Thought I would start a fun...yet somewhat serious thread as well. I'm thinking ahead to my trip in September, and rounding up all the odds and ends I'll need/want to take along. A few items have "smell" to them, that here at home I'd have no trouble keeping with me in the tent.....we don't have bears here (Iowa) unless one wanders down our way from up north. So here's a few items I am wondering if I should put in a bear bag-

1) Pepto Bismol- no my cooking isn't that horrible...but I never leave home without it- never had a trip ruined when I brought it along, haha.

2) Pipe tobacco.....I know, smoking is nasty...but for some reason when I am up in canoe country I pick up the habit for a brief while, then quit until the next trip, haha. Sir Walter Raleigh is my favorite brand around the campfire before bedtime:-).

3) Muscle Cream aka tiger balm, Bengay, Aspercreme, etc... the older I get, the more achy my muscles get after a long day of paddling......i use unscented, but always wondered if the menthol scented stuff was attractive to bears.

4) Sunscreen- has a nice coconutty smell to it, or the "sunscreen" smell depending on which brand.

SO what odd items do you put in the bear bag wondering if they are attracted to them??

Who knows what bears are attracted to.....but the bottom line is their world is all about smell. A common Indian saying is "the deer heard it, the eagle seen it and the bear smelled it". It's the reason I don't take Gulp fishing products into canoe country.

Tiger balm saved my bacon on one trip but man does that stuff give off some aroma. I couldn't help but think of myself as a mentholated tortilla while in my sleeping bag. But I'm still here;-)

Despite the emergency Tiger Balm situation my general rule of thumb is zero odors in the tent. No candy bar wrappers forgotten in a pocket, no food, etc. I also have "dedicated" sleeping clothing which has not absorbed any cooking odors or bug spray etc. etc. This also keeps your bag clean which is important if it is to perform well.

My very first BW weeklong trip was in 1983. As a young greenhorn I put our two white gas fuel bottles in with the food pack and hung it between the trees our first night out. Why? I have no idea. I now have them as souvenirs from when the big bear came to visit us that night. It ate everything but our coffee. Had to find out what was in the tanks I guess.

Only food gets put in the food pack up in the trees. If I put everything that has a smell in the pack it would be too heavy to hoist, and then I would be looking all over the place for little items. I don't sweet the small things anymore. If a bear gets my chapstick or toothpaste oh well. I do protect my whiskey and Cuban cigars at all costs but not in the food pack.

We put all smellable items in the bear bag or barrel. Once when out at Philmont we had a bear eat a scout's disposable cardboard camera. I guess he like the smell of the film in it.

quote OldFingers57: "We put all smellable items in the bear bag or barrel. Once when out at Philmont we had a bear eat a scout's disposable cardboard camera. I guess he like the smell of the film in it. "

That's pretty darn funny, haha. 20+ years ago I had a trip into the BWCA ruined by a camp raiding bear. We've never really figured out what he was after..other than he was conditioned to seeing a bag up in a tree=goodies. But that's a whole other topic of discussion. Though in your case, it has me thinking about all those times back in the late 80's and early 90's as a tween/teenager I packed half a dozen of those cameras on each trip to the BWCA and kept them in my tent!

20 Quetico trips. Never had a bear.
Never hung food in a tree and never used a bear proof container.
The only food we fry is fish. Hamburgers are pree cooked then boiled in plastic bags for dinner.
Keep campsite clean

20 Quetico trips. Never had a bear.
Never hung food in a tree and never used a bear proof container.
The only food we fry is fish. Hamburgers are pree cooked then boiled in plastic bags for dinner.
Keep campsite clean

quote timf1981: "20 Quetico trips. Never had a bear.
Never hung food in a tree and never used a bear proof container.
The only food we fry is fish. Hamburgers are pree cooked then boiled in plastic bags for dinner.
Keep campsite clean"

Just like car accidents, you can do everything WRONG and never have a problem and do everything RIGHT and have a calamity. Unfortunately, as in auto's, YOU are only HALF of the equation!

I confess, I like the bubble gum flavored Crest toothpaste, so it always goes in the food pack. I'm anal about not bringing anything that smells good into the tent!