Diabetes and Food in Tent (Bears)

Well I have just started backpack camping and have a question. I have type 1 diabetes and have had it for 12 years with no problems ie never needed assistance from others when I had low sugar in all of that time. That said occasionally when I do something active such as camping I will get low sugar in the middle of the night and need to eat/drink something to bring it back up. So I am asking for advice on what you folks would do if camping in backcountry, having something to bring my sugar back up if needed, yet still keeping bears away from my tent. Obviously I would be hanging my pack with normal food from a tree about 100 yards away as recommended but would need "something small" nearby me at least. I don't like the idea of having to wander around the woods looking for my pack when sugar is low.

I thought about just keeping an unopened plastic 12oz coke in the tent with me. That would work just fine if my sugar got low. I was wondering if this would present a problem with Bears smelling the coke if it were unopened? My other thought or option was the little sealed up in tinfoil pack carbohydrate tablets that you can take with you for diabetes but when you open them some do have an odor since they are flavored so I think I might be more scared of having those on my person in a tent. Obviously I would NOT want to have a candy bar or chips on me in the tent LOL so trying to find some suitable alternative and any thoughts would be appreciated. I will be camping in the Cherokee National Forest or GSMNP mostly.

National parks are A problem because the bears know they are safe and prey on you. BUT I never hang all "items that smell" ever, only my food and then only sometimes. I have never had a bear attempt to get food from my tent - perhaps peeing around it helps. Often I keep food in the tent - I woldn't worry about it unless you are in a heavily regulated area. The bears should spend the night trying for the pack anyway, keeps em busy.

So if a bear does come at your tent for your can of coke - so what? It'll be a rare event you can talk about for a long time, and really, though bears are scarry - they are not all that dangerous. Just big hungry dogs sort of.
Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
No - I rarely hang my food - I like choclate in the night.

I too am type I. I always hang my regular food, but I've never had a problem keeping a small bit of candy or glucose tabs in the tent with me. I usually have a packet of lifesavers candy on me at all times when in the back country. Nothing's tried to eat them, or me, yet.

Which bears are you hiking around?
Black, brown, grizzly, panda, polar, teddy, koala?
You might also consider using odor proof storage bags as an extra precaution to food stored in tent.

Thanks for all the replies I really appreciate the encouragement. I live and hike in East Tennessee so no polar bears or grizzlies just the black bears rootball. Interestingly enough I had never seen a black bear living and hiking here my whole life (35 years lol) until a month ago. I was riding my bike around the cades cove loop and saw 3 within 10 minutes! The first one I came up on really fast and close to it by accident. I saw a black rear sticking out behind a tree into the road and thought it was a big black dog. Rode right by it cause there was no time to stop before I realized it was a black bear. It was eating cicadas and not interested in me. The next one I came across 5 mins later was also in the road and he was a great big fellow. I went back the other way a bit till he was gone. The first one didn't really alarm me but that big one sent chills down the back of my neck. I think I will get some glucose tabs fecamel and use a small scent proof bag if they make one.

Jimshaw --

You gave me the first smile of the morning. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Will you expand on what you mean when you say bears in National Parks "prey on you" (i.e., visitors)?

FB

Common wisdom (is that an oxymoron? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />) says, 'no food in tents.' It's probably better to follow that advice, than not...

But at the heart of the recommendation is 'odors' and that's where the advice starts to break down. We cannot know what smells good to a bear. We might point to some prime suspects; smoked salmon, bacon, honey-scented shampoo, etc. But what about stuff that doesn't smell like food or even, to a bear, stinks? Bears are intelligent and curious. Grizzlys, at the least, are considered to have a sense of smell 1000 times more sensitive than a dog's. Combine those two traits/features and the result is that bears follow their nose to whatever interests them. Whether it's food or something else, we campers cannot get rid of all odors and, therefore, cannot be confident that bears will not end up in camp. Part of that problem is the bears' memory...they will return to places that they scored food in the past (one researcher reports griz digging around a buried land fill several years after it was closed...). On the plus side, bears for the most part avoid humans.

