Why I Use A Canister

My own personal experience with the canister has been nothing short of great. I started using a canister as soon as I saw one. I always counterbalanced with a 100% success rate, this included trips every other weekend to Yosemite for several years during the season. My exposure was extremely high. Then we were hit in the Sunrise Lakes area. We had the perfect counterbalance. What we didn't figure on was the 40mph+ wind blowing the bags around. About 3:00 AM we had a bear get our counterbalance. Before we could even react, the bear went up a tree opposite the bags, waited for the wind to blow them toward him/her, and the next thing we knew... PLUNK...PLUNK. they were down. With the wind blowing so hard we didn't hear anything until the bags fell, we got up just in time to see him/her climbing down and rip the bags open. That was the last time I counterbalanced.

Using a canister, the bears completely ignore our camp and go on to the counterbalanced sites. I have multiple stories about our canisters being untouched, and every counterbalance site around us was hit. I never really slept all that well while we were counterbalancing, especially when we were 3 days in, on a 6 day trip. I could not imagine hiking 2 1/2 - 3 days without food. With the canister, I now sleep the same as I do at home. I have not gotten up to chase a bear out of our site in the last 5 years. I cannot tell you how nice it is to wake and hike with a good's night sleep under my belt. After a long day of hiking, I never have to find the perfect tree, find a rock, tie it off and try and get the line over the branch in the perfect spot. No more battling to get the bags up correctly, and then hassle with getting them down. If I forget to put some food in a bag, you have to pull them down, and rehang. With the canister, I just open it, and put in the forgotten food, no fuss, no muss. This has made the 3lbs all worthwhile.

Even the perfect counterbalance is susceptible to persistent bears.  They have found ways to get them.  I have heard, not seen, cubs climbing up on the mother's shoulders to pull down bags, cubs, diving at the bags and riding them down to the ground.  There are claims of people counterbalancing for many years without ever being hit, what they haven't said is how many hours they have had to stay up fending off bears that won't go away, or how they have to stay up waiting for the bear to come back.  This is not how I want to spend my back country time.

The canister is very beneficial for the wildlife, no longer are they getting zip loc, or aluminum foil bags to eat, they must fend for themselves naturally. If we all used canisters, we could actually save ourselves some tax dollars, or let the park use those dollars more efficiently. I had a discussion with a "park employee", one morning at the Toulumne Meadows grill. His function in life was to go out and hunt the "trouble bears" with a tranquilizer gun. Then ship the bear to an undisclosed area of the Sierra. Well, folks, we are out of "undisclosed places" in the Sierra.

In 1998, two people were seriously injured by Sierra bears trying to get food not stored properly, one was on the ground next to a sleeping person, and the other was improperly counter balanced. Both people were cited for improper food storage. Canisters or bear boxes are the only way to store food in a certain section of King's Canyon due to the "uncharacteristic behavior" of bears. My experience tells me this will soon become the characteristic behavior, if we do not start using the canister.

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