Don't Feed the Animals!
Hikers have many things to prepare and plan for when going on a trek: health, safety, navigation, weather, shelter, and FOOD!
What food to bring?
Where to get food?
How to carry and store food?
Most hikers will hang a bear bag. What this is means is putting food in a bag and suspending it from a tree branch at a certain height to stay out of reach of bears.
You know who is better at climbing trees than me?
The bears!
Not to mention that finding a tree that meets the height requirements can be difficult. Not to mention the time to successfully hang the bag.
Compounded by the fact that I will have been hiking ALL DAY and being woefully tired.
In walks the bear canister.
This is a sore subject for many hikers because these things a BIG! They are not easy to carry and take up a lot of room in your pack. But you don't carry a bear canister to protect yourself, you carry it to protect the bears!
Bears, like people in the wild, are always looking for calorie dense foods, and once the bears get a taste of Snickers, then they will do anything to get that next bump. Sadly, once they seek out humans for human food, then a habit and problem has been created that ultimately results in the tranquilization and relocation of the bear, or worse yet the termination of the bear.
It is no surprise that bears are smart but some accounts claim that bears are teaming up to "leap frog" to reach the suspended bear bags.
In pursuits to be a good steward of the wild, I decided to sacrifice some weight and take a canister. But which to take? They are all bulky and require tools to open (either a multitool or thumbs).
I am excited to share a newly formed partnership with Wild Ideas!
They have been generous in lending me their Scout canister. It is large but seemingly weightless. When the box arrived, you would swear that the package was empty. Made of carbon fiber and has three screws that secure the lid. You can use a multitool or a coin to open this bearikade canister.
It can double as a stool, I look forward to using this on my trek!
Thank you to Wild Ideas for lending this awesome product to the project.