Camping with a pack full of dog food in bear/cougar territory

Coyote Red

Coyote Red

New member
Bout to be out with the pup in the pnw we ran into trouble years back with cougars tracking us shes a small heeler. Gonna be on the coast with a tent and was wondering do y'all camp with dog food in the tent or do you take the time to string it up away from camp? Got some bear spray this time around but trying to be careful though. Can't tell if I'm putting too much thought into this cause of last time we got tracked.
 
Coyote Red said:
Bout to be out with the pup in the pnw we ran into trouble years back with cougars tracking us shes a small heeler. Gonna be on the coast with a tent and was wondering do y'all camp with dog food in the tent or do you take the time to string it up away from camp? Got some bear spray this time around but trying to be careful though. Can't tell if I'm putting too much thought into this cause of last time we got tracked.
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No your not .. bears kill every year whatever you do....Do Not I repeat Do Not KEEP FOOD IN YOUR CAMP in bear country string it up a good ways away I've had bears knock the cooler out of a tree I don't even cook in my camp now cougar's are difficult to say those bastards will track you for days stay vigilant is all i can say
 
Hey man good question. There are lots of good ways to stay bear safe with food or food smelling items in bear country. Lots of parks require you to use a bear canister to keep your foodstuffs in. This is a hi impact plastic can, more or less, that you can shove all your food into so that bears cant eat it. Once your food is in the canister you then put it far away from your camp (500 feet or more is recommended if I recall correctly). Bear lines are also a good rule of thumb food safety technique. All your food and food smelling items (like toothpaste sunblock or deodorant) will go into a large bag. The bags tend to be a light rip-stop nylon but any bag will do so long as things are not going to fall out of it. You then tie this bag to a long cord and hoist it up into a tree. You can tie the line off or use the PCT method which is more safe in your area but it can be a little tricky. The idea being that the food is both high enough off the ground (more then 10 feet) and far enough from the trunk of the tree (more then 5 feet) to be unreachable by the bear. All this is important for bear safety but what your doing is also for the safety of the bears themselves. When bears learn that humans have food they tend to become aggressive about getting that food. This then makes them a "problem bear" and they will be hunted down and killed most likely. You might also look into dog safety around bears and other predators because I know that's a whole different thing.
 
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