It depends on where you are, and what the bear situation happens to be at
the time.

It is  well known that in Yosemite, bears know what coolers are about,
And they can just tear a door or panel right off the side of a car, no
problem.

So 'it depends' .
But for 'real' anti-bear practice.....no food in coolers of any kind in
cars.
That's what the metal bear boxes are for.
Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
mike
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 8:13 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: in bear country - food in the van or not?

I've kept food in the van at Lake Tahoe camping, no problems. Pop top van.

Mike

On 8/3/07 7:50 PM, "BA" <oddstray@ODDSTRAY.COM> wrote:

> On Thu, 2 Aug 2007 18:49:05 -0700, you wrote:
>
>> ... Keeping the
>> cooler inside in black bear country is essential if food is wanted in
>> morning.
>
> Oooooh!
>
> Erm ...
>
> We only once camped in bear country, and they provided bear boxes at
> the campsites.  I moved all our "attractive" stuff over to the bear
> box.  I didn't want a bear to decide to breach our canvas pop-top,
> especially since I was sleeping within a few inches of it.
>
> Anyone have any estimate of what's "safe" versus what's "paranoid"?
> I'd really like to go happily back up into bear country (California's
> Sierras ... among the most glorious parts of this earth that I've ever
> seen!!! :-D)
>
>
> (Just becuz yer paranoid duzn't mean they're not out to get ya!!!)
>
> B&S
> '87 Westy 'Esmerelda Blanc'
> SoCal