Just reading about food vs bear posts. Have a May 22 trip booked for five days for two people and only have one Ursack so I went online looking to add a second Ursack. $335 for a 2XL Ursack, $247 for the smaller version and abv475 bear vault at $245.

I can take an entire trip and cover all expenses for less than $335. The FS needs to re-think their approach to protecting campers and wildlife. How about stringing a cable between two trees at campsites - two guys or gals with a spool of wire, cable locks and a ladder.

PS: Amazon was out of stock on the Ursacks.

They are very expensive, and I generally agree with what you're saying (though I'd personally hate to see food hanging wires at sites), but where are you seeing that cost? The Ursack website has the Major 2XL at $144.95. The BearVaults are quite a bit cheaper than what you said as well.

merlyn: " Just reading about food vs bear posts. Have a May 22 trip booked for 5 days for two people and only have one ursack so I went on line looking to add a second ursack. $335 for a 2xl ursack, $247 for the smaller version and abv475 bear vault at$245.
I can take an entire trip and cover all expenses for less than$335. The FS needs to re-think their approach to protecting campers and wildlife. How about stringing a cable between two trees at campsites-- two guys or gals with a spool of wire, cable locks and a ladder.
PS: amazon was out of stock on the ursacks"

You’re getting ripped off if you’re paying more than $100 for a BV.

That stuff costs a lot less direct from the manufacturers or mainstream retailers like REI. Still, if you have several people in your group it gets expensive in a hurry.

Honestly the only real time you might have an issue is if you go out fishing or tripping away from camp and there is no one to "Directly supervise" the food stash. I suppose you could bring it with you then? Otherwise just attempt to hang before you go to bed and if not welp then I guess you are stashing in the woods and if I had to guess no ranger is going to be paddling around after the sun goes down.

I bought my second bv 500 for $95 off Amazon not a month ago. The first was almost the same price 12 months ago.

Edit: Just checked Amazon and the bv 500 is still available at $94.95

I got lucky last year and picked up an ursack XL on Amazon for $72. Wasn't sold on getting/using one until I saw the deal, and I'm sure glad I picked it up after the changes announced for this season.

The outfitters will have to have a supply of approved containers on hand for their full outfitting customers. I would think that they would be willing to rent a few to partial outfitting people. There may even be a used market from the outfitters in a couple of years.

$77 on Ebay for BV500

I bought mine from eBay a few years ago for $70 or so.

Buy direct from Ursack, much cheaper than going through Amazon.

Ursack Major 2xl at campsaver.com for $129.00 I had a coupon for 25% off so with tax and free shipping it was $104. It's 30 litres so it should hold quite a bit.