For Hikers, a Bear Essential

Yogi, the cartoon bruin, used to boast of being “smarter than the average bear.” But today’s black bears make Yogi a bumbler when it comes to robbing wilderness travelers of their food caches.

In earlier days, hikers could find a sturdy branch high in a tree, throw a weighted line over it and lift the bag into the air. These days, it’s no big problem for the bear. Just slash the line with a claw and down comes the bag. Munch. Munch. Munch.

To reach more elaborate hanging systems, a mother bear has been known to send cubs up a tree in case the branch isn’t strong enough for her. No food bag is safe. Word of easy pickings quickly spreads through the bear community, drawing bears to popular wilderness camping areas such as Little Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park.

Watching bears retrieve food that campers have spent hours suspending in a “safe” place is good backcountry entertainment. But this is a potentially dangerous business as the bears become more fearless of humans. And it’s bad for the bears to become accustomed to such easy feasting.

There is an answer that works. Not one that all hikers like, but one that smart backpackers have turned to for years: the hard plastic bear-proof canister.

This week, National Park Service officials extended to virtually all of Yosemite a rule requiring backcountry travelers to store all food in bear-proof canisters. Until now, the rule covered only about half of the park’s 761,266 acres. The U.S. Forest Service also has such a rule in popular wilderness areas in the Sierra Nevada. With black bears roaming virtually everywhere in the Sierra, the only sensible thing to do is to carry food in a canister on any trip.

Most canisters are cylindrical, about a foot long and 9 inches in diameter and weigh a little less than 3 pounds. They can be rented in Yosemite and other parks. The canister is admittedly one big lump in the pack, whereas in the old days food could be tucked into nooks and crannies. But the canister, which often requires a coin to twist open the lock, will provide many more nights of restful sleep along the trail. That is, until the crafty bruins start panhandling for change.