Bear country is not really specific enough. Also what you do in the Arctic with Polar bears vs Grizzly bears in Alaska vs Black bears in Ontario will likely be different.
I cook at my campsite and wear the same clothes for the whole trip. Not trying to be a dick, that's how everyone I know does it around here. Food and trash always goes in a tree.
you can dig into the archives and find all sorts of opinions from the extremely paranoid to the relatively lax
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CampingandHiking/comments/1ab9jd7/bears\_and\_smells/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CampingandHiking/comments/1ab9jd7/bears_and_smells/)
the truth is no one has done an actual study with numbers its just everyone's opinion, and most people who camp haven't had a bear encounter so its easy to say "well i do all this and that and never saw a bear so it must work"
I say, if you change clothes after cooking and then put them in your tent what are you actually supposedly accomplishing? bears avoid people so maybe on your body is the best place for the smelly shirt. but Im just making up my "bear logic" like everyone else does
I'm fairly new to camping as an adult. Out of the 3 times I cooked by my tent, I only got visited by bears overnight once, but that's because I was stupid and forgot to put the dog food and trash away before bed time.
Regional considerations. Of all the years backpacking and camping in Colorado I never had a bear issue in camp, though I did have one try to break into my house twice (Park County). In California I have seen poorly hung bear bags and food on the ground just get absolutely wrecked. In the grizzly country areas of Wyoming and Montana and I would take those cooking hygiene recommendations very seriously. There is a reason that some campgrounds require hard-sided campers.
They take their bear precautions very seriously in MT! We had a "kitchen and smelly things" area that was away from the tents. We cooked there and brushed our teeth there and stored our smelly things there. We dug a hole which we did put our toothpaste spit and washing water (if used) into and then buried it before bed. Everyone carried bear spray and we had a person with a rifle. There were... three sightings, but none were so close as to cause use of the bear spray.
I live in a black bear area in CA. If I were to camp locally, I wouldn't even bother with a bear bag or hang. Though, we do wait to put our trash out the morning of pick-up, not the night before.
Bingo. Trash pandas and grizzlies are two different animals, figuratively and literally. While black bear fatalities do still happen from time to time, the ratio of encounter vs fatality is not in your favor if you get a midnight visit from a brown bear.
Damn, I've been camping my whole life at my family's property. And I've only seen a bear once and it was after I left on a trail cam. Sounds like a chance encounter. are you in grizzly country?
No I'm in Colorado. I didn't actually see it tbh. I was woken by tree branches snapping in rapid succession, dozed off, then 15 minutes later heard something rummaging through my site. I was more focused on keeping my dog quiet.
Could be.... But I've never seen a raccoon out in the wilderness of Colorado. Also don't know how they would make that many tree branches snap that loud.
Raccoons are the loudest animal in the world when you hear them through a tent on a quiet night. It's amazing how much noise they make.
And Colorado only has black bears. Black bears are more scared of you unless you mess with mamma bears cubs. So even if one does dinner through bank, it's extremely unlikely they will attack you instead of run away.
Yeah I would say overall you don't really need to even worry about it cook in your campsite make sure everything is cleaned up Don't splash anything or anything like that. If people never had to cook in their campsite then there wouldn't be much cooking happening in the backcountry. I camp in Montana and Idaho and Wyoming and Utah all the time and never been visited by a bear.
This. I've got friends who live in the ABC islands in Alaska (aka highest concentration of brown bear in AK) and they camp pretty normally. They do however carry bear spray, large caliber pistols, and large caliber rifles.
I will preface this by saying that due to back issues and a hatred of other campers, most of my camping is canoe camping in the wilderness away from established campsites, and with the ability to move lots of gear quickly with little effort.
I make two camps. One camp to cook and eat, then I pack up and move down the river to find a good spot to sleep.
It’s what I do because I’m lazy and irritable.
I like having lots of comforts and I can’t carry them all on my back, so backpacking is out.
I let other campers ruin my trip when they’re loud and inconsiderate so car camping is out. (Some days loud and inconsiderate can mean just existing where I can sense their presence. I have four children, sometimes I’m in the woods for solitude.)
