FWC in Alaska or Yukon bear Country?

[Sagebrusher]

Heading to Alaska and Yukon next week with our Hawk Four Wheel Camper, and I'm wondering about areas that say "no tents" or "hard sided vehicles only". Or food must be in hard-sided vehicles. Anybody have issues camping in areas that say this? I feel we are mostly-hard sided.

We store food in the truck cab except for coffee, dry cereal and the fridge with food in it in the camper, and we always put all other food, the grill, and trash back in the cab and lock it at night. We have bear spray.

Just wondering if any thing we should be aware of or any suggestions related to bear country.
Thanks much.

 

[Rhian]

When we camped in grizzly area, we carried two soft sided coolers and kept small cooler packs in the freezer. At night we put our fridge contents in the coolers and in the cab. Just to be on the safe side! Only camped in one spot that had a grizzly walking through - it didn’t come around our site. In black bear country down south (Kootenays, BC Canada), don’t bother, but keep the BBQ in the cab. Bears here have a longer season and are more vegetarian/ fish eaters than up north. But depends on how many bears have been around and what their behavior has been. We are also very diligent about keeping a ‘bare camp’. Would be curious what other people do. Definitely not as easy to get into as a tent, but for a big bear, I would think not much of a challenge either. Would deter the curious but not the determined.

 

[Vic Harder]

Camping for us (when not traveling south in shoulder season) is almost always in bear (both black & griz) country. We use the camper much like a backpacking tent. No food or cosmetics stored inside (except for the fridge) ever. Only ever make coffee inside (there have been one or two exceptions).

Cooking is done outside and food is kept (covered by blankets so the bears can't see it) in the truck.