Camping Gear & Supplies

Bear Safety

You may have read standard bear safety books about how to camp in bear country. The advice provided by those books may suffice in areas where the chance of actually meeting a bear is small. But it falls far short of the precautions needed near a prime viewing site where your camp is almost certain to be visited by bears.

Bear-Resistant Food Containers

One absolute necessity is storing all your food, food-scented trash, and other bear attractants inside metal or plastic canisters that can resist the efforts of virtually any bear. For information on kinds and sources of bear-resistant containers, click here

Bear-Resistant Fences

Equally important is surrounding each of your camps with a bear-resistant electric fence augmented by an intruder alarm system. Let us emphasize the importance of separating your cooking and sleeping camps by at least 50 yards, and of surrounding each with an electric fence.

Granted, even where bears abound, many campers ignore that advice. I have seen even State and Federal biologists or rangers sleep within a few yards of where they stored food, cooked and ate -- in some cases while camped right beside a heavily-used bear trail. Some trusting souls have even cooked highly scented foods like bacon. When interviewed, they admitted to assuming that having an electric fence would keep out any bear, and that all they needed to do was use separate tents for living and sleeping vs. food storage, cooking and eating.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. A properly designed, installed and operated electric fence can reduce intrusion risk. But, if the food is attractive enough, some bears may come right through the fence. This happens even with permanent fences that are extremely stout and perfectly grounded; so no wonder it happens with relatively flimsy camper fences, that may be poorly grounded.

Design information and instructions for minimizing intrusion risk can be found by clicking here

When we arrive in bear country -- usually by plane or boat -- we usually have more gear and supplies than we can c electric fence to keep it safe while we are gone. Upon arriving at our sleeping area, we set up a second fence system around our first load, then return for the second load. When the last load is on our backs, we pack up the landing-site fence and haul it to our kitchen site. At the end of our tip, we reverse that sequence. This minimizes risk of having any of our gear damaged or losing food to a bear -- and of ending up in a dangerous confrontation with a bruin.

Shelter

Sleeping Tent

Kitchen Tent

Spare tent

Food Storage

Latrine

Rubber raft, etc.

Cooking