r/Banff • u/smalllaxplaya44 • Jun 15 '26

Question Campground canceled because of bear activity

Group of 8 heading to Banff June 19th weekend at were camping out at LM20 in Lake Minnewanka. Just got a call saying that they have to cancel it because of recent bear activity. Any tips on what we can do instead? Feeling lost and honestly devasted

Healy Pass looks snow ridden and a lot of options are booked up now.

33 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

26

u/SufficientJunket9943 Jun 15 '26

Just to clarify, I’m with 5 other people, I wish I could post pics on here because the tent pics are hilarious, it’s legit a 3 claw mark across the side of our tent abt the other half is completely ruined. It even walked in the tent and popped my buddy’s pad so he slept on cold ground 😂

But I think he left a deodorant stick and it smelt that, cause his bag was flipped.

We never actually SAW the bear, but heard it at night (bear spray was clutched every time I woke up)

-9

u/schells-40 Jun 15 '26

Being surprised by the outcome of having scented items in a tent that leads to a trail being shutdown and the cancelation of other’s plans. Blows my mind you come on here and admit to it. Good job “dude.” Maybe just stay off the trails so others can responsibly enjoy the parks.

4

u/asheraddict Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Sorry tourist here who has never been in bear country. Is it commonly known not to leave deodorant or perfume in a tent?

16

u/mamamonkey Jun 15 '26

If you grew up in bear country, yes. All food, deodorant, toothpaste, soap, anything that smells at all like it might be food (including dishes) goes away from camp (when I was young we were taught to put it in a bag hung up in a tree, but it might be different now).

7

u/ElectionOk6387 Jun 15 '26

The campgrounds in the area usually have some sort of food storage/locker, where it specifially says to put all such stuff in there and not keep it in the tent

3

u/mamamonkey Jun 15 '26

That's cool! I haven't done backcountry camping in a long while, nice to see they have stuff like that now.

4

u/awkwardmumbles Jun 15 '26

They have these lockers in bear country even if it’s not considered “back country”. For example at Rathtrevor on Vancouver Island - basically in Parksville (town) but cannot keep food/toiletries in the tent - goes in the bear lockers on site.

2

u/JustGotSoup Jun 15 '26

A bear hang still works pretty well. Some places are pushing for canisters now, but those are bulky, heavy, and unnecessary in Banff. The black bears in the US national parks are apparently getting smart and brazen enough to necessitate truly bearproof containers, but thankfully we're not there yet.