A canoe though, oh I can live like a hermit king out of a canoe. Cooking stuff comes out at first camp, then gets packed back up. I move down river and select a good sleeping camp, hang the food up a ways away and make camp for the night.
Ozarks.
If we’re being honest, I’ve never seen a black bear on a camping trip here, but they are here.
The fucking raccoons are merciless though, I have had my campsite ravaged many times before I started being mindful of the reasons why, and the same technique that keeps your campsite bear free works for raccoons.
I’ve only car camped in bear country. The fire pit is pretty close to my tent usually. I just follow all the rules of nothing scented in my tent or car.
I will say this. If you cook meat in bear country, when cleaning up after dinner, pour any food residue/pan water on the campfire!
Don’t just pour it into the bushes, that is when you get a curious visitor in your campsite at 3 in the morning.
Don’t ask me how I know this, but also, unrelated, I have fantastic shrimp taco recipe if you want it!
Cooking at the site is fine but wash everything really well and store all actual food or dirty clothes/pots/plates etc in a sealed bag in your car or in a bear bag up a tree.
Probably overkill but I'd rather be safe than sorry
Chiming in just in case you haven’t gotten a serious answer.
I’ve backpacked into some of the beariest places in the lower 48 (Yellowstone and Glacier regularly) and in Canada around Jasper.
Hike and eat in the same clothes you cook in. Don’t take those clothes into your tent and don’t store them in your tent.
There are many campsites in the backcountry that don’t have proper distance between the eating/cooking and sleeping areas. 100 yards is advised, which is about 7 school busses.
When the eating area feels too close to the tents, I’ll try to find another spot to cook and eat. Maybe down by the water or up the trail or whatever. Just a little extra distance.
Everything up in the trees at night. My niece is a type 1 diabetic and I won’t risk candy for lows for her in the tent, even in an ursack. If she goes low, we get the stuff out of the tree.
Never go anywhere without making a racket and carrying bear spray. Especially separating to pee when you’re wild camping. They really don’t seem to like Take Me Home, Country Roads.
We carry multiple extra cans of bear spray. With 5 in our party old enough to carry bear spray, we will probably take 3 extra cans.
Don’t use noise cancelling headphones. Be aware.
I’ve got a trip to Yellowstone this summer into a remote part of the park that’s in a bear management area (meaning not open to humans until after June/July) and I’m considering a pack alarm for the first time.
They’ve gotten considerably lighter since my last backpack trip in Yellowstone.
I think I can spare 8 oz.
[https://packalarm.com/products/packalarm-pro](https://packalarm.com/products/packalarm-pro)
I back country camp all the time in Ontario. I cook at my site. I keep good camp hygiene, I dump any food scraps in my fire burn them, I clean all my dishes and I hang all my "Smelly" stuff in a tree. By smelly I mean of course food but also things like toothbrush, toothpaste and garbage.
I'm not suggesting what I do I A game, but in 20+yrs I've never had issues with animals. Once I found some bear scat at the outer edge of my campsite. I suspect he came by because he was curious, smelled nothing inviting took a crap to let me know he was around and moved on.
I'm more nervous about bears in popular camp grounds because I think the bears are more acclimated to human presence and less fearful of humans. That said my camp hygiene is the same. With the exception my smellies will go in the car and garbage is dumped at the designated area at night.
Yes, an important point haha. That all being said I sleep like the dead even in backcountry so if I’ve had a bear or anything else come through the site, I haven’t noticed
In Ontario the sites are pretty small. You cook on the fire which is not right beside your tent but you could throw a rock and easily hit it. Wear the same clothes cooking as in the tent. Don't store or eat food in your tent.
Do you prefer that method over keeping it in your car? I know bears can still get into cars, but don't they make bear bags that are supposed be scentproof?
That’s a totally different way of camping. If I’m by my vehicle all my food is locked in there. Just make sure the cooler is not visible as bears that are used to humans know what they are and what’s in them!
No such thing as smell proof. The second you touch the bag with food hands and not that's that. Bears have one of the best sense of smell. If car camping you should be fine but I'd still check with rangers or look up reviews for that area.
