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Ursack Bear Bag: A Wasted $50 Investment

I figured that I had found the perfect food protection answer a few years ago when I purchased a 4-ounce Ursack bear bag made of Kevlar , a material used in bulletproof vests.

A few months after my $50 purchase, however, wilderness officials announced that Ursack was not an approved container. I was really pissed. First at officialdom, then at Ursack. I asked the company, which pushed Ursack in Backpacker Magazine and on its website as an effective lightweight alternative to the bear canister, for a refund or at the very least an upgrade to a new double bag they hoped would get official approval.

Company Reject
Ursack rejected my request and I was stuck with a very expensive, but useless piece of anti-bear gear.That was about five years ago. Word came down in October 2005 that a new Ursack Hybrid , which weighs 1 pound, 4 ounces – half the standard Garcia canister, but nearly 5 times the weight of the original Ursack – has won conditional approval for use in some national parks and forests.

A Day Late, A Dollar Short
Ursack also reported that the original bags might possibly be approved for use in the future (no guarantee) with an aluminum insert. Last year, my original Ursack got carried away at Thousand Island Lake in the John Muir Wilderness when I failed to tie it to a tree (I was above tree line). Somewhere out there a critter still is trying to chew through the bag to get at a pound of prime beef jerky. I miss the beef jerky, but not the Ursack. Ursack’s website reports officials prohibit tying the new hybrid to rocks or trees for fear of environmental damage. Ursack company officials report being optimistic bears will not carry away the new Ursack if left on the ground. I wouldn’t count on it.

More to the Story
There is certainly more to this story, so I suggest you visit Ursack’s website for details. This is one of those love-hate things. Ursack, trying to create an alternative for the lightweight backpacking market, is a victim in a sense. But government officials also are trying to protect the wildness in our bears.

News from Ursack Website: The Sierra Interagency Black Bear Group (SIBBG) has unanimously approved the use of the Ursack Hybrid in the previously restricted areas of the National Parks and Forests in the Sierra: Yosemite, SEKI, Inyo, Devil’s Postpile, Stanislaus. “We have not heard from other areas that may not allow Ursack, but we anticipate that they will fall in line with SIBBG. Specifically, this means that the Hybrid, which is the Ursack with our heavy duty aluminum liner, has been conditionally approved for use in those areas.”

I hope Ursack succeeds and in the process develops a more customer-friendly policy.

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