Like Alan, I travel with a dog. Jake is as easy going as it gets - super friendly. However when animals enter camp his demeanor changes entirely. In the BWCA near habituated bear areas he has chased away a few bears. That said, I am fortunate Jake has very good call back, he leaves the bear and returns on command.
I do not use barrels like the OP. I use Oder proof bags inside of Kevlar bear bags tied to trees ( 2 different spots not near each other ) outside of my tent camp area similar to what Al posted. So far I have only had one incident where I needed to defend resources.
That hair raising experience some 30 years ago, remarkably ended without incident, even though I did every thing wrong a solo tripper could possibly do.
I was fishing and had 2 nice eater walleye in the bottom of my canoe. After cleaning the fillets and disposing of the remains on a large boulder in the middle of the lake, I stored my canoe about 50 yards away from camp, upside down and well out of the water. I was in camp food bag at my side getting ready to start my small cooking fire when I heard my canoe scraping on rocks. I looked over and found it right side up, on 2 large rocks - one near the bow the other the stern … with a large bear in the middle savagely licking the bottom!
I was suddenly filled with anger, grabbed my food bag
![Man shrugging :man_shrugging: 🤷♂️](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-2642.png)
, and ran toward the bear. I got within about 30 feet … and realized I had ALL my food in one arm … and turned my back to the bear and RAN back to my camp! I threw the bag on the the ground, turned to go back to the bear and save my canoe … but no need, the bear was 15 yards behind me. Still consumed with rage ( how dare this bear come into my camp ) I took a step toward the bear letting him know it is go time! The bear took a step toward me … letting me know he was not impressed. So there we are - at dusk, raw fish and food scattered all over camp, alone as I can be face to face with a bear about 10 yards away. Reality suddenly washed over me. I went from homicidal rage to instantly playing let’s make a deal. I stood my ground ( likely just paralyzed by fear) and the bear silently walked off into the bush.
I gathered my food, put it into 2 separate bags, raced into the bush to hide them and reluctantly crawled into my hammock tent for a restless sleep … feeling like a bear burrito.
The following morning, I retrieved my food bags loaded my badly scratched but undamaged canoe and was on my way … feeling very lucky to have received such an education without a severe penalty.
Wanting to fight a bear to save rations is a natural response I think. Being alone face to face with one can change your mind in a big hurry.
Bob.