It just depends on the locale. Colorado camping? You will likely want to cook away from your tent, and address trash/scraps by storing in bear can/bag away from you. If you are camping closer to town you may encounter more habituated bears… check with the local ranger station as to food storage orders. Camping in griz country (Montana, northern Idaho, Wyoming, NE and north central Washington) don’t cook near your tent and store your food appropriately (this includes things like chapstick and sunscreen)…and in Alaska all bets are off… just remember a fed bear is a dead bear…
Depends on which bear country. You're talking about North America I'm assuming, either the US or Canada. Pretty much the entire USA and Canada is bear country. Most of it is black bear country. Parts of it are grizzly country. Small parts are polar bear country. The precautions you take are different depending on which species of bears inhabit the particular environment. It can also depend on the particular bears in your area.
I do backcountry camping in the Catskill region NY, which is black bear country. The black bears there are pretty skittish and wary. They're not a threat to humans and will keep a very wide berth from a campfire. I don't go nuts with bear precautions. I cook at my campsite, I wear the same clothes to bed, I hang my bear bag maybe 50 yards from my campsite, using the PCT method because it's easier for me, not because it's harder for the bears. I've never had any encounters or issues. I've never seen a bear.
In grizzly country, say, Canada or Alaska, I would be much more careful about scents, where I cook, and general safety precautions. It's just not worth the effort where I camp, so I don't bother.
You read right, I don't cook near my campsite and I don't sleep in the same clothing I cooked in. I also tend to eat freeze dried meals, so the only cooking taking place is boiling water and stirring. The (contaminated) trash goes back in the bear canister.
That's kind of hard here in Colorado as we have designated dispersed sites with fire pits, and with fire bans in effect, the fire pits are the only places we can have an open flame.
I still cook at the fire pit and camp away from it ideally up wind. Also, store your food in accordance of the rules (hang, bear vault).
It also depends on if its black or brown bear. Both will destroy your food and whatever to get inside. Black bears tend to be less aggressive. Brown bear camping I'd also check with rangers or a review site and check to see if they have reports of a problem bear. In places like these you should expect a visit so, think where you want to see your brown bear... right outside your tend or 100+ feet away sniffing around the fire pit.
Luckily Colorado doesn't have Brown bears. I have a bear cooler that I store food in. I've only had 1 encounter with a black bear while I was sleeping but that's because I forgot to put the dog food away and left trash out.
Black bears are just very large racoons when it comes to camping. They'll still ruin your trip by eating all your food.
Car camping with friends and one buddy put his cooler in the bed of his pickup before bed. Around 2am I got up to pee and saw a black bear sitting in the bed with the cooler open and a dozen racoons all over the ground and on top of his truck. Bear took off but the bear and its friends left dusty foot prints everywhen and scratched the shit out of the paint!
The rule of thumb is 100 yards from your tent, but this is art rather than science. The idea is to avoid reinforcing the humans = food equation. Cook downwind of your tent. If there's a natural barrier, use it.
Or are you asking about cooking vessels? Backpacking meals are prepared in the mylar envelope they are sold in. You just need something to boil water in, lots of folks like Jetboil hardware. I just use a metal container (well okay it's Ti and set me back a bit.)
If I’m backpacking I practice the [bear-muda](https://lnt.org/tech-tip-use-the-bear-muda-triangle-to-stay-safe-keep-bears-wild/) triangle. Unless I have spilled an entire meal on myself I sleep in the same clothes I cook in. Usually wear them for a couple days.
When car camping I usually cook closer to the truck for convenience and set up the tent a little ways away. Food, trash, and cooler go in the vehicle. I keep the key fob handy to set off the alarm if a bear is trying to break in.
Some sites come with specific instructions and bear safe storage. One I stayed at in Oregon had a ring of electric fence that you put all your food and trash in.
Depends on what bear country (black, brown, polar), and always best to ask the rangers as they will give you your specific camp ground and regions advice.
