Hello welcome to another episode of Papa Bear Hikes. Today we're going to talk about Bear Canisters. What they are? Why

will she be using them when and where? Over the last several years I've hiked sections of the

Appalachian Trail and I've seen a number of methods used for people to store their food overnight.

These methods have included the standard hang a bear bag from a tree and hope you did it right hope it's far enough from the tree and high enough off the ground so a bear or critter can't get to it.

I've seen bear boxes in places like New Jersey and throughout Massachusetts, but I've also seen people just hang your food in the lean to.

Thinking, well, bears are afraid of people. They're not going to come into the

air into the lean-to. Well, that's nonsense. There's been several stories of

bears going in and taking food. They haven't hurt the people because all they

really want is the food.

And I have even heard two stories of people who told me they slept with their food

with the same logic.

Well I'm using an odor-proof bag and besides bears are afraid of people again nonsense bears have been

known to rip through tents with people in them think about how frightening that

would be at two in the morning to wake up to a bear claw it, trying to claw its way into your tent.

So yes, people, I'm going to be blunt here, friends, could be really stupid, which is why I want

to talk about bear canisters. First of all, what is a bear canister? Well, it's a

polymer container. It's their plastic, hard-sided, and there's a few manufacturers out there. I use the Garcia bear cash. And the one I use, it's black and you have to use a coin open up the lid to it and you put your food

inside it and you close it back up. I use a note of proof bag and sign mine. There's

others like Bear Vault that you have kind of a safety type mechanism on the lid that you

have to use your thumb and your finger to push in, kind of like you would have for a child safety

bottle that you'd buy in the pharmacy.

Whether it's aspirin or over-the-counter or maybe even medication bottles.

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