How do you store food while overlanding in bear country?

[Hummelator]

I've camped in bear country all my life. I remember one trip with a bunch of my buddies where we got lazy and decided not to put our food away one night. Woke up with a couple visitors picking through our garbage- not a bear thankfully. Just a fox and a skunk. Generally though I will take my cooler and trash and either put it in the canopy of my truck or in the back seat of the cab with the windows sealed. I've never had any issues with curious animals trying to get into the truck for a snack. Reading through this thread though it seems others have had bear issues with food in vehicles. I won't be changing how I store my food when camping but take what I said with a grain of salt and decide what you're most comfortable with.

 

[calicamper]

If you leave a Yeti outside of your vehicle while away - there is a better than fair chance it won't be there when you return.

Many parks with "clean" site rules forbid coolers left out in plain sight. Rangers will collect them. Our recent Grand Tetons visit the ranger giving the session talk we attended was also one of the top bear guys in the area. First thing he said was they had people driving through to tag and collect gear left out. They have a zero tolerance for that.

 

[Koabean]

Yes, and such parks tend to have bear lockers. If so, you are crazy if you don't use them. Terrific things for people and wildlife. But I think the OP was talking about dispersed camping in primitive sites without such amenities.

Without organized storage, if backpacking you (first choice) hang a food bag, or (second choice) use a bear canister or ursack. If overlanding, I stand by the bear-resistant cooler under a tarp. Take it with you if you leave camp in a vehicle.

 

[calicamper]

Yes, and such parks tend to have bear lockers. If so, you are crazy if you don't use them. Terrific things for people and wildlife. But I think the OP was talking about dispersed camping in primitive sites without such amenities.

Without organized storage, if backpacking you (first choice) hang a food bag, or (second choice) use a bear canister or ursack. If overlanding, I stand by the bear-resistant cooler under a tarp. Take it with you if you leave camp in a vehicle.

Sort of even YellowStone camps are not fully bearlockered. Tahoe campgrounds are better equipped with bear lockers than YellowStone but you dont have every Ranger and fence post telling you to have bear spray like YellowStone. I've never seen Bear Spray even stocked in typical Tahoe stores like it was in Yellowstone.

Most of my camping has been back country stuff. We would string up the whole pack containing our food between two trees. Many times we woke to a bear and beat the ******** out our pots and pans yelling like crazy. Not ideal but the bears never returned. Lol

People as in large full campgrounds help.

 

[zoom17]

I think common sense is the key here. Keep a clean campsite and make sure food and garbage are not by you tent. I've camped in bear country most of my life and never really had an issue. If I'm in a heavily populated bear area I make sure my cook fire is away from my camp.

I do think that bears know what a cooler looks like and will go for it if possible. They are not stupid animals.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

We camp several times a year in bear country, only black bears but they can still be a nuisance, thankfully they are not usually aggressive. We burn any food scraps and packaging and have 2 dogs, also store the food box and coolers away from the tent, knock on wood we haven't had an encounter yet.

 

[mallthus]

Yeti type coolers are a good bet.

Better yet, setting up motion-activated lights and an alarm, will do wonders to deter most critters, including bears. There are perimeter alarm systems designed for backpackers that include trip lines that can be looped around brush. These are better than motion sensors, in that your tossing and turning inside your rig won't activate it, nor will small animals, but bears will set it off and high tail it.

Here's a couple (neither of which I have personal experience with)...

http://www.packalarm.net/

http://brite-strike.com/CAPSS.html

If you're looking for a more assertive solution, a portable electric perimeter fence can also be useful.

https://kodiakcanada.com/collection...cing/products/kodiak-bear-stop-electric-fence

 

[silverfstop]

Yeti type coolers are a good bet.

Better yet, setting up motion-activated lights and an alarm, will do wonders to deter most critters, including bears. There are perimeter alarm systems designed for backpackers that include trip lines that can be looped around brush. These are better than motion sensors, in that your tossing and turning inside your rig won't activate it, nor will small animals, but bears will set it off and high tail it.

Here's a couple (neither of which I have personal experience with)...

http://www.packalarm.net/

http://brite-strike.com/CAPSS.html

If you're looking for a more assertive solution, a portable electric perimeter fence can also be useful.

https://kodiakcanada.com/collection...cing/products/kodiak-bear-stop-electric-fence

Since you brought it up: This seems like a good fit for one of those older-school aftermarket car alarm systems w/ proximity sensors and whatnot. Put the cooler in your parked, locked truck, lock truck and set alarm. When something approaches it'll start making sounds and noises, and if the car is touched the alarm can go full bananas - including sirens, flashing lights/strobes, etc.

That might just do the trick.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Since you brought it up: This seems like a good fit for one of those older-school aftermarket car alarm systems w/ proximity sensors and whatnot. Put the cooler in your parked, locked truck, lock truck and set alarm. When something approaches it'll start making sounds and noises, and if the car is touched the alarm can go full bananas - including sirens, flashing lights/strobes, etc.