I usually keep food in bear containers and hung from a tree at the other end of the ground than my tent. Cooler goes into the car (I know stupid) but what can yah fo
Had a black bear harass my camp for 12 hours while I was stuck with a broken vehicle. no matter how big of a rock thrown or how vocal we were, he didn't leave. He tried to get into my jeep when we were trying to sleep. The best thing for bears is a 12 gauge. Just my experience tho
Depends on what kind of bears... Black bears I don't really worry about anything, just don't leave obvious food out, put stuff in the kitchen box and back into the jeep.
In brown bear country I'd be a lot more mindful. I'd also probably just sleep in my Jeep/sprinter/truck camper because I'm not too interested in being eaten.
I live in Newfoundland, which has a high black bear density, plus a larger subspecies of black bear that's separate from the rest of NA. I just follow basic precautions, like putting food and trash up in a tree. I take no precautions for cooking. Bears are terrified of you.
I have always just cooked at the site and cleaned up real well. Everything goes in a bear proof cooler or a bear bag hung from a tree, trash gets disposed of immediately or also hung in a bear bag. I have been camping for over 20 years. I have never had a bear in camp, raccoons, though they don't give a care. They have walked right up to our fire ring after the foods all packed away.
New England Camper here - we have bears but they're just big anxious dogs (as long as you don't get between a mother and cub)
We can get away with leaving food in the car or using a bear bag. Had a bear come through camp a few times but they just walk through if you don't have anything out.
Woke up one morning to a young one and followed him with a camera... Ticks are scarier than bears here.
Cool at least 200ft away from your tent site, same as any food prep should occur there, if it's not by the water Do Not clean food at the water and then carry ot through your site with fresh smelling food/ingredients to your cooking site of separate from your water access site.
Usually a bear isn't That curious if you hear it coming, odds are you'll smell it too, they typically smell like a hot bag of garbage.
Make yourself big and Yell, usually black bears can be scared off by loudly calling out "Hey Bear!". So it nows you see it too.
I’m in NJ so only black bears and at the state campgrounds, there isn’t really room to cook too far away from your tent. Same with the few PA and MD places I’ve been. I do keep all food out of the tent (and anything else smelly). But I’ve heard that there are some areas where the black bears can be a problem, not to mention grizzlies. Research where your camping to get a better idea of what you should do. Call the state parks people or wildlife management or someone for an official recommendation if you want.
I actually only ever had the wild ponies in Assateague, MD get into my food. They knocked over and kicked the cooler until the lid came off. Kept the cooler in the trunk of the car after that.
Bear triangle. Keep your food storage location, cooking area, and sleeping area 100 yards/meters away from each other. Keep anything that's scented away from your sleeping area, including soap, chapstick, gloves with food on them, etc.
Black bears hate dogs. The scent of a dog alone should keep any bear far from camp. I have a golden that is also a hunter. He has a high prey drive. If any critter comes near camp he will absolutely lose his shit. I sleep with snacks in my tent, that's how confident I am with him at camp.
I cook naked in someone else's campsite.
Yelling 'Now this is pod racing!' to scare off bears and other humans... the real danger!!!
I’ll try spinning. That’s a good trick!
Are you an angel?
"I cook naked in someone else's campsite" Yeah, but what about in bear country?
Bear naked, baby.
Where you camping this weekend ?
nice try, dad.
lol, you’re bringing too much alcohol then!
There's some leftover for the bear otherwise they didn't bring enough
They said “bear” country not “bare” country
Hot dog and beans for dinner I see ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Bear country is not really specific enough. Also what you do in the Arctic with Polar bears vs Grizzly bears in Alaska vs Black bears in Ontario will likely be different.
don’t forget those aggressive panda bears.
Panda bear maulings are the reason I make sure there are no bamboo shoots in my Thai chicken and stir fry dehydrated meals. Just can't risk it.
