So my wife was selecting a campsite, and she decided to explore some areas we haven’t visited before. She found something near Lake Tahoe that looked promising, but after booking it, she discovered that despite being in Bear Country, the campsite provides no bear boxes! Bears? Familiar territory for us. No bear boxes? That’s a first.
It turns out, all the website descriptions simply state “Please practice safe storage techniques”. Without bear boxes, what would that be exactly? We can’t keep our food in our car, our tent, or anywhere else near our site. What do they expect us to do–hoist it up the nearest tree old-school style? Has anyone else run into this problem, and if so, what did you do?
Well, I guess one reason is that most of the bear resistant cannisters run $70 or more at REI. Plus, what will we need–Rope? Multiple cannisters? Will there be somewhere to hang this stuff when we get there? I guess it’s just a lot of extra stuff to buy, things to remember, and variables to consider. And it’s not like if you forget your towel or something–a mistake here has much more serious consequences. We enjoy “roughing it”, but that includes keeping things simple, and this seems like a much bigger hassle than we want to deal with for a relaxing getaway. :dubious:
$70, yes, but they’ll last–last through a bear attack!
You mentioned a car, so it’s possible we’re used to different sorts of camping. Established sites I’ve been to typically mean a small clearing or so; rarely more (though stops on the AT vary widely).
Where exactly were you looking “near Lake Tahoe”? I’ve done a fair deal of backpacking in the Sierras in areas west of Tahoe and never had to worry about bears at all. In other locations, they would certainly be a concern. Are you sure the place you were looking at is really in “bear country”?
And as to the question of what they expect you to do, I’d say “old school” is your best bet in any case. A bear box just means that the bear can’t break in to get your food (in theory, that is…in practice your mileage may vary…) It’s not going to keep the bear from wandering by your camp in the first place, so your best bet is making sure your food is somewhere other than you are.
Tie rope to pack. Tie rock to other end. Throw rock over high branch. Lift pack into air.
I’ve been in Desolation Wilderness, which is probably near where you’re going. The campsites I went to were in the middle of fucking nowhere so they can’t supply bear boxes. The ranger stations inform you this upon buying a pass and point out the above instructions. You could camp in South Lake Tahoe, then you don’t have to worry about bears. Just other campers who are twelve feet to either side of you.
Actually, the only time I’ve actually seen a bear in the wild was in a small meadow in the Tahoe Keys, which is about as urban as you can get in the Tahoe area. The bear was about 30 feet from a subdivision on one side, and equally far from the elementary school on the other
If you’re willing to tolerate/be smart about bears, there are some neat things to see in bear country. Backpackign in Yosemite Nat’l Park comes to mind.
You don’t need rope or anything with bear canisters. You just stash them a good ways away from your campsite. We wedged ours in rock outcroppings. The bears can’t open them so if they do find them they may push them around a bit and play with them. In places wear they are in use a lot, smarter bears don’t even bother with them because they already know they can’t get them open.
Some parks offer bear cannisters rentals at the ranger station which is what we do because we don’t want to have to have a bear cannister taking up space in our checked luggage when we fly to cool camping areas. We were able to do 4 days of backwoods camping with one bear cannister. If you’re a car camper who has a ton of stuff and vast amounts of food and amenities, that campground may not be so good for you.
There are campsites here in bear country, but the campsites have so much human activity, bear boxes aren’t used or really needed because bears generally steer clear of the area.
In most places I’ve camped, if theres any kind of bear problem at all, bear boxes will be provided. They’ll usally have prominent “This is bear country!” signs posted as well.
If your campground didn’t have boxes or warning signs, my guess would be that bears don’t frequent that particular area. Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t stop by for a visit.
Back when I went backpacking with my family (a couple decades ago), we didn’t have any bear-resistant containers at our disposal. We’d just put all the food in one pack at the end of the day, string it up on a length of nylon rope between two trees, and leave it until morning. Never had a problem. The two trees thing was in case a bear climbed after the food – it would be a lot easier to get a pack strung up in a single tree.
