As we all know there are lots of differing opinions on the subject of bears and food. Even among experts. I personally think Cliff makes a lot of sense on a great variety of subjects including bears. He does not stash his food a football field or even a half football field away but rather outside of the immediate camping area. Here is Cliffs take on bears. 35 years of stashing and has never been clipped is a good record.

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Now is the time for a disclaimer

I suspect Cliff is scrupulous in attention to detail. A bears nose rivals a dogs and if they can smell it they will get your grounded food more easily than treed. Keep in mind that however you decide to odor proof your food it must also be able to take the abuse of the trail. Unprotected ziplocks are likely to burst. Another reason I like the vault.

Perhaps if you like to eat fresh the foods that have the most potential for causing trouble could be treed. I still like the idea of as odor free as possible but equally important, IMO, is not using "the bear tree" that everyone else uses.

dogjojo wrote on Mar 11^th, 2011 at 1:50pm:


Those blue barrels aren't air-tight.  If they were you wouldn't be able to open them in the cool morning air.  Then, after you pack up and head out they'll want to pop open as the air inside heats up.  They have a little hole to allow them to breathe with the ambient temperature.  Not enough of a hole to warrant worries of water getting in except for condensation.

Only people with a deathwish keep food in their shelter.  There was a story years back about a kid who was dragged out of his tent by his ass.  That's the pocket that had the candy bar in it.

I've been canoeing in the bwca and the Q for many, many years, two trips every summer.  At first I hung the food pack over a tree limb but a) you can get hurt trying to throw a line over a high branch becaus you need to attach a weight to the end of the line and that weight usually ends up being a rock that often comes very close to hitting you on the head at some point, and b) the frustration and effort of finding a place to hang the pack and getting the line over the branch, etc., wastes a lot of time and energy and puts me in a bad mood.
I have stashed the food pack in the woods like Clif Jacobson recommends and I've never had any problems.

Also, I never filter my water and I've never gotten sick.  I learned a guy working for one of the Ely outfitters who told me that he wasn't supposed to say anything about it, but none of the people working for the outfitter filtered thier water.

Quote:

That's a different hole or a different design.

The hole I'm talking about is near center on the lid of my barrel.  The inside part has a little plastic plug that allows air, but inhibits water.  It's not intended to have something else put through it.