Since it's been a few seasons with the new food storage requirements, what has everyone learned? What you doing now?

So far, my group has just opted to hang our food pack, but I am pretty tired of spending 30+ minutes searching for a unicorn tree, throwing a rock filled bag into branches, getting the darned thing snagged up, throwing over and over again because I have bad aim, having a buddy scale a tree to unstick the rope, etc, etc, etc. Sometimes the hang goes smoothly and takes 10 minutes, but sometimes it's a royal pain. I'm looking for something better.

My understanding is my options are the Ursack, those basketball sized plastic cannisters, and hanging. Did I miss anything?

The Ursack does not have stellar reviews online from people who have actually had bears test them. And even if the bear does not get into the bag, your food is certainly pulverized. Those slick plastic cannisters are fine...if you're just packing Mountain House for you and a friend on a 3-day backpacking trip. We usually have a 65L pack stuffed full of food.

I think we'll either have to keep hanging (ugh), stack several cannisters in a large pack (bulky), or...???

So what are you doing?

We hang our 5 gallon pails up in trees. They have gamma seal lids on them. After setting up camp I go out in the woods looking for a tree to use, and get the ropes ready for later. Not really a big deal.

Hanging is PIA. I have adapted to be able to use Ursacks and bear canisters, which I've been using for 20 years. YMMV I can get 7-9 person days of food in a canister. YMMV Ursacks now come in some larger sizes. If you read (and investigate), you'll find that many of the problems result from not adhering to "best practices". Many still hang or employ other methods and I'm sure they'll share that.

I have tried almost every method on at least one trip. I have hung packs, hung blue barrels, tied Ursacks to trees using their instructions, and used Bear Vaults (and similar brands). I have never had a bear in camp. My main goal isn't to protect my food but to make sure that I don't feed the bears creating a nuisance issue where they have to be put down. As "boonie" stated sometimes you just have to adapt. Hanging is a pain and the way that many people do it it's not effective. I couldn't care less if a bear crushed my food in my Ursacks (unless they punctured the pouch and it became contaminated) because it generally doesn't change the flavor. I don't paddle out into the wilderness to have a gourmet dining experience and I don't enjoy meal prep in the woods or cleaning up afterwards. I adapted by going to freeze dried foods so I can fit them into Bear Vaults. There are many great FD options available today. I try them all at home before I take them into the wilderness as a safeguard. There are as many bad ones as good ones. I can generally fit 7 days worth of food for one person into a BV500. After testing several brands I determined that the BV is the best choice for me; I like that it's clear, it's flat on top, and it has several other uses in the wilderness.

I got tired of hanging, and looked for a better way. I already had a bear keg from backpacking trips that they were required, but as you note, it is very small and didn't fit 2 people's food. So, I watched sales and picked up a 30l ursack for about 30% off.

I now do a combo of food storage. I put smellier stuff (whiskey, oil, breading, camp mug, trash) in the keg at night, and stash it. I can put all our dehydrated meals(I don't worry much about these smelling), and I picked up a few 2 gallon "smelly proof" brand bags from Amazon to put our other food in. I can easily take 2 people's food in these 2 containers.

This way, I feel like the food in the ursack is pretty safe from crushing, and all bear proof (if they can't smell it, they can't find it, right?). If a bear tries the "smelly" keg, good luck to him. I still try to keep a clean camp, keep aromas from the keg low too, to not attract unwanted visitors to begin with.

As we go, the ursack gets smaller and lighter. As we empty out smelly proof bags other items can go in the ursack as the trash gets bigger.

JN: "Did I miss anything?"

You missed the withdrawal of ALL the food storage orders. ;-)

Updates and/or confirmation of USFS bear/food rules

Okay…this may not even be legal anymore but I use the standard harmony blue barrel (1 barrel good for a week for 2) and stash it well back in the bush bike cabled to a smallish tree. Bwca and Quetico. We never prepare food on the barrel or otherwise add odors to its exterior. If in camp we have the barrel with us to use, out fishing and at night it is stashed. So far so good. My unscientific notion is that if there’s a bear in the neighborhood our campsite is 100x more smellorific as a potential food source.

We, like others, have hung food packs, used the 60 litre blue barrels, Ursacks and BV500's.

We dropped hanging years ago as no one wants to spend that much time and from our observation the bears can get to the packs anyway.

We dropped the 60 litre blue barrel as none of the guys wanted to be "that guy" that had to put that monster on his back and portage it.

One guy brought a Ursack. Ants and mice got in it.

So we use BV500's. You would be surprise how much you can get in one. The key is to transfer all the dehyrdrated stuff in the air filled packages to zip lock bags with the air pushed out, then pack it. The stuff in the zip locks will form around the other bags to completely fill the BV500. I can get meals for a group of 6 men in 4 BV500's for a week.

Those complaining about portaging them are missing the point of why they work. I distribute the BV500 containers, one to a canoe, for the portaging. Then no one complains and we still portage quickly.

I should add that we use the 30L size for two people and 2 30s for 3 or 4 people.
Esp with barrel straps it’s not bad to handle and ez to fit in the boats. We also stuff anything else that has an odor (tooth paste, chap sticks, etc.) in there as well as stuff in the plastic garbage bag.

I sink my bear vault to the bottom of the lake via anchor rope and boulders. It's the only sure way to keep the food safe.

Jokes aside. I use Ursack Major XL right now but getting the smaller 10L this weekend as well. I hang them per their recommendations at head-height on 4-6" diameter tree, away from camp but never too far away where I couldn't hear some nefarious bear behavior going on. Though admittedly, I have been too lazy to lift it sometimes and then I just tie it off at the base of the tree, it doesn't really make a difference as long as you have something lining it to keep creepy crawlers off.

