High Sierra Topix

so last sumer I put together a campervan. Currently we use coolers so we can store our food in our campsite bear box while the van is parked at a trailhead

but I do see RV's and campervans at trailheads all the time, which I know have fridges full of food in them. My gut says this is a bad idea

Would you consider a fridge in a campervan not visible from the outside parked all day at a trailhead safe? Or would you never consider doing that? We dont need a refrigerator in the van but it would be nice but only if I was confident it would be safe

Depends on the trail head, what food you're leaving in there, how much human & bear activity you expect, and how long you plan to be out.

There's quite a few trailheads with no bear boxes. I usually just leave the cooler in my car. Course, I also try and minimize any smelly items I store in the car if I know there's no boxes, and I'm usually just out for the day.

So if you're just holding some cold beer and some grapes for a snack after a day hike, that's probably more likely to work. If you're keeping a whole pizza in Yosemite for a week long backpacking trip... you get what's coming to you. Usually when the place goes to the trouble to provide bear boxes, it is because they're necessary and I try to use 'em.

Assume a week's worth of food at high bear risk areas
Fruits, veggies, meat, condiments, spices, ect for day hikes only, sleeping in the van at night

I mean now that I am typing all that out seems like a big no from me

I reckon Bears love beer! So you should definitely put all of your beer in the bear box. BTW, where will you be, and when are you going?

I think you're getting good advice here. We try to leave nothing smelly in our vehicle, no matter what the trailhead. If that means bear boxes, great. We've never lost anything placed in a bear box

If there are no bear boxes, we'll try to eat any food rather than leave it in the vehicle. We've had to load up with a few apples that we were expecting to wait for us at the end of a trip ..

my guess is that an efficient small fridge would have an airtight food storage compartment--that's what the gaskets around the door are for, to prevent loss of cold air inside the fridge. might depend on how worn they are. I have a cooler that requires that you dog down the lid and compress the gaskets--takes a slot of effort. the whole point of the design is to prevent air (and smell) exchange. if concealed, can't figure how it would attract a bear... another vulnerability might be the entry point of the cooling coils into the refrigerated space.

Coolers cannot be hermetically sealed, a bear can smell anything stored in non-hermetic storage devices, and most types of product packaging.

Canned items are safe because they are hermetically sealed. Regardless, you should hide all edibles from view, as Yogi learns to identify common items by sight. Therefore hide the beer! But most everything else is not hermetically sealed, and a bear will sniff it out if they get close enough to the item. They can even smell sealed, freeze dried meals. All such items need to be stored where bears cannot gain access to them. Back in the day before trailhead food lockers, I used to hang food items left at the trailhead, just as one does in the back country., regardless of TH location and bear activity. Risking a car break in isn't worth the property damage and consequences to the bear.

Ed

Ed is right.

I've never had issues with the fridge in my van. We cook in it regularly, so any smell that leaks out of a sealed fridge is relatively minor in the long run (we keep non-canned food in bear lockers, high value items like extra pouch meals in a drysack to avoid thru-hiker theft at resupply THs, or in the fridge). :/

It's a panel van with no windows in the back, and we cover all the windows in the cab. FWIW bears don't really seem to go for campers or RVs the way they do passenger cars - I've always been a bit curious about how RVs in campgrounds don't get ripped apart and have chatted with a few hosts about it. I admit to being a bit leery about parking at Kearsarge, but figure there's always someone dumber than I am nearby.

We boondock in our RV frequently. We have left it for the day with no bear problems ever. Even accidently leaving the grill out overnight with the grease and cooking smells has not produced any bear problems. Raccoon, raven, and rodent, yes, never bear.
On one RV forum I read the claim bears do not like the smell of some adhesive or material used in RV manufacture. I cannot verify the veracity of that claim, but RVs do not seem to have the same attraction to bears as cars do.