if
your having that much of a problem, than your probably using the wrong gear. And, if you don’t have a good system, it does make it a hassle to deal with.
Hanging is a necessary in most areas where there are bears if you aren’t using a canister or bear locker.
Sealing it up real well doesn’t work. The bears will find they’re way in and ruin your gear in the process.
also
like a canister, but in a kayak I can only fit one per boat. When doing long trips…even if you carry a canister, you still have to use a hang for the first several days or so…otherwise you have to leave a lot of good food behind or else have food drops.
The canister does give you certain advantages, but you still need to know how to use ropes to do a good hang…otherwise it’s short trips only and leave the fresh cheese and avacado’s at home 
Best Wishes
Roy
Gamma Seals
What about 5 gallon buckets with gamma seals? Anyone use those without hanging in bear country? So far, they’ve protected my stuff from small critters, but I’m uneasy about a BWCA trip we’re going to do this spring.
Doc
BWCA Yogies ?
What makes a bear canister effective is its shape and hardness they are made of a very dense plastic and designed to be very slippery, difficult for a bear to purchase his jaws upon the exterior. In theory the most they can do is bat it around before becoming frustrated. This is why you look for some kind of depression in which to place it. While very good at thwarting moisture and rodents I would not believe that the five-gallon buckets with Gamma Seals would be much of a deterrent for a determined bear. I do not know much about Minnesota bears but our Adirondack Yogies would probably see them as “picinick baskets full of gooodies”.
Paul
Gamma seals?
What are they?
Gamma Seals
Water tight replacment lids for five-galon buckets.
http://freckleface.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/gammaseals.html
Sinking the food
My canoeing partner and i are going to sink our food this year on our Adirondack trip. We figure that the nice deep cold water off our campsites will be safer than hanging. And less hassle. We plan on sinking a mesh bag with our food supplies in water deeper than 6 feet.Floating rope with empty naglene bottle tied on as buoy. Bears can not skin dive as far as we know, and smelling the food underwater should be really hard.
Since we don’t have alligators or other bottom dwellers capable of chewing thru the food containers; and all of our food containers are waterproof, we are hoping that this works better than hanging.
If not we will go to bear barrels.’
Bill
Thanks
for the link. I’ve never seen them before. They look to be handy.
P.S. I golf therefore I can’t lie
Gamma seal bucket lids are great.
No bears to worry about here, but they are coon proof. Anchoring a few in the lake with your provisions might work. I use them in the canoe for my cooking /food kit and another for an easy access waterproof container for camera, shore lunch,rain gear,etc; Many uses for those things. Great way to make all those drywall buckets usefull when empty!
I use 5 gal buckets with the Gamma
Seal lid. In bruin country I would not hesitate to anchor them in the lake to keep the vittles safe. Around here, they just piss off the coons.
bears do snorkel
Ever watched them fish? They are great swimmers. Depending on the type of bear you are dealing with, sinking food in water might not be good.
It also depends on whether the bears in your area are curious. For example in Alaska they will investigate anything different. They are like a big two year old.
But in New York, they may be creatures of habit. Remember to learn many ways to protect your food and think about the bears habits in the area you are in. Not all bears behave the same