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Posted by hrumphgrumble on June 21, 2007 at 7:38:48 pm EDT
In reply to Bear canisters revisited (please) posted by Karman on April 1, 2007 at 10:49:50 am EDT

I tried using those big white cannisters you can get at a municipal pool the chlorien tablets come in. They are tough and have screw-on lids. They are huge--as big as a large bucket and so are useful for car camping. They protected my grub from possums, skunks, raccoons and even fire ants, but they were no match for black bears at Low Gap near Johnson City, Tennessee. A big male came into the camp, grabbed one with his paw and his claws sank into the thick white plastic. He ripped the side apart like it was paper and found a baggie full of cayenne pepper rub for chicken wings and ate it. Then he found a container of Breck Herbal Essence shampoo, bit the top off and drank it down. Apparently the cayenne pepper annoyed him so he took a swipe at my tent, tore a hunk from the rain fly, knocked it silly and wandered off into the woods where I heard him howling all night as the shampoo and the cayenne pepper did their trick. (I took refuge in my pick-up truck.) Later a bear attacked a mother and her child nearby at a place called Blue Hole. The ranger told me that they found the bear and killed him which tested postive for rabies. In 30 years of camping in the Appalachian Mountains I have rarely been bothered by black bears--this was one of the few times.

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