Blew $180 on a bear canister for the Sierra and it saved my whole trip

I did the Rae Lakes loop out of Onion Valley back in August and almost skipped the canister to save weight and cash. A ranger at the permit office said the bears near Charlotte Lake had been getting bold, so I rented one for $180 instead of buying. Night two, something big bumped my pack around 2am and the canister held. My buddy who hung his food in a tree lost his whole bag of dinners to a bear that same night. Any of you ever had a route where the bear situation forced a gear call you didn't want to make?

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max41511d ago

Man, that ranger warning is no joke and I feel like people treat it as one until it bites them. The thing I have learned the hard way is that it is never just the food, it is the smell on everything. Your buddy lost his dinners, sure, but that bear probably also chewed his pack straps and rolled his whole setup down a slope chasing the scent. Same deal for me in the Winds a few years back, a bear got into a friend's Ursack and it wrecked his tent vestibule trying to get at it even after the sack held. So the real lesson is that hanging food and even a good sack only buys you time, it does not stop a bear from trashing the rest of your camp. A canister is the only thing that makes the whole problem go away, not just the food part.

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