Remdies for Bugs & Bears

rockhillmanor wrote:

bob_nestor wrote:
Don't know if it's true or not, but I was told that in Canada bear spray is legal but pepper spray isn't. Bear spray comes in the large cans and pepper spray in the small ones. I did but bear spray last summer in Alaska and never had a problem with border crossings. I always told Canadian Customs I had it when asked and they never asked to see it or to see a receipt. ...

Years of reading posts of what is legal to cross a border with I can't help but wonder WHY you just don't buy the legal item in question AFTER you cross the border. :?

Items asked about such as having a steak or bag of dog food or pepper spray are all inexpensive items.

Rather than make a big to do about sneaking/getting across with them, throw the darn things out and buy what you need AFTER the border crossing.

Since you seemed to post your question directly to me I'd like to point out that I didn't need bear spray in Canada as I wasn't planning on hiking there. I only passed thru to get to Alaska and back. I did buy the bear spray in Alaska because I hiked there and it was in the RV when I made my return trip thru Canada. I never tried to hide that from Customs.

As for food and such I generally agree with you, but it helps to know what may not be permitted on a crossing. Tossing everything out and restocking when you cross just because you don't know what you can cross with is a bit silly. It helps to ask these questions and try to be prepared when crossing.

And some things that you may need may not be easily obtained once you cross. Canadian Customs rules state my must have a Canadian Certificate of Insurance for your vehicle which you need to get from your insurance company. Customs almost never asks for that though and most people cross without that paperwork. But all it takes in one Customs Agent who remembers that from his or her training asking for it when you cross. In fact it was some missing paperwork on one of my work crossings that got me flagged in their database. I'd made that trip a couple of times without problems but on one crossing I ran into a Customs Agent who asked for the paperwork -- of course when I showed back up with it later that day he didn't know what to do with it, but nonetheless it got me flagged for future crossings.