Food/Meat in ice chest + Bear country?

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Sep 23, 2019
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I couldn't really find the right thread to propose this question. Please let me know if there is a more fitting thread.

I plan on parking at a trailhead with and setting up a spike camp 2-3 miles in for a late October elk hunt in Colorado. After a few days, we may choose to move to another location. Two buddies and I plan on keeping 3-5 days of food at the truck. If you know you will be in black bear country, how do you store the extra food? We have access to a small yeti and it being a "bear-proof" cooler we plan on storing the extra food rations in there while we hunt our first spot. I would think it would be a good idea to have that yeti locked and possibly chained or cable locked to the trailer hitch of the truck to keep it outside of the vehicle. Is this the kind of precaution one should take with storing food in or near a vehicle that will not be monitored for days at a time?

We also plan on taking some large coleman type coolers to store extra ice in. Would an empty one of these be a good place to store some 5-10 gallon water containers to prevent freezing (Colorado 3rd OTC rifle)?

We are new to this type of hunting and are just trying to prepare for the worst and not make stupid mistakes.
 

Rob5589

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Bears seem to get into just about whatever they want. Good idea leaving the cooler outside the truck. I do the same thing but do not lock it up to anything. Might be worth looking into, however.

Funny story: a co-worker went backpacking years ago and on the way, picked up some McD's. He left the garbage on the floor of his pick up. When he returned to the PU a week later, a bear had gotten inside his truck. It used it's claws to pry down the window frame and climb in. Not only did it eat all the garbage, it also took a dump on his seat. Even bears get the shats from McD's it seems :LOL:
 
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HoughLePuff
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Sep 23, 2019
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Bears seem to get into just about whatever they want. Good idea leaving the cooler outside the truck. I do the same thing but do not lock it up to anything. Might be worth looking into, however.

Funny story: a co-worker went backpacking years ago and on the way, picked up some McD's. He left the garbage on the floor of his pick up. When he returned to the PU a week later, a bear had gotten inside his truck. It used it's claws to pry down the window frame and climb in. Not only did it eat all the garbage, it also took a dump on his seat. Even bears get the shats from McD's it seems :LOL:
My friend's truck that we will be traveling in is an absolute mess! Thanks for the reminder to clean out the trash before hitting the trailhead!
 

87TT

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I heard this advice from a Yosemite park ranger about 50 some years ago. He said put "all" your food in the ice chest, then lock the ice chest in the trunk of your car, then bury the car. But seriously, I have seen bears break into ice chests that didn't even have food in them. I guess they have learned to associate them with food. Ideally, I would put the food inside one and put that inside a closed in box trailer. If no trailer, then maybe inside the truck covered up keeping as much smell away as possible ie. double bagging and inside a cooler.
 
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HoughLePuff
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Sep 23, 2019
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I heard this advice from a Yosemite park ranger about 50 some years ago. He said put "all" your food in the ice chest, then lock the ice chest in the trunk of your car, then bury the car. But seriously, I have seen bears break into ice chests that didn't even have food in them. I guess they have learned to associate them with food. Ideally, I would put the food inside one and put that inside a closed in box trailer. If no trailer, then maybe inside the truck covered up keeping as much smell away as possible ie. double bagging and inside a cooler.
I was thinking if a bear finds it, its gonna do a lot of damage to anything near the cooler. That's why I was wondering if it's pretty normal to just chain it to the trailer hitch instead of having it inside the cabin of the truck. If I had a vacuum sealer I would certainly use one. But our daily meals will be in gallon ziplock bags and then probably inside a dry bag.
Thanks for the reply!
 

OG10

FNG
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Oct 15, 2020
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Food in any coler is a hapy meal to a bear, dont put it inside your vehicle, unles yor have spare windows or extra paint you need to use . Get it in the cooler hoist it up in a tree.
 
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Jan 23, 2014
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AZ
we always lock the coolers in the horse trailer, this is a good reminder though. Last big trip we left the dry goods in the wall tent. that could have been bad.
 
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HoughLePuff
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Sep 23, 2019
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Food in any coler is a hapy meal to a bear, dont put it inside your vehicle, unles yor have spare windows or extra paint you ned to use . Get it in the cooler hoist it up in a tree.
There is such a wide range of ideologies on here its hard to figure out what method to deploy!
 
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HoughLePuff
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Sep 23, 2019
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we always lock the coolers in the horse trailer, this is a good reminder though. Last big trip we left the dry goods in the wall tent. that could have been bad.
Since we just have a single truck and no trailer, what would you personally recommend?
 
Joined
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Maybe in bed of truck in coolers and electric fence around truck??? or rig it up a tree suspended,,, im no authority being in AZ
 
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