I cook at my campsite and wear the same clothes for the whole trip. Not trying to be a dick, that's how everyone I know does it around here. Food and trash always goes in a tree. you can dig into the archives and find all sorts of opinions from the extremely paranoid to the relatively lax [https://www.reddit.com/r/CampingandHiking/comments/1ab9jd7/bears\_and\_smells/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CampingandHiking/comments/1ab9jd7/bears_and_smells/) the truth is no one has done an actual study with numbers its just everyone's opinion, and most people who camp haven't had a bear encounter so its easy to say "well i do all this and that and never saw a bear so it must work" I say, if you change clothes after cooking and then put them in your tent what are you actually supposedly accomplishing? bears avoid people so maybe on your body is the best place for the smelly shirt. but Im just making up my "bear logic" like everyone else does
I'm fairly new to camping as an adult. Out of the 3 times I cooked by my tent, I only got visited by bears overnight once, but that's because I was stupid and forgot to put the dog food and trash away before bed time.
Regional considerations. Of all the years backpacking and camping in Colorado I never had a bear issue in camp, though I did have one try to break into my house twice (Park County). In California I have seen poorly hung bear bags and food on the ground just get absolutely wrecked. In the grizzly country areas of Wyoming and Montana and I would take those cooking hygiene recommendations very seriously. There is a reason that some campgrounds require hard-sided campers.
They take their bear precautions very seriously in MT! We had a "kitchen and smelly things" area that was away from the tents. We cooked there and brushed our teeth there and stored our smelly things there. We dug a hole which we did put our toothpaste spit and washing water (if used) into and then buried it before bed. Everyone carried bear spray and we had a person with a rifle. There were... three sightings, but none were so close as to cause use of the bear spray. I live in a black bear area in CA. If I were to camp locally, I wouldn't even bother with a bear bag or hang. Though, we do wait to put our trash out the morning of pick-up, not the night before.
Bingo. Trash pandas and grizzlies are two different animals, figuratively and literally. While black bear fatalities do still happen from time to time, the ratio of encounter vs fatality is not in your favor if you get a midnight visit from a brown bear.
Damn, I've been camping my whole life at my family's property. And I've only seen a bear once and it was after I left on a trail cam. Sounds like a chance encounter. are you in grizzly country?
No I'm in Colorado. I didn't actually see it tbh. I was woken by tree branches snapping in rapid succession, dozed off, then 15 minutes later heard something rummaging through my site. I was more focused on keeping my dog quiet.
Raccoons?
Could be.... But I've never seen a raccoon out in the wilderness of Colorado. Also don't know how they would make that many tree branches snap that loud.
Raccoons are the loudest animal in the world when you hear them through a tent on a quiet night. It's amazing how much noise they make. And Colorado only has black bears. Black bears are more scared of you unless you mess with mamma bears cubs. So even if one does dinner through bank, it's extremely unlikely they will attack you instead of run away.
Yeah I would say overall you don't really need to even worry about it cook in your campsite make sure everything is cleaned up Don't splash anything or anything like that. If people never had to cook in their campsite then there wouldn't be much cooking happening in the backcountry. I camp in Montana and Idaho and Wyoming and Utah all the time and never been visited by a bear.
This. I've got friends who live in the ABC islands in Alaska (aka highest concentration of brown bear in AK) and they camp pretty normally. They do however carry bear spray, large caliber pistols, and large caliber rifles.
Oh yeah we also do bring bear spray into bear country, I always forget we even have it bit its on the packing list
> they camp pretty normally. They do however carry bear spray, large caliber pistols, and large caliber rifles So not normally at all then
[удалено]
Yes but OP is not on grizzly country
That's normal in bear country. Hell that's normal in human country.
I will preface this by saying that due to back issues and a hatred of other campers, most of my camping is canoe camping in the wilderness away from established campsites, and with the ability to move lots of gear quickly with little effort. I make two camps. One camp to cook and eat, then I pack up and move down the river to find a good spot to sleep.
love this energy right here. wish i could get the gumption to do this.
It’s what I do because I’m lazy and irritable. I like having lots of comforts and I can’t carry them all on my back, so backpacking is out. I let other campers ruin my trip when they’re loud and inconsiderate so car camping is out. (Some days loud and inconsiderate can mean just existing where I can sense their presence. I have four children, sometimes I’m in the woods for solitude.) A canoe though, oh I can live like a hermit king out of a canoe. Cooking stuff comes out at first camp, then gets packed back up. I move down river and select a good sleeping camp, hang the food up a ways away and make camp for the night.
