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Posted by Bill S on April 5, 2007 at 11:25:44 am EDT
In reply to Comment on PhD bears and a couple of questions - posted by SteveTheFolkie on April 5, 2007 at 7:39:18 am EDT

cat -
I was noting the discrepancies among the different websites regarding which bear containers were and were not approved for which type of bears, and also from area to area and sometimes from one ranger/land manager to another at the same check-in station. What it comes down to is, as I posted earlier, better call or otherwise contact the rangers before you get there (and maybe get the answer in writing so you can show it to the on-site person, who maybe has a different idea).

Steve -
I place my "smellable" trash in the container. As I learned the hard way (with a marmot, not a bear), if you aren't actually cooking or eating it (or using other smellables), put it back into the container and close or hoist it. As for the human waste question, I hadn't really thought about it, but haven't had a problem. Many areas I go to now require packing out all human waste (in Antarctica, that included the liquid, at least around the base camps, dumped from your pee bottle into expended fuel drums that are flown back to South America and dumped into the sewage treatment plant). In areas that allow using catholes (the paper is, of course, double bagged and packed out), which are always at least 200 feet from the camp, trail, and water, I have not seen evidence of critters digging them up when dug to the proper depth and covered properly (people who are not familiar with LNT principles should go to http://www.lnt.org and read thoroughly). But where people have buried the paper in their ignorance of LNT, the reappearance of "Charmin lilies" is not uncommon.

As for the sanitation aspect, though, using double zip-lock bags should be sufficient for the used paper to prevent the smell from attracting the critters. If you have packed the food in individual smell-"proof" containers and placed it all in a larger plastic bag, then put the "paper" bag outside the food bag, this should provide sufficient separation and barrier. WAG bags and similar products are multi-layer, so they should be adequate. Be sure, of course, to use Purell or other sanitizer when handling the human waste containers/bags.

Replies

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• Re: Comment on PhD bears and a couple of questions - - Rosh 11:40:39 04/05/2007
  • Re: Comment on PhD bears and a couple of questions - - Tom D 14:59:50 04/05/2007
    • Re: Comment on PhD bears and a couple of questions - - Bill S 20:12:22 04/05/2007
      • Re: Comment on PhD bears and a couple of questions - - Tom D 23:21:57 04/05/2007
      • Re: Comment on PhD bears and a couple of questions - - catt (Guest) 21:44:28 04/05/2007
        • Re: Comment on PhD bears and a couple of questions - - Bill S 13:38:26 04/06/2007
          • Re: Comment on PhD bears and a couple of questions - - Tom D 03:18:30 04/07/2007
            • Bear Vault Solo approved for Denali!! - cat 23:33:39 04/18/2007

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