If you arrive at a campground by car, your food goes in the trunk at night. If you arrive by bike, your whole kitchen is in your bike bags, and your bags are next to your tent.
Unfortunately, the food still has to go somewhere an animal can't get at it. BC Parks says food and anything else with a smell goes in "a locked vehicle, hard-sided trailer, bear-proof cannister, or bear-resistant locker, where provided."
This isn’t just to deter bears. Parks Canada calls the crows, deer, rodents, and raccoons at Pacific Rim "efficient and creative scavengers." Keeping your food (even an unopened package of chips!) in your bags isn’t enough to keep critters from gnawing through your pannier or frame bag to get to it. We’ve learned this the hard way: RIP Doritos and breakfast.
Why not just keep it in the tent?#
Your tent won't keep an animal out. At best, you could wake up to a hole in your tent. At worst, you've taught an animal that campsites are a good place to find food.
Best: a canister or a locker#
Many campgrounds have food lockers, which are metal boxes animals can't get into. Golden Ears Park, east of Maple Ridge, is one. Saysutshun (Newcastle Island Marine) Park, off Nanaimo, is another --its BC Parks page says to store all food there “including toothpaste” (!).
For campgrounds without food lockers, ideally we’d all pull up with a bear-resistant canister. It's a hard plastic container with a lid that animals can't open. That said, it's too big for most bikepackers to want to carry. Bite-proof bags (like Ursack, which has versions for deterring bears, small critters, or both) can be a good substitute because they aren’t quite as bulky.
No locker and no canister? Some other ideas#
Ask a neighbour with a car. A car trunk counts as a "hard-sided vehicle" in both BC Parks and Parks Canada rules. Most people say yes. Ask before dark, and arrange when you'll pick it up…. you don't want your breakfast locked in someone else's car when you're ready to leave.
Use the washroom or outhouse, if the door closes. Tuck your food bag into a corner where it's out of everyone's way. This works well against raccoons, squirrels, and birds, less so in bear country.
Put it beside the garbage in a bear-proof garbage bin. Yes, really. Mat Leblanc of Trip Longer learned this trick from a park ranger. It isn't an official food locker, but it's one workaround bikepackers have used when the usual options aren't available:
View this reel by @trip.longer on Instagram
Use a clean, tightly closed bag so it doesn't end up smelling like the bin.
Whatever you use#
- Everything with a smell goes in. That includes garbage, dishes, toothpaste, sunscreen, and the granola bar in your handlebar bag. BC Parks puts it this way: "Keep it bare when you're not there."
- Pack it so it’s easy. Keep the food and other smelly stuff together. It's much easier to put everything away when you aren't hunting for that last granola bar in three different bags.
- Don't hang your food at a frontcountry campground (BC Parks' term for anywhere within 1 km of a road). BC Parks asks campers not to do it at campgrounds, because the smell draws animals in and puts other campers at risk.
- Cook, eat, and clean away from your tent.
For more on wildlife and staying safe out there, see our Be Prepared page.
Accurate as of October 2026.