[pct-l] Bear cannister

[Amanda L Silvestri]

As to what to do with cooking equipment at night, if you have the room for it, you might want to keep it in your bear canister.  As you correctly point out, your cook set will hold on to order and bears are attracted to order.  Of course this depends on what kind of cooking pot or plate you are using and if you can fit it into the canister.  
 
A bear can just as easily bat away a cooking set as anything else and if they stand on it, it will be bent out of shape.  If it won't fit into your canister, well then I guess you could hang it or strap it to the canister in the hopes that the bear will see the canister and walk away before noticing that the cook set is strapped to the outside. This might be accomplished by leaning the canister with the cook set side against some rocks or by digging a shallow hole and burying the cook set while keeping it attached to the canister.  The bear might think that it is smelling the canister and not dig underneath it looking for your cook set.
 
Perhaps you could place it into a stream or river and fill it with rocks so that it doesn't wash away.   Cold food is always an option. :)
 
I am using boil-in-bag cooking myself.  I use self-prepared, dehydrated meals, that cook in a zip-lock bag that I put in a cozy to simmer/cook.  In this way, I only boil water in my cooking equipment and it doesn't smell.  There are lots of menu and cooking sites on the WEB if you are unfamiliar with this method.
 
Amanda (Shepherd)