Bears like human food. Bears with a taste for human food will do anything – shred a tent, rip off a car door or maul. Below treeline in the lower 48 states, or in any non-glaciated area of Alaska, proper food storage is part of camping. Don’t take bears lightly.

To keep bears from food in the backcountry, several popular options exist: hang the food, use an electric fence, or carry bear-resistant food containers. Many backcountry areas have rules about how food should be treated. National Parks often require bear-resistant food containers, while other parks have steel boxes or hanging systems at established camps.

Hanging
Hanging your food is perhaps the lightest solution. All you need is a stuff sack and 50-feet of 3-mm cord or thin Spectra cord. To hang your food bag, throw the cord over a branch and pull up your food bag so it is at least 15-feet from anything. Understand that a standing grizz can be over eight feet tall. Hanging the bag from a cliff or huge boulder (at least V1 bouldering difficulty) also works. While hanging often works for rodents like marmots and chipmunks, bears can regularly find a way to get to the bag.

Bear-Resistant Food Containers
BRFCs are small, bear-proof plastic barrels for backpacking and are the safest food storage method. They are mandatory in many regions such as Denali, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks. Find the regulations for the park before your visit.

The standard BRFC was the Garcia Backpackers' Cache. This 700-cubic-inch canister holds six days of food. But the Garcia will drive you insane. The lid uses a coin to unlatch two screws. A flange makes the inside opening frustratingly small. The black walls make the contents a guessing game. It’s heavy. It’s awkward, etc, etc.

Luckily the Garcia Cache has some competition. The new standard BRFC is BearVault, which eliminates much of the Garcia headaches. The BearVault has clear sides making the contents visible, and the wide opening allows for easy sorting. The BearVault comes in a 700-cubic-inch size (2-lbs 9-oz), which can hold about seven days worth of food, or a 440-cubic-inch model (2-lbs 1-oz), which can hold about four days worth of food (for one person).

Interestingly, back in 2007, it was reported that a bear at Marcy Dam in the Adirondacks learned to open a BearVault. Even after the company redesigned how their lids close in 2008, the bears in the Marcy Dam area still were able to figure out how to open BearVaults, so this is the only place BearVaults are not allowed. One other problem reported with BearVault canisters is their bulk.

Hello Ursack!

The Ursack is an 8-ounce bag made from bear-proof Spectra fabric. This soft bag ditches the bulk and weight that make hard-shelled BRFCs so nightmarish. To keep a bear from trundling off with your bag, Ursack supplies a Spectra cord to tie the bag to a tree or rock. The only real problem with Ursacks is that while the bear can't get into your food, they can gnaw the sack till your food is mush (unless you use the Ursack aluminum liner, but that adds another 11-ounces, plus the bulk).

Odor Bag
Ursack claims their OPSak is 17,000 times more odor-resistant than HDPE bags. My friend Louis Sass proved this true on a float of the Hulahula River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A grizzly spent 20 minutes licking his frying pan, but never sniffed the bacon sitting next to the frying pan. The bacon was in an OPSak. Thus, I’m taking OPSaks on my next trip. Anything to keep the bears and me happy.

Electric Fence
Another solution is zapping the bear with 7,000-volts. Electric fences are popular in polar bear country, but also work in all bear country. I left a food-loaded base camp unattended for a week in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with no problem.

Most electric bear fences have heavy poles and netting for setting up around a hunting camp or around an airplane. The Electro Bear Guard UltraLight made by Eagle Enterprises stands out among available fences. The UltraLight weighs only 2.5-pounds including fence posts, wire for a 20- by 20-foot area and a charger that uses two AA batteries for 72-hours.

Always research the habits of the bears in the area you're visiting. Some regions have chicken bears that run from humans. Others see humans and come running. Whatever system you use, make sure to test the gear at home first so you're not caught in the wilderness with your pants down (metaphorically speaking). And don’t let your guard down when you get out there – be consistent with your bear safety, or the bear will consistently eat your food. 

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