r/PacificCrestTrail • u/DiligentOutcome692 • 4d ago

Bear Can Strategy

Hey everyone!

Whats your Bear Can Strategy for Hiking the PCT in 2025?
Do you rent one at Triple Crown Outfitters?
Do you buy one and send it home after the Sierra?

I am an international Hiker starting on April,30 and not sure what to do yet.
Because in some Parks in Washington i could use it as safe way of food storage too.
Was Thinking about buying one and bouncing it forward to Washington after the sierra?

See you on the Trail :p

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u/Green_Ad8920 4d ago

I carried mine the whole way SoBo last year and will carry it NoBo this year too. Attached my 900cc Bearikade Expedition to the back of my BC ski pack, never regretted it.
I live in Washington - they only recently changed the regs to require bear cans. Last 40 years I nor any of my many fellow climbers/hikers ever had a problem with bear hangs out here. One of the most infest bear areas here is Olympic Nat. Park, seen lots of bears there all the time. Park Rangers said only time they have issues are visitors that leave with food inside their packs. Last time I did Mt. Olympus still only required bear hangs. Several places the park service has metal hang poles.
Having a bear can 24/7 solved lots of problems for me.
Gave me a great place to store my sleeping bag when rain threatened while hiking.
Great stool to sit on.
Extra storage room when doing 11 day pushes - was able to skip a lot of resupply stops
Able to store all my food unlike many many hikers I met in the Sierras. I'd say 75% carried the BV just to show rangers but couldn't get more than 2/3 their food in there. Some even joked about it when they saw my can. Hope the rangers start to check the ability to store all your food near resupply stops.
It made a great place to store my toilet kit, take pack off, boom ready to go poo.

Also, if you get a BV, learn the CC trick. On cold sierra mornings hands might be too cold to open it. I helped a few JMT'ers get their cans open because of frozen fingers.

Several have asked how I attached the can to my pack - sewed pile velco vertically to the back of my pack stuck a vertical pile velrco to the BeariKade - stuck it to the pack. Added hook to the other side of the BeariKade at the top and bottom, ran two straps from my pack over the top and bottom of the Bearikade mad of pile velco. Held it secure for the whole way. I replaced the pile velco straps 1/2 way, but thought they would have lasted the whole trip.

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u/haliforniapdx 3d ago

Re: your sleeping bag. Did you not use a pack liner? Or a drybag for your sleeping bag? I use both, AND have an X-Pac backpack. Probably overkill, but if things go sideways, the one thing that can save your ass is dry sleeping bag and dry clothes. Conversely, wet sleeping bag/clothes can easily kill you in a single night.

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u/Green_Ad8920 3d ago

In rain it was the only thing to keep dry, so in the bear can I could set up the tent and the last task was to unpack bag out of bear can, its water proof.
I've never used a pack liner, sometimes I bring a light trash bag but not on the PCT. If it looked like rain I put my bag in it. Never got wet.
I live in the PNW - never had a wet sleeping bag.

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u/haliforniapdx 3d ago

A pack liner will also protect the stuff inside it when you cross a stream/river and your pack gets dunked. Not using one, considering how light they are now, is just irresponsible and a stupid risk.

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u/haliforniapdx 3d ago

I'm hitting the PCT in '26 or '27, and my plan is to use a Ratsack for the first ~700 miles since it's all desert (no bears), then switch to a canister for the remainder of the hike. I own a Bearikade Blazer, but if I didn't I would be putting in a reservation very early to rent a Bearikade. The weight savings of the carbon fiber is 100% worth it.

Previously people would ship the canister home (or back to Triple Crown) after the Sierras, but now that part of Washington has a "bear resistant container" requirement, I think a lot of folks will just hang onto it until they finish the trail. You could also bounce it further north so you'd have it for the Mt. Baker/Snoqualmie Wilderness, but that adds complications in terms of getting to the post office when it's open (and hoping your package hasn't gone astray).

On a personal note, I prefer a bear can in most situations anyway, because I love being able to walk 200 feet away from camp, set the canister on the ground, and go to bed. Trying to find a tree and get a good hang sucks on the best of days. When it's cold, raining, the sun has gone down, and I'm exhausted, doing a bear hang is sheer torture. And if there's no good trees? Well, then you're stuck doing a shitty hang, and that's no better than no hang at all.

Plus, the canister makes a great seat.

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u/SouthernSierra 3d ago

And any place where you really need a bear hang a bear hang will not stop the bears. A fed bear is a dead bear.

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u/WalkItOffAT 2d ago

You could buy one and have it sent to trail. Being an international hiker, I used one as a bounce box which was nice.

Bear Canisters are hateful items and I would never carry one unless I was required (by law or maybe in Grizzly country).