Inside the Ursack I use turkey bags, which are ultra-cheap and so far have been durable AF. I hear so many bad things about the Opsaks tearing open so I never bothered even trying those given the price.

I solo more than I am in groups, and hanging a bag is just too much of a time-suck and PITA for me. And lugging around a 2.5lb BV500 after spending a fortune on UL gear seems silly compared to the 8oz Ursack, both of which hold about the same volume.

I don't think there's really a good solution here. I've tried just about everything out there and none of it is ideal.

Ursacks: Light, easy to pack, convenient, easy to use (tie it to a tree properly and you're done), but expensive, hard to get what you want when you want it, opsaks wear out too quickly and they're expensive, and if a bear actually messes with the bag most of your food is likely to be compromised.

Bear Vaults: Convenient, easy to use, and probably the most bear-resistant option, but heavy, don't pack well, not waterproof, expensive, and you need many of them to store food for a group of any size making them the least efficient in terms of weight.

Blue barrels: Waterproof, convenient, easy to use (I don't hang them and don't think it's necessary if you take the proper precautions, but that's another thing for another day), can carry large quantities of food easily, but heavy, don't pack well, expensive, questionable bear-resistance especially if not used with their limitations in mind.

Hanging: Light, cheap, but only as bear resistant as the skill of the person hanging and the education of the bears in the area. Super inconvenient and sometimes impossible.

Where I'm at currently is I'll use ursacks or the blue barrels depending on the type of trip and how many people are going, but I think there needs to be a better way.

"Bear Vaults: Convenient, easy to use, and probably the most bear-resistant option, but heavy, don't pack well, not waterproof, expensive, and you need many of them to store food for a group of any size making them the least efficient in terms of weight."

The BearVaults are also clear. . .you can see what's in them without opening them up. They can be used as chairs. And they can be made easily waterproof by simply wrapping tape around the lid when carrying in the canoe. They float like a bobber then. The key to reducing the number of Bearvaults you need is to make sure all food is compressed as much as possible before putting it in the BV500's, taking up every bit of space.

As to cost, they are cheaper then the Ursacks. And you can find them on sale several times a year at deep discounts.

ockycamper: ""Bear Vaults: Convenient, easy to use, and probably the most bear-resistant option, but heavy, don't pack well, not waterproof, expensive, and you need many of them to store food for a group of any size making them the least efficient in terms of weight."


The BearVaults are also clear. . .you can see what's in them without opening them up. They can be used as chairs. And they can be made easily waterproof by simply wrapping tape around the lid when carrying in the canoe. They float like a bobber then. The key to reducing the number of Bearvaults you need is to make sure all food is compressed as much as possible before putting it in the BV500's, taking up every bit of space.


As to cost, they are cheaper then the Ursacks. And you can find them on sale several times a year at deep discounts."

Good point about them being clear. I forgot that and it is nice. Packing contents tightly could be said for any of the options to save weight though. When you look solely at volume:weight they are the worst of the options which is why I say that, and the ratio gets worse the more food you bring.

I currently use;
One Yeti 50
Plus two bear vaults
Plus one Ur-sack

Next year I’m cutting back on the amount of food I bring. So I will likely replace the Yeti with my insulated Kondo’s food pack with the BWJ insulated poly box insert. Unless park regulations require a bear proof container or hanging. In that case I’ll probably again bring the YETI 50.

It’s too bad the YETI 50 weighs so much and has such little capacity. It does a nice job of keeping things cold and the access to its contents is far superior to a Kondos food pack, which is vertically-deep and dark to boot, with difficult to operate zippers and a tight fitting polly box lid that scrapes against the internal sides of the pack when you go to replace the lid. The Kondos/BWJ food pack keeps things cold but it’s a bear to work with when compared to a YETI — although the Kondos/BWJ is clearly much more portable.

I’d love to see YETI or a direct competitor design a cooler / backpack combo specially for wilderness canoe camping.

I use a 450 and a 500 bear vault. Since I eat freeze dried food, I can get all of my food in the larger one, (6 days) and use the smaller one for odds and ends. In camp, I stash the food away from camp. I use the smaller one as a waste container, and I stash that one in the opposite direction of the food, usually about 100 paces from camp. Both stashes are off the trail, and I use bandanas to indicate where to get off the trail and into the stash spot. I also keep a clean camp, which I imagine helps even more than my convoluted system.

Bearpath9: "I use a 450 and a 500 bear vault. Since I eat freeze dried food, I can get all of my food in the larger one, (6 days) and use the smaller one for odds and ends. In camp, I stash the food away from camp. I use the smaller one as a waste container, and I stash that one in the opposite direction of the food, usually about 100 paces from camp. Both stashes are off the trail, and I use bandanas to indicate where to get off the trail and into the stash spot. I also keep a clean camp, which I imagine helps even more than my convoluted system."

Be sure to add reflective tape to it as well. Very easy to see with a flashlight and super helpful if a bear tries to run off with it and moves it.

For those of you that use Ursacks, I recommend using the Smelly Proof brand bags or food grade mylar bags instead of Opsak. They last longer and are easily labeled and reused. You can never make anything smell proof to a bear, but the goal is to decrease the scent radius as much as possible.

If someone has had a mouse get into an Ursack then they are not closing it correctly. It is really important to follow the closure instructions on the Ursack website. I also use their quick release knot system shown HERE Just be sure to practice at home. If using more than one Ursack, I use different colored carabiners.

If I am carrying liquids like cooking oil or syrup, I use a bear canister just in case a bear goes after my Ursack. Liquid leakage is the most likely way a bear would get a reward from attacking an Ursack.