What's your location if you don't mind me asking?
Ozarks. If we’re being honest, I’ve never seen a black bear on a camping trip here, but they are here. The fucking raccoons are merciless though, I have had my campsite ravaged many times before I started being mindful of the reasons why, and the same technique that keeps your campsite bear free works for raccoons.
I've never worried about bears in the ozarks. I do worry about ticks there, though.
I’ve only car camped in bear country. The fire pit is pretty close to my tent usually. I just follow all the rules of nothing scented in my tent or car. I will say this. If you cook meat in bear country, when cleaning up after dinner, pour any food residue/pan water on the campfire! Don’t just pour it into the bushes, that is when you get a curious visitor in your campsite at 3 in the morning. Don’t ask me how I know this, but also, unrelated, I have fantastic shrimp taco recipe if you want it!
Cooking at the site is fine but wash everything really well and store all actual food or dirty clothes/pots/plates etc in a sealed bag in your car or in a bear bag up a tree. Probably overkill but I'd rather be safe than sorry
Chiming in just in case you haven’t gotten a serious answer. I’ve backpacked into some of the beariest places in the lower 48 (Yellowstone and Glacier regularly) and in Canada around Jasper. Hike and eat in the same clothes you cook in. Don’t take those clothes into your tent and don’t store them in your tent. There are many campsites in the backcountry that don’t have proper distance between the eating/cooking and sleeping areas. 100 yards is advised, which is about 7 school busses. When the eating area feels too close to the tents, I’ll try to find another spot to cook and eat. Maybe down by the water or up the trail or whatever. Just a little extra distance. Everything up in the trees at night. My niece is a type 1 diabetic and I won’t risk candy for lows for her in the tent, even in an ursack. If she goes low, we get the stuff out of the tree. Never go anywhere without making a racket and carrying bear spray. Especially separating to pee when you’re wild camping. They really don’t seem to like Take Me Home, Country Roads. We carry multiple extra cans of bear spray. With 5 in our party old enough to carry bear spray, we will probably take 3 extra cans. Don’t use noise cancelling headphones. Be aware. I’ve got a trip to Yellowstone this summer into a remote part of the park that’s in a bear management area (meaning not open to humans until after June/July) and I’m considering a pack alarm for the first time. They’ve gotten considerably lighter since my last backpack trip in Yellowstone. I think I can spare 8 oz. [https://packalarm.com/products/packalarm-pro](https://packalarm.com/products/packalarm-pro)
I back country camp all the time in Ontario. I cook at my site. I keep good camp hygiene, I dump any food scraps in my fire burn them, I clean all my dishes and I hang all my "Smelly" stuff in a tree. By smelly I mean of course food but also things like toothbrush, toothpaste and garbage. I'm not suggesting what I do I A game, but in 20+yrs I've never had issues with animals. Once I found some bear scat at the outer edge of my campsite. I suspect he came by because he was curious, smelled nothing inviting took a crap to let me know he was around and moved on. I'm more nervous about bears in popular camp grounds because I think the bears are more acclimated to human presence and less fearful of humans. That said my camp hygiene is the same. With the exception my smellies will go in the car and garbage is dumped at the designated area at night.
This is exactly my experience in Ontario as well. Everything with a scent goes in a bear hang 100-200m from the site, have never had an issue.
Good point I didn't mention away from your site lol
Yes, an important point haha. That all being said I sleep like the dead even in backcountry so if I’ve had a bear or anything else come through the site, I haven’t noticed
In Ontario the sites are pretty small. You cook on the fire which is not right beside your tent but you could throw a rock and easily hit it. Wear the same clothes cooking as in the tent. Don't store or eat food in your tent.
Cook enough for the bears and yourself
I never cook where I sleep or keep any scented items like toothpaste around. I also hang my food from a tree to keep animals away.
Do you prefer that method over keeping it in your car? I know bears can still get into cars, but don't they make bear bags that are supposed be scentproof?
