Re: [pct-l] Bear Canisters

[Brick Robbins <brick@fastpack.com>]

At 05:45 AM 12/11/98 -0800, you wrote:

>Here goes my ignorance again, but about bear canisters.
>OK, So I have my food in this can that the bear can't get into, but what do
>I do with it. 

The cans are made so the bears can't cary them off. They are smooth with no
handles on the outside. If you look at
http://www.sierrawilderness.com/store.html#bear and find the note about
"Bear Can Slings"  you'll read about this.

You just lay it out away from your camp site in a place where it won't roll
down hill into a river or off a cliff. The bears go out and bat it aournd,
but can't cary it off. You go pick it up the next morning. For that reason
some folks paint them orange to make them easier to find.

In reality the bears learn that they can't get into them, and don't try
after a while. I have been told that one advantage with the aluminum can is
the bears don't like the taste of the metal so they leave them alone.
During one test they had problems, because the bear would lick the can and
then leave it alone. The bear refused to try and break into to so they
couldn't test to see if the bear could.

-Brick
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