UKC

I am walking through Slovenia and will soon start wild camping along the way. I would like to keep my food and anything giving off a scent in waterproof or airproof bags. I can weigh these down with rocks in the nearest stream to my camp to stop bears smelling it and to keep it cool. What are the best kinds of bags can I use to this end? I think bear canisters would be too unwieldy (I prefer <50 grams). I am going to try latex gloves and a roll of small, clear, general purpose bags (either option can hold 4 avocados or 500g of muesli) but I am keen to know how others have stored their scented items to stop bears smelling them.

Hang your gear from trees. https://www.wta.org/go-outside/trail-smarts/how-to/hang-bear-bag-secure-foo...

Do a bit of research; you want to keep a triangle of distance between where you cook & eat, where you hang your food, and where you camp. 

I just remember keeping your food in a stream as a technique to keep it cool as a technique presented on some survival top tips show I watched a few years ago, but I don't have any experience with it and have no idea if it's widely practiced (I actually have zero experience of wild camping so I am taking the plunge in this country with bears). I found a 50-foot nylon cord on the internet which weighs 100 grams. There might be a shop in the next village which sells nylon cord. I can see that hanging your food would not require you to camp close to a stream which is a plus. 

I am under the impression there are all sorts of optional stuff you can do vs bears, such as setting up a line around your camp which is connected with a pile of cutlery which makes a loud sound when the line is disturbed. But is keeping this triangle of distance the most important thing? Sorry for my naiivity!

I've camped in bear country in the States and the advice to hang food in a tree away from your camp is quite good. Occasionally, I built a small camp fire and stood in the smoke to mask the smell of food on me before returning to my tent. Nowadays, it's not really cool to build open fires. Now, the Californian bears ('smarter than the average bear') had evolved techniques to get food out of trees such as standing on each others' shoulders or swinging the trees. We once hung our food in the centre of a small rock face (no trees) and they pulled the cord up and nabbed our food (except tins and dried pasta)! To counter this, the local backpackers had started to use hard plastic cannisters - a bear/human arms race! In the unlikely event a bear approaches you, rattling pans and shouting is a good bet. Unless they've been habituated by contact with people or rubbish dumps they'll more than likely give you a wide berth.

I spent 6 months in the Appalachian mountains where there are a lot of Black Bears and you had to hang your food. Someone that year slept with their food in their tent in the smoky mountains and got bit through the side of their tent and ended up in the local hospital. Also came across a problem bear which ended up getting euthanised by the park authorities. 

Minimising human-bear interaction is the goal, as they eventually learn they are a lot bigger, faster, stronger agile, and pointier than we are. 

I'd recommend a fair bit of research, as there are things which create smells which you might not consider and are just as interesting to bears as food (toiletries, the stuff you cook with, even batteries). Try to limit your drinks to just water or you'll have to hang your bottles too. 

The method of hanging has an art to it. You want to hang it from a limb which is far enough out from the tree that a bear can't reach it from the trunk, and on a branch which is flimsy enough that they wouldn't consider climbing along it. If the bears you are going to encounter are smart, there is a method widely used on the west coast: https://theultimatehang.com/2013/03/19/hanging-a-bear-bag-the-pct-method/

Basically, the bears there learned that if they cut the cord then the bag will fall to the ground and they get their reward. 

The problem bear I had interaction with had learned that if it climbed up a nearby larger tree and jumped onto the bags below, basically destroying the tree limbs in the process, it got the food. It was a big bear and I can tell you it was a terrifying thing to hear going on (having had to scare it off multiple times the evening before). I didn't get a lot of sleep that night. 

I found what seems like a relatively safe place to camp: https://maps.app.goo.gl/v3kFhAAi9FMnMShR8

Hopefully other villages have similarly good places to set up a tent as well.

I don't have pots and pans to make a racket with, but I do have two personal attack alarms. If there were a bear outside my tent I guess I'd be first announcing my presence with my voice as advised at

https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/8142/what-do-i-do-if-a-black-b...

and then maybe if it doesn't work set off the attack alarms?

I am testing both the underwater and hanging methods tonight, and will probably follow up tomorrow with the issues I am encountering with both methods.

I would quite often prefer to be camping next to a village on grounds of safety, and I don't think the hanging method is appropriate for this purpose unfortunately. Throwing the bag over a high branch was loud enough that it should have caused the local dogs to start barking. At night I thought the tree was outside an abandoned farmhouse, but in the morning I discovered the grass had been mown nearly up to the tree I hung the bag on. The weight of the bag was bending the branch downwards and probably damaging it, and this was a tree on private land. The only way to retrieve the bag was by jumping up to reach it, since the string snagged on the branch. Climbing a tree to retrieve a bag is something I would rather avoid when close to a village.

If confronted by a local as to what I am doing at night, throwing rocks into the trees and tying string around a tree trunk, I think it would be very hard to explain what I am doing or why I am doing it. Even if they could speak perfect English the explanation might not wash with them because it might not be their experience that bears come close to the village. I have to say my impression is that locals barely think about bears, in a sports shop which sold camping equipment one of the two customer sales representatives even disputed the notion that bears are interested in my food at all (this idea might come from the common perception here that Slovenia has not experienced any bear attack in years). This could easily be the reaction of locals if I hang food too close to a village and I have to explain myself.

Quite a lot of water got into the small clear bag. Most of the user flakes was dry in the water bottle, but around 30% was soaked. The avocados in the latex gloves were dry, I will trial it with oat flakes as well. XXL condoms have crossed my mind as an alternative to latex gloves for storing food underwater as well, but for some reason I doubt anyone has tried sorting their food in this particular item of survival gear haha.

So being close to nature is not my prime motivation for wild camping per se (although I am in awe of the nature and natural landscapes of Slovenia), rather it is to save money when there is no accommodation available for less than €30/night in the vicinity (a threshold which will reduce as I get more confident in my camping skills). I am walking from Slovenia to the Caspian Sea or until I get fed up, and I am camping mainly as a backup plan for whenever there is a stretch of my route with no cheap hostel available. There will be some regions of Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan where I might feel unsafe camping deep in the wilderness on the grounds of wanting to avoid getting mugged, wanting to avoid land mines (!), or being in close proximity to some relatively lawless regions of Southern Russia. So I believe the most useful solutions to hide my food from the bears will be practical in close proximity to residential areas. This depends on the goodwill of locals (especially in countries where wild camping is technically illegal like Slovenia). 

What an adventure! Good luck.

If I were in your position, I would take a very light tent and a bear canister. This gives you maximum flexibility and no difficult explanations as to why you are throwing lines into trees. It will not surprise the inevitable curious policeman. Also saves on taking bear line, and gives a waterproof thing to store vital documents etc as needed. Tent wise something quick and easy to put up / take down in an inconspicuous green that doesn't weight too much seems the answer, especially if pitches all in one. Although my preferred tent (Durston X-Mid) needs walking poles (or carbon fibre replacements) maybe something like the Macpac Minaret would be a good choice as it is very solid indeed. 

See also https://www.rei.com/search?q=bear+canisters

b

OK just seen your other thread. Lanshan a good choice. I was going to say the main risk probably isn't bears but people, but then again you would be incredibly unlucky to run in to trouble and the vast majority of humans are pretty decent helpful sorts and will be interested in you and what you are doing. How are you at picking up languages? 20 years ago I would have said take a map of Europe (for the big picture) and some photos of family etc - perhaps the spread of smartphones makes this less useful but in very rural areas I wouldn't be surprised if they came in handy.

Good luck and let us know how it goes on here  

b