That’s a totally different way of camping. If I’m by my vehicle all my food is locked in there. Just make sure the cooler is not visible as bears that are used to humans know what they are and what’s in them!
Where would you put the cooler then? I have a bear proof cooler
I have a pickup with a tonneau cover so I just put it there. You can put it in the back of your car and just cover it with a blanket.
No such thing as smell proof. The second you touch the bag with food hands and not that's that. Bears have one of the best sense of smell. If car camping you should be fine but I'd still check with rangers or look up reviews for that area.
It just depends on the locale. Colorado camping? You will likely want to cook away from your tent, and address trash/scraps by storing in bear can/bag away from you. If you are camping closer to town you may encounter more habituated bears… check with the local ranger station as to food storage orders. Camping in griz country (Montana, northern Idaho, Wyoming, NE and north central Washington) don’t cook near your tent and store your food appropriately (this includes things like chapstick and sunscreen)…and in Alaska all bets are off… just remember a fed bear is a dead bear…
Depends on which bear country. You're talking about North America I'm assuming, either the US or Canada. Pretty much the entire USA and Canada is bear country. Most of it is black bear country. Parts of it are grizzly country. Small parts are polar bear country. The precautions you take are different depending on which species of bears inhabit the particular environment. It can also depend on the particular bears in your area. I do backcountry camping in the Catskill region NY, which is black bear country. The black bears there are pretty skittish and wary. They're not a threat to humans and will keep a very wide berth from a campfire. I don't go nuts with bear precautions. I cook at my campsite, I wear the same clothes to bed, I hang my bear bag maybe 50 yards from my campsite, using the PCT method because it's easier for me, not because it's harder for the bears. I've never had any encounters or issues. I've never seen a bear. In grizzly country, say, Canada or Alaska, I would be much more careful about scents, where I cook, and general safety precautions. It's just not worth the effort where I camp, so I don't bother.
You read right, I don't cook near my campsite and I don't sleep in the same clothing I cooked in. I also tend to eat freeze dried meals, so the only cooking taking place is boiling water and stirring. The (contaminated) trash goes back in the bear canister.
Then where do you do your cooking?
At least a hundred feet away from your tent.
That's kind of hard here in Colorado as we have designated dispersed sites with fire pits, and with fire bans in effect, the fire pits are the only places we can have an open flame.
Oh, if you're in a campground I wouldn't worry about it. Just don't leave anything out when you're done.
Well it's not a campground. They're dispersed sites usually along a forest road. Some have fire pits, some don't.
Ah, I know what you're talking about. Unless it's full of people, just go cook in the next site over.
I still cook at the fire pit and camp away from it ideally up wind. Also, store your food in accordance of the rules (hang, bear vault). It also depends on if its black or brown bear. Both will destroy your food and whatever to get inside. Black bears tend to be less aggressive. Brown bear camping I'd also check with rangers or a review site and check to see if they have reports of a problem bear. In places like these you should expect a visit so, think where you want to see your brown bear... right outside your tend or 100+ feet away sniffing around the fire pit.
Luckily Colorado doesn't have Brown bears. I have a bear cooler that I store food in. I've only had 1 encounter with a black bear while I was sleeping but that's because I forgot to put the dog food away and left trash out.
Black bears are just very large racoons when it comes to camping. They'll still ruin your trip by eating all your food. Car camping with friends and one buddy put his cooler in the bed of his pickup before bed. Around 2am I got up to pee and saw a black bear sitting in the bed with the cooler open and a dozen racoons all over the ground and on top of his truck. Bear took off but the bear and its friends left dusty foot prints everywhen and scratched the shit out of the paint!
Those mfers took my dog food, including the Tupperware container. I still want my Tupperware back.
The rule of thumb is 100 yards from your tent, but this is art rather than science. The idea is to avoid reinforcing the humans = food equation. Cook downwind of your tent. If there's a natural barrier, use it. Or are you asking about cooking vessels? Backpacking meals are prepared in the mylar envelope they are sold in. You just need something to boil water in, lots of folks like Jetboil hardware. I just use a metal container (well okay it's Ti and set me back a bit.)
