We were using three kayaks from Spring Creek where Dan works...used previously and for sale.  He picked them up the day before we left and didn't look at the tags on them, so some were outdated and some didn't have any tags.  It was our fault.  Both the DNR and CO were USA.  They were kind to us but couldn't overlook the problem completely.
We always hang our pack and if we can't we tie it to a tree trunk with two separate ropes.  I use sailboat pulleys too.

What I bring in I pack out, didn't even have a fire on the last trip. I also check the bear reports when I PU permit. Hanging the food pack more and more-the pulley from the local sail shop makes easy work of it...maybe the video is doing trick, but I suppose it could be all the mice and....even saw a bear on the last trip, better than smelling one How goes the battle Riversend?

intrepid_camper wrote on Aug 29^th, 2010 at 2:06am:



I've modified my origional post to a form of question rather than an assumption.... .....

:question...what form of improper licenseing was the  (naughty}watercraft displaying  :question

and , I take it that a MN. DNR game warden and an Onterio MNR C.O. were conducting international border sharing enforcement, as I,ve seen done a few times in the past  :question

Well we have returned from the forbidden Bear Zone of Knife Lake and did not have any problems.  We did see bears on two different occasions on our trip, in broad daylight.  One was on the top of a ridge we paddled by, and as soon as he winded us he was leaving.  The other we saw about 600 feet as the crow flies from where we were camped two nights.  I went out paddling and turned the point we were on to find a bear in the next little bay, he/it was coming down to take a drink out of the lake.  I was down wind of him so he didn't smell me and I paddled up nearly to him, maybe 30 feet away.  He was suspicious but still didn't really know what I was and wasn't scared of me,  I sat in my kayak and yelled at him and swung my paddle around in the air and finally splashed water at him which made him retreat about 15 feet into the brush.  Dan and Mike were at camp so I paddled back and gave them a head's up about the bear before I continued on my way.  They kept an eye on the food packs and had a sling and pile of rocks for ammunition but the bear never approached the camp.  36 hours later we were packing in the morning to leave and I kept hearing a large thing in the brush around camp and saw trees moving un-naturally.  I never saw what it was but think it was the bear, waiting for us to leave so it could come in and investigate the campsite.
Our last evening out we camped near the Birch Lake portage drop-off for the tows from Moose Lake.  A C.O. and a DNR fellow stopped to check our permits, etc. (got a ticket for improperly licensed boats  )  The DNR guy said Ensign Lake has had several bad bear reports recently.

Why tempt fate? For that matter I'll avoid sites with excess garbage strewn about as I learned the hard way what that meant. I'd stay there if I had to but if there was another option I'd surly take it.

Lakers? I burn the stink and some of the foil and pack the edges out. I got more on foil at some point but for now that has always seemed reasonable.

I have a question for those who believe they can control what a bear might smell. Especially the one trip portage types. Do you pack your food or anything cooking related with anything tent related? It occurs to me this could be a trick question. That's not my intent. It's a legit question.

FWIW - if you fish, and catch/clean/cook fish (especially lakers), you're gonna smell like fish. Like everything else, you just get used to it and don't notice and yes I have seen a bear stand to wind a laker being cleaned a quarter mile away. I could smell it too.

Burn it.  I tend to burn all food smelly things.  If I'm not having a fire that day then I'll ziplock it all up and burn when I can.  Tinfoil burns, just don't breathe the fumes.

The skin is the best part when cooked crispy.

intrepid_camper wrote on Aug 12^th, 2010 at 8:34pm:
[highlight]

Well, guess if I were a bear hunter, then I'd stay where a bear might be found.......but  I don't hunt bear, so I camp pretty much where I feel camping  ....if a bear wants to invite itself into the place I chose to camp....well then.....may the best varmit win....

I eat the skin, or at least most of it. Then I lay the foil in such a way, the fire burns up any remains. I make a point of not being down wind as I don't want my clothes saturated in anymore food odors than necessary.
Lk Trout being an oily fish "probably" contains more oily residue than so called drier fish. At least that's what I tell myself.

I leave the foil in fire pit until next morning and then roll into tight ball and put in zip-lock garbage bag, inside plastic liner of my food pack.
Since I hang my pack, I don't worry about odors from the fish foil anymore than I do from my packaged food, which is not vacuum packed, but stored in Zip-locks with the air squeezed out.

Since this thread has mentioned clean camp, and efforts to minimize smells I will ask this question here, now, rather than start a new thread. 

What do you Lake Trout fisherman do with the delicious smelling tin foil you use to cook up the trout.  And, do you eat the skin or burn it?  The foil and the skin seem like they would smell awfully good to a passing bruin.

If we're sharing bear tales, I'll give the full details on the ziplock story.

This was about 15 years ago, in Banff NP, near Lake Minnewanka. Our first campsite was only 5 km's or so from the trailhead, easily reachable after getting off work in Calgary on Friday afternoon, and a good headstart on a long weekend backpacking trip.

After arriving, we set up our tent, had dinner, and were enjoying a cup of tea. Two other groups were set up in their own corners of the site (so it's not like Q - in the Rockies NP's, there are fewer backcountry campsites, and you have to stay at those designated sites, so you often have to share.) My backpack was propped up against a tree, with the food pack sitting in the main pouch on top - still lots of time to hang it up.

The black bear mentioned in the previous post wanders into camp from our end, has a sniff around, and heads over to my pack. Pulls out the food pack, and fishes out the ziplock containing the Nanaimo bars, ignoring the granola, dried soup, pasta, etc. Takes the bag a few metres into the bushes and scarfs down the whole thing - three layers of ziplocks, one layer of Stretch 'n' Seal, and one of wax paper, plus of course the Nanaimo bars.

Still hungry, the bear heads back to camp for more food. Nothing else in my food pack of interest, so he heads over to the next group: boy scouts in the process of cooking stew over an open fire. Totally undeterred by the fire, he has a sniff of their cooking, but this is not what he wants.

Over to the last group. Well, the two guys there had a great idea before setting out. "We can take a couple of frozen steaks, wrap them in our foamies, and they'll still be frozen when we get to camp!"

By the time the bear arrived in camp, the two guys had already eaten the steaks, and at this point were standing with the rest of us off to the side watching the proceedings. The bear belly-flopped the tent to collapse it, took one swipe to open it up, and proceeded to eat the steak-flavoured foamies.

During all this, someone must have made it back to the highway, because shortly thereafter, a park ranger arrived, dispatched the bear, and hauled the carcass over to the other side of the lake, well away from the area's hiking trails.