Wolf Wilds › Animals and Tracks
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Keeping animals out of camp
Food, smell and where you put them: the whole of it. Bears, foxes, jays and mice all read the same sign.
What you need
- A dry bag or a hard container for all food and rubbish
- 20 m of light line and a small stuff sack for hanging it
- A separate bag for the smelly kit: toothpaste, soap, sunscreen, bug dope, fuel
- Tight tins or jars at a cabin, because plastic bags mean mice
- A pot of water thrown well away from camp, not beside the tent
How
- Set your kitchen, your food store and your tent as three points well apart, a good hundred steps if the ground allows it.
- Cook and eat away from where you sleep. Never eat in the tent.
- After supper, put every scrap of food, every wrapper and everything with a smell in one bag.
- Hang it between two trees, four metres up and two metres out from any trunk, or put it in a hard container well away from camp.
- Strain the wash water, pack the scraps out, and throw the water wide.
- Change out of any clothes you spilled food on and store them with the food, not in the tent.
- At a cabin, sweep the floor, close the food in tins, and leave nothing soft for a mouse to nest in.
Do and don't
Do
- Keep a clean camp from the first hour. A camp gets a reputation with the local animals fast.
- Pack all rubbish out. Burning it half way just makes a scented fire pit.
- Make noise on the trail near berry patches and blind corners so you never surprise anything.
Don't
- Do not feed a jay, a fox or anything else, not once. A fed animal comes back and eventually it dies for it.
- Do not keep food, toothpaste or a chocolate bar in the tent.
- Do not leave a cooler, a fish bucket or a game bag out overnight.
Watch for
Danger
- A black bear in camp that will not leave is a serious problem. Get everyone together, make yourself big and loud, and give it a clear way out. Never run and never climb.
- A bear that comes at night, follows you, or comes back after being chased off is behaving like a predator. Fight back hard with anything to hand.
- Mice at a cabin carry disease in their droppings. Wet the mess down, do not sweep it dry, and wear a mask and gloves.
- Moose in the fall rut are more dangerous than most bears. Give them the whole meadow.
Notes
Everything here is one rule in different clothes: keep the smell away from where you sleep.
A tidy camp is also the one that stays pleasant. The work of hanging a bag takes ten minutes and it buys you a quiet night.
Updated 2026-09-20
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