We can make our camp better/safer, we cannot know, and get rid of, all attractants.

FB

Bear can be unpredictable. My experience has been that I see lots of fresh bear dropping but no bears. The one time I met a black bear on the trail it took off as soon as it saw me. They seem to avoid me even though I hike alone and should a black bear attack I might not have much of a chance. That said, I am very much aware of the fact that bears have been known to attack humans for no apparent reason. Just yesterday a lady was attacked in the city of Coquitlam near Vancouver BC. This is a large city and the lady was in her back yard at the time. One never knows for sure where bears may be and what is on their minds. Personally I worry about having peppermints in my pocket when I am sleeping. I guess I am just a big chicken <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Howie

All your posts have been very helpful thank you. I also found another forum where someone asked the same question and got some ideas from there:

http://www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk/thread/45617

They make these tubes of glucose paste for diabetics that i have had before but just forgot about. If sealed it would be pretty much odorless but I will get one of those odor proof ziplock bags they talk about too. I think that would be as far as I can go to minimize my unique risk to bears and other critters investigating me at night. It's good to be cautious and try to do the right thing but I can't let the fear of what might happen paralyze me I guess. I may be going out the weekend after next so I will add back to this thread with a report (if I make it back lol)...

I think the glucose gel tubes are ridiculously expensive. A low cost alternative is a 4.5 ounce squeeze tube of cake frosting. However, I keep a sealed plastic tube of 10 glucose tabs with me at all times and haven't had problems with animals.

FB
You gave me the first smile of the morning. Will you expand on what you mean when you say bears in National Parks "prey on you" (i.e., visitors)?
endquote

As you pointed out, bears learn a routine, and they hit the most probable food spots. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Wild bear stay in a relatively small area with an even smaller home territory and they avoid you at all costs. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> The park bear make a living off people. They've learned that you don't eat nuts and berries - you eat picnic baskets. Their hunting cycle revolves around a path between campsites that they patrol. You'll see park bear fifteen miles outside Yosemite park boundaries, as they return from a trailer park area, and hes trotting up the mountain heading home after doing the rounds. If you aren't too smelly you can be a ways off where he doesn't expect you and he won't bother you.

I think this is why I seldom see a bear and never have troubles with them - I avoid trails and campgrounds.
Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I confess that I often hang the bag and then discover a half eaten bag of nuts and Wintergreen LifeSavers in my cargo pocket. On a few occasions I have found them after the pants had been used as my pillow.

Not a problem for a stealth site, but a big problem for a heavily used site.

My wife is a type II diabetic and she routinely uses GU gels. They are about $1 a piece and pack about 100 calories (25g carbs). They are fully closed and have to be torn open to consume.

As for storage, the majority of campsite and all shelters in the Smokies now have a bear cable system that is relatively easy to raise and lower, even in the night. I shelters, you could reasonably tuck a couple of GUs in the kitchen area of the shelter. You could do the same near the fire ring of your tentsite.

One big advantage is that bears in eastern Tennessee tend to be fairly skittish. Even in GSMNP, I have not had a bear encounter (out of upwards of 3-dozen) which didn't result in the bear running away. Outside, in the Cherokee National Forest, specifically the Big Frog Wilderness, I've run into one that stood and looked at me for a few seconds and then ambled away. But TN bears are not the habituated nuisance bears of Yosemite legend.

Take reasonable cautions. I hang my stuff on a tree branch routinely to keep away mice and other rodents. If I've seen bear sign such as scat or rubs nearby, I'll do a full-suspension hang, a nuisance which is still good for my peace of mind. I know a number of AT hikers that use their food bags as pillows inside their tents and have done so for several thousand miles, and several hundred nights, but I can't recommend it until you've at least got a solid feel for the presence of bears and the more prevalent rodent nuisance.

Thanks all for the advice I survived a short trip and I am ready for more. Here is my trip report:
http://www.backpacking.net/forums/showth...amp;amp;fpart=1