sinking your food

Have a favorite trail recipe or technique you'd like to share? Please do! We also like reviews of various trail food products out there. The Backcountry Food Topix forum is the place to discuss all things related to food and nourishment while in the Sierra wilderness (as well as favorite trail head eateries).
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bobby49
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Re: sinking your food

Post by bobby49 »

AlmostThere wrote:Bears that broke into kitchens in the Boy Scout camps ate the canned food. Explain to me how they know there is food in cans....
Very simple. If it looks like a food can, then bears know that they can find out with their claws and teeth.

A friend of mine submerged a 6-pack of beer into a stream overnight. The bear came along, fished it out of the stream, and then proceeded to puncture each can with its claws and sample the beverage, allowing the remainder to leak out.

I admit that I once submerged a 12-pack of beer into a small river, but that was mostly to chill the beverage for my friends. Part of the problem is that it takes a pretty big rock to keep everything submerged.
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dave54
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Re: sinking your food

Post by dave54 »

It's easy to keep bears aware from your campsite.

Find another tent nearby, say, a couple hundred yards. After they go to sleep, sneak over and smear some peanut butter or anchovy paste on their tent. Then YOU won't be bothered by bears during the night. :D
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bobby49
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Re: sinking your food

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dave54 wrote:It's easy to keep bears aware from your campsite.

Find another tent nearby, say, a couple hundred yards. After they go to sleep, sneak over and smear some peanut butter or anchovy paste on their tent. Then YOU won't be bothered by bears during the night. :D
Yes, and also try Oil of Anise. Black bears mistake that for the bear sex attractant smell. Dribble some of it on an old cloth and stick that six feet up on a tree trunk so that the breeze can carry it off to the nearest black bear nose.

Another one is catfood. Carry in a small can of catfood, open it, and let it bake in the sun. Let the bears sniff that from a distance.
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Re: sinking your food

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I'm thinking solar powered drone to just hover over camp at night.

Hell, it could carry my pack all day too!
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bobby49
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Re: sinking your food

Post by bobby49 »

Solar powered anything doesn't work so good at night.

You could set up a helium-filled balloon on a tether with an on-board trail camera facing down. At least you will get a photo of the animal.
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sparky
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Re: sinking your food

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Electrified Ursack
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MountainMinstrel
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Re: sinking your food

Post by MountainMinstrel »

Thanks for all the replies. For the record, it is not something I considered just something I heard about and wondered if it was a thing.
Just an old musician who loves the Mountains.
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Harlen
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Re: sinking your food

Post by Harlen »

Mountain Minstrel wrote:
.... he puts his food in a waterproof bag with a rock, ties it to a rope, and tosses it into the lake.
I assumed that this meant that the bag (?) of food was tossed into a relatively deep part of a lake, in which case, it would indeed be very unlikely that a bear would dive for it. Could one be so dexterous as to "reel in" the cord? ... or clever enough to simply hold onto it, and walk/haul the bag of food to shore? Perhaps, though burying the cord would help.

Almost There is correct about the bear's great sense of smell, yet it is also true that their testing of potential new food items is simply adaptive behavior. In Alaska, and elsewhere, bears are known to bite into most anything new- unfortunately, this includes float plane pontoons, oil and gas cans, met station equipment, kayaks, buoys, ... and pretty much any can of anything- including all of your beer! They seem to enjoy/or be intrigued by anything that provides resistance. This could again be a sort of adaptive behavior, since their chewing into natural things like tree trunks, rotten wood, hard fruits and nuts, and strong smelling items like hives has proved valuable to them. I think it is equally possible that for bears that have been around humans, they have learned that it is well worth testing out human items as likely sources of rich new food.

My dry-bags are certainly lighter than full-sized bear cans, but would they really prove water-proof if stored overnight in deepish water? If it really worked, it would usually be as easy as creating the perfect bear-hang in a tree or off a cliff- neither of which I used to rely on. In the years before bear cans, I always "defended" my food, and have never lost so much as a peanut.

Thanks for the interesting idea, and for the humor! :) The Harlens.
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Re: sinking your food

Post by SSSdave »

Strategy has been around for decades. In the past I've hid small quantities of sealed food under lake shore water...like a yogurt or can of beer. Zip Lock type sealed plastic bags of course have a mediocre seal and food in such would get wet. To actually seal such a bag requires proper tape across the top. As long as such is so sealed and out of sight from the shore, would not worry in the least. In any case to toss out a whole large sealed food bag on a rope would not be not my preferred choice if in a situation without a canister but rather traditional tree bear bagging. Above timberline without adequate trees, there are other well known strategies I'll refrain from relating herein lest it put ideas into small minds.
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Re: sinking your food

Post by oldranger »

This isn't the first time someone mentioned sinking food to keep it from bears and this isn't the first time I've posted this story. Back in 82 or 83 I stashed a beer in a creek, out of sight. When I returned in the afternoon the can was on the bank, empty, with a large tooth hole in the can! Also any technique can work if there are no bears in the area. The best thing about the food storage regs is that bears are less likely to hang around places with little natural food, for example high elevation areas. But if people start ignoring regs then bears are likely to spend more time at high elevations again.
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