Well I have pulled the trigger on the Ursak (of course I did). My thinking is even if a bear did paw and gnash his teeth on the thing it is hard to hurt oatmeal and other sundry dried goods such as Mountain houses granola w/blueberries and milk.

What I do know is that if a bear finds your oats w/raisins and your granola there won't be even one flake left (thanks Mr Sawbill Lake bear). So let him gnaw on the bag for a while, won't hurt much.

And thats if he even finds it.........I pack my oats in a Nalgene wide mouth flexible bag "canteen" (96oz) which is the perfect camping food bag and completely airtight which strongly reduces odors.

I may have to give ST's steel cable suggestion some thought. Thank you for weighing in........ Might not be any trees to tie to where I'm going.........just a bunch of rock. Marmots might be a bigger nuisance than bears!