

Set it on fire? The bear, the tree or the food?

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## Tony uk

> Set it on fire? The bear, the tree or the food?


The bear, dont need to set food on fire, eat the bear,  No need to set the tree on fire, its already cooked

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## crashdive123

> And if the nearest tree is 117 miles away???????? Then what?????
> 
> And if the ground is frozen in the spring down 5 feet??????
> 
> And if they eat your Zodiak Inflatable boat that you had 150' from shore????
> 
> If you encounter 70 to 80 Brown bears a day what then????
> 
> If you have 7 Brown Bears in camp at one time.??????
> ...


Well with all of this, I'm thinking Holiday Inn. (No room service though, I like to rough it)

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## BraggSurvivor

Drink lots of water and urinate the perimeter of your campsite......works for me.

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## Monkeynick

BraggSurvivor, very interesting.  I know human urine will keep deer and small animals away.
Does any one think human urine around your campsite will keep a bear away from investigating the smell of food?

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## Rick

Bragg - Are you saying it keeps you out of the camp site or keeps bears out? I'm confused.

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## Tony uk

Does it keep Rick out ?

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## canid

it will really only keep animals away which are either able to recignize the sent of humans and are wary of them or animals that are wary of unfamiliar sents and critters. sometimes this probably applies to some bears.

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## trax

Most animals are afraid of people, bears are not.They'll shy away from fire and usually from loud noises.  How close around your campsite are you going to establish that pee-rimeter?... cuz it sounds kind of gross.

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## canid

depends on the bear and it's experiences trax, you should know that.

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## crashdive123

> Drink lots of water and urinate the perimeter of your campsite......works for me.


And it makes for fun at night when playing with a blacklight.

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## trax

> depends on the bear and it's experiences trax, you should know that.


that's why I mentioned usually with the loud noises, it doesn't take them very long to get accustomed to noises. If you're firing bullets into the air or the ground to scare off a bear, don't fire all of them. If he hasn't packed his azz outta there after the first couple of shots, put the third one in him. I mean..you know...if you feel threatened.

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## canid

yeah. that's actualy how many blackbear attacks have happened. they start persuing somebody out of curiosity and the person lets the curiosity turn into the bear thinking 'i'm pretty sure i can eat this thing, or at least play with it for a while'

if their fear/trepidation disolves before the curiosity does, you have a dangerous bear on your hands.

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## Rick

Inviting a couple of neighbors to drop by: 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EzdKfjkcxuU&feature=related

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## canid

that one's got nothing on this

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## crashdive123

Nice one canid.  The coffee that sprayed out from my nose was about the same when I saw that commercial on tv.

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## Rick

Here's an interesting article on protectoring yourself from big game with a handgun. If food precautions don't work, it's nice to know you have a Plan "B": 

http://outdoorlife.com/article.jsp?I...0&categoryID=0

Thoughts?

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## canid

i may be crazy [it's never been proven] but i do trust bear spray. anything not deterred by that stuff just might deserve to get me. that aside, a nice magnum handgun or a 12ga pump is about as safe as you're going to get, if you have the clarity to use it.

i read that article and i'm glad they mentioned feral dogs and boar. those worry me more than deer, elk, bear or the rest of the run of said mill.

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## Beo

Burrying the food works well, as does hanging it if its high enough on a strong branch although Rick very few branches will support the weight of a truck load of twinkies :Big Grin:  bear spray works good as does an air horn to scare them off (so I been told on the air horn).

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## Last Mohican

Just pee on the bear. That should take care of the situation.

Then he will be both pissed off and pissed on.

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## trax

Except canid's bear, that son of a gun knew martial arts. I don't think I can pee from a great enough distance to accomplish what you're suggesting LM, cuz I don't really want to get that close to a pissed on/pissed off bear. LOL.

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## Tony uk

> Except canid's bear, that son of a gun knew martial arts. I don't think I can pee from a great enough distance to accomplish what you're suggesting LM, cuz I don't really want to get that close to a pissed on/pissed off bear. LOL.


Its all in the technique trax

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## Rick

If I was that close to a bear, peeing is one of two things I'd be doing. I would guess the smell of the second one would be the greater deterrent.

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## trax

> Its all in the technique trax


thanks Tony, I really really really don't want to learn any more about it...

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## Tony uk

> thanks Tony, I really really really don't want to learn any more about it...


Your Welcome  :Big Grin:

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## dilligaf2u2

I have camped in bear country. I have a bear valet. I have never been bothered. I cook and eat at least 100 feet from my camp. I never have food on me. I clean my pots and pans, right after I eat. I hang the valet in a, between the trees, method. Making sure it is tied off high and very well. Then at belt level, I wrap some cord around the tree a few times. I have found this cord messed with but my food was up between the trees safe and sound and no bear around. 

A yapping dog helps or one that p's on everything in the area.

How do you tell if someone from California has been camping in Grizzly country? Check the bear scat for little bells. 

Don

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## wildWoman

I hang food if I can; if it's not an option because the trees are too small, I leave it on the ground, in both cases about 200 yards from the tent. I cook where the food is, not where I sleep, preferably so that the smell won't waft over to the tent.
If you go where you can pick your own campspot instead of having to camp on established sites, check that you're not on a game trail. They won't come to eat you but you may wake up to a fair bit of traffic at times.
Forget "bear bells". Instead, just keep your eyes and ears open, holler out some sort of jingle every now and then, particularly if you're going into the wind. Bears can be pretty inattentive to "traffic", and you want to alert them that you're coming.
Pack some bear spray, just use common sense, don't get too freaked about the whole thing, dogs are a lot more dangerous than the bears!
We live in bear country, have done lots of backpacking and paddling, and our conclusion is that bears just want to do their thing. They can be curious and it helps to learn about their body language because then you will find encounters quite enjoyable as you'll understand what they're "saying". Check out www.bear.org for info.

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## Rick

WildWoman - You always have some great posts. I guess bears are a lot like sharks in that you only hear about the bad encounters and never the good ones. Nice link!

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## wildWoman

Charlie Russell wrote a couple of good books on bears, both black and grizzly, from a different perspective. Very worthwhile reading for anyone interested in _not_ being scared while hiking/camping among bears. 
I think we tend to be unnecessarily scared of predatory animals we don't encounter much. If we applied the same feelings to humans and dogs, nobody would be walking the streets any more.

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## trax

> If we applied the same feelings to humans and dogs, nobody would be walking the streets any more.



Good point wildwoman, I'd much rather be walking where the bears are than on city streets and sidenote: I have no problem with dogs....

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## Beo

I think wildwoman said it all.

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## JDJ

I only have experience with black bears.  Clean fish and game on the far edge or just away from camp.  Burry or hang food, don't leave it in or next to the tent.  Most bears are sensible enough to get the hell away from you or hide, when they aren't hiding or running away I worry. 

Darned raccoons are the worst troublesome food bandits.

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## crashdive123

I haven't done much camping or trekking in bear country, but I read something that makes some sense.  If you're trekking, cook and eat your meal about 30 minutes before you stop for the day, that way your camp will be far away from the cooking site.  Of course you still need to be concerned with storage.

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