That might just do the trick.

Animals have very sensitive hearing so it should work.

 

[Happy Joe]

We have black bears here, we consider it a worthwhile trip if we see them, mostly they avoid humans; there was recently a bear attack, and one that was raiding homes had to be put down, though...
A dog in camp seems to keep most critters away (a shame, since having deer/elk checking us/the camp out, and/or bears running past; is kinda neat).
Food that needs to be kept cool, is stored in a Pelican cooler chained to a tree, dry foods and things like rolls, bread, cookies, etc. are kept in a large, air tight .50 cal. steel ammo can (or occasionally, some smaller metal Bradley boxes); definitely will stop small animals, bears might or might not get in, depending on their level of motivation & experience; as far as I know none has ever tried...
No food is left in the vehicles or allowed in or near the tent.
All wrappers, cans and food remains, used cooking grease etc. are burned in the fire pit (when there is no fire ban)... I have seen critter tracks around the pit in the mornings but that is all.
We wash up before retiring and do not use fruity or herbal smelling or perfumed soaps.

Enjoy!

 

[jeep-N-montero]

We have black bears here, we consider it a worthwhile trip if we see them, mostly they avoid humans; there was recently a bear attack, and one that was raiding homes had to be put down, though...
A dog in camp seems to keep most critters away (a shame, since having deer/elk checking us/the camp out, and/or bears running past; is kinda neat).
Food that needs to be kept cool, is stored in a Pelican cooler chained to a tree, dry foods and things like rolls, bread, cookies, etc. are kept in a large, air tight .50 cal. steel ammo can (or occasionally, some smaller metal Bradley boxes); definitely will stop small animals, bears might or might not get in, depending on their level of motivation & experience; as far as I know none has ever tried...
No food is left in the vehicles or allowed in or near the tent.
All wrappers, cans and food remains, used cooking grease etc. are burned in the fire pit (when there is no fire ban)... I have seen critter tracks around the pit in the mornings but that is all.
We wash up before retiring and do not use fruity or herbal smelling or perfumed soaps.

Enjoy!

Dang ground squirrels/chipmunks are usually the biggest nuisance and will try to chew through about anything to get to a snack.

 

[Voodoo Blue 57]

I wonder about Fridge/Freezers mounted inside a vehicle. I know they are air tight /odor tight but there is always residual odor after opening. Enough to attract a hungry bear. Anyone have trouble with Fridge's? Maybe covering it with a tarp or towel so it can't be seen.

I was camping in a campground that had 4 other occupied sites. Somewhere around 4:30pm a black bear could be seen walking through the trees about 100 yards away. All of a sudden it took a right turn and headed to one of the unoccupied sites (campers had left for the afternoon). By the time we got to where we could see the bear, it was in the processing of tearing the lid off an aluminum ice chest like it was a wet newspaper. After downing a litter of coke he grabbed a bag of cookies and laid down under a tree to eat them. After finishing the cookies it went over to the tent, stood up and starting pushing the tent over. This is when we grabbed our pots and pans and chased it up into the hills.

Moral of story, even if you're leaving your site during the day for a short time....secure your stuff....don't make it easy for them. This bear know what it was doing.

In this case I think the bear saw the cooler sitting out, knew what it was and headed directly to it.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

I wonder about Fridge/Freezers mounted inside a vehicle. I know they are air tight /odor tight but there is always residual odor after opening. Enough to attract a hungry bear. Anyone have trouble with Fridge's? Maybe covering it with a tarp or towel so it can't be seen.

I was camping in a campground that had 4 other occupied sites. Somewhere around 4:30pm a black bear could be seen walking through the trees about 100 yards away. All of a sudden it took a right turn and headed to one of the unoccupied sites (campers had left for the afternoon). By the time we got to where we could see the bear, it was in the processing of tearing the lid off an aluminum ice chest like it was a wet newspaper. After downing a litter of coke he grabbed a bag of cookies and laid down under a tree to eat them. After finishing the cookies it went over to the tent, stood up and starting pushing the tent over. This is when we grabbed our pots and pans and chased it up into the hills.

Moral of story, even if you're leaving your site during the day for a short time....secure your stuff....don't make it easy for them. This bear know what it was doing.

In this case I think the bear saw the cooler sitting out, knew what it was and headed directly to it.

It's funny how "human-like" bears can be, some are seemingly more intelligent as well.

 

[calicamper]

Dang ground squirrels/chipmunks are usually the biggest nuisance and will try to chew through about anything to get to a snack.

Yep they've always been our biggest issue

 

[Superduty]

Whenever I read an article or a forum post about bears and camping, there is always some reference that bears know what coolers look like, so you should have them out of site or covered with a tarp, etc in your car. On the other hand I always see that bears can sniff out food, etc so don't leave anything around.

So, do the bears smell the coolers and try and get to what's inside, OR do they simply recognize the cooler and go for it. If the hidden cooler trick really works, then I surmise they aren't smelling it.