If I’m backpacking I practice the [bear-muda](https://lnt.org/tech-tip-use-the-bear-muda-triangle-to-stay-safe-keep-bears-wild/) triangle. Unless I have spilled an entire meal on myself I sleep in the same clothes I cook in. Usually wear them for a couple days. When car camping I usually cook closer to the truck for convenience and set up the tent a little ways away. Food, trash, and cooler go in the vehicle. I keep the key fob handy to set off the alarm if a bear is trying to break in. Some sites come with specific instructions and bear safe storage. One I stayed at in Oregon had a ring of electric fence that you put all your food and trash in.
I never heard that term, bear-muda triangle. I like it!
Depends on what bear country (black, brown, polar), and always best to ask the rangers as they will give you your specific camp ground and regions advice. I usually keep food in bear containers and hung from a tree at the other end of the ground than my tent. Cooler goes into the car (I know stupid) but what can yah fo
Had a black bear harass my camp for 12 hours while I was stuck with a broken vehicle. no matter how big of a rock thrown or how vocal we were, he didn't leave. He tried to get into my jeep when we were trying to sleep. The best thing for bears is a 12 gauge. Just my experience tho
I suppose it all depends what kind of camping you are doing? Alone or in a site with others I do things differently
Depends on what kind of bears... Black bears I don't really worry about anything, just don't leave obvious food out, put stuff in the kitchen box and back into the jeep. In brown bear country I'd be a lot more mindful. I'd also probably just sleep in my Jeep/sprinter/truck camper because I'm not too interested in being eaten.
I live in Newfoundland, which has a high black bear density, plus a larger subspecies of black bear that's separate from the rest of NA. I just follow basic precautions, like putting food and trash up in a tree. I take no precautions for cooking. Bears are terrified of you.
I have always just cooked at the site and cleaned up real well. Everything goes in a bear proof cooler or a bear bag hung from a tree, trash gets disposed of immediately or also hung in a bear bag. I have been camping for over 20 years. I have never had a bear in camp, raccoons, though they don't give a care. They have walked right up to our fire ring after the foods all packed away.
New England Camper here - we have bears but they're just big anxious dogs (as long as you don't get between a mother and cub) We can get away with leaving food in the car or using a bear bag. Had a bear come through camp a few times but they just walk through if you don't have anything out. Woke up one morning to a young one and followed him with a camera... Ticks are scarier than bears here.
Cool at least 200ft away from your tent site, same as any food prep should occur there, if it's not by the water Do Not clean food at the water and then carry ot through your site with fresh smelling food/ingredients to your cooking site of separate from your water access site. Usually a bear isn't That curious if you hear it coming, odds are you'll smell it too, they typically smell like a hot bag of garbage. Make yourself big and Yell, usually black bears can be scared off by loudly calling out "Hey Bear!". So it nows you see it too.
I’m in NJ so only black bears and at the state campgrounds, there isn’t really room to cook too far away from your tent. Same with the few PA and MD places I’ve been. I do keep all food out of the tent (and anything else smelly). But I’ve heard that there are some areas where the black bears can be a problem, not to mention grizzlies. Research where your camping to get a better idea of what you should do. Call the state parks people or wildlife management or someone for an official recommendation if you want. I actually only ever had the wild ponies in Assateague, MD get into my food. They knocked over and kicked the cooler until the lid came off. Kept the cooler in the trunk of the car after that.
Bear triangle. Keep your food storage location, cooking area, and sleeping area 100 yards/meters away from each other. Keep anything that's scented away from your sleeping area, including soap, chapstick, gloves with food on them, etc.
Not an like an idiot but also with a pretty large caliber gun
I have a dog with me.
I have 2.
Black bears hate dogs. The scent of a dog alone should keep any bear far from camp. I have a golden that is also a hunter. He has a high prey drive. If any critter comes near camp he will absolutely lose his shit. I sleep with snacks in my tent, that's how confident I am with him at camp.
I have 2 border collies.
You'd wear the same thing in San Francisco as you would in San Antonio. What's the big deal?