Bear Safety Triangle

[Valdez Telehead]

My wife attended a talk by the local state park ranger on bear safety. One thing new to us despite our years packing in bear country was this concept chatted about which I made up into this picture. 100 yards is a lot like the avalanche game, it depends. Anyway here is the safety triangle in another application.

[airinwrite]

So they suggest keeping your food, cooking area and sleeping area all 100 yards apart? Do people practice this in real backcountry excursions?

[Edgewood]

Can't we just lock that bear in the triangle?

[aqua toque]

That only works for the Alaskan Brown Equilateral.

[airinwrite]

If we lay out our food, cooksite and campsite like this is it safe inside the triangle?

[Valdez Telehead]

Once the bear enters the triangle, then it is all about your response or the human factor.

I like to put my cookware on top of my bear canister. If the bear bumps against it, then it falls off, clanks around and sounds the alarm.

100 yards in open landscapes sounds reasonable and bear signs nearby. In the woods,you might get lost wandering around alone looking for a snack in the canister.

We've been pretty content at 25-50 yards for the canister and may depend on wind direction for direction from camp and recent bear scat or prints. We avoid fish streams like the plaque. We don't complete the triangle and typically cook right near our tents.

[Todd Eastman]

What if you are the food?

[Baaahb]

If you go hiking with a female then you need to make that triangle a square.

[chamonix]

Valdez Telehead wrote
"We don't complete the triangle and typically cook right near our tents."

I won't cook bacon or other meats close to the tent.
No food in the tent!!
though where I camp it's just black bears and racoons..

[riser3]

Fuggin coons. And porcupines. Porky's make a mess too and chew the sheet out of stuff. I have startled a bunch of bears up in the woods above The Farm though when on walkabout. But the good thing is that I haven't yet seen one. I make a lot of noise when up in those woods. They sense me before I sense them. And then they crash off through the bushes. I haven't yet camped up there but I keep meaning to do so up on top one of these years. The bears have been startled out of the black berry patch behind the horse barn before by the residents. The berries are within the triangle.

[Valdez Telehead]

Vegetarian menus have an advantage in bear country as it definitely eliminates meats as a prime enticement. This is actually pretty important and perhaps the prime reason we have not had a bear(s) wander around our campsites over the years.

Been looking for an electric fence which is made for BC. They weigh about 9 pounds, battery and all.

[cesare]

^^^ this ^^^

When I am backpacking around active bears, I go veg with only a little butter and cheese as animal products. In mid winter I'll take meat.

I wonder if this thread is a good place to drop this, the story of the worst bear attack in Japan's history. Spoiler alert, it's gruesome.

[aqua toque]

Meanwhile, back on the trail --- the 100 yard yodelling circle of safety.

[Valdez Telehead]

You have to be a real good yodeler to be heard at 100 yards, more so when you have to do it for long periods of time. Background sounds such as wind, rain and dense brush can mask the distance of effective yodeling. It's useless along creeks and rivers ( As NOLS knows now from the Talkeetna incident) as the flow noise easily masks the sounds of a yodeler. On a long nice trail though a quiet wooded area it works as does conversation with your partners. The ultimate paradox is we generally scare away the wildlife we've come to see.

I note that walking along a creek with my partner ahead, they are typically the yodeler in the group. If I am 10 feet behind the yodeler along a babbling brook, I can barely hear them and same with bears.

In these instances I keep my Falcon 18O NoB.S. at my hip. That's a 180 decibel hand-held power horn that gives me 100 rounds of truly shocking blast of 2sec. Reloads are cheap. No one gets hurt. The one time I really needed the thing, it worked perfectly as all I heard was crashing brush as a brown bear ran as fast and far as possible. Works for moose also. Along streams or in thick brush, a blast every 1/4 mile or so works. I used it last weekend twice with a couple blast entering a section of brush. I sleep with it right next to me.

[riser3]

I think they may need update that famous poop identification chart. Grizz poop - may smell of pepper and or contain bells and or contain an air horn.