Food caches - Appalachian Trail

imported
#1

Everyone knows about food resupply by either “buying as you go” or using maildrops. Has anyone tried a third option - food caches? Supposedly there have been some thru-hikers that have used this technique in the past.

I’m mainly interested about the idea of placing a food cache in a suitable (animal-resistant) container and suspending from a tree in a hidden location. Any thoughts (pro or con) about this?

I realize the immediate drawbacks: 1) It takes time to go to each location and place the cache; 2) you have to carry out the container once retreived (or be very honest about making a return trip later); 3) as with mail drops, you are committed to eating what you put in the cache - whether you like it or not.

But think about the positive - no “down time” or extra mileage from going into towns for resupply. That could really reduce non-trail mileage and perhaps reduce time for the entire trip. Also, the cache is always there, waiting for you. Don’t have to worry about if a store or post office will be open when you get to it.

Is this a viable idea? Please be critical and let me know what you think?

Brutus

#2

I have this image of hundreds if not thousands of food caches hidden up and down the trail, by the 2000 plus people who start out each year to hike the AT, each of whom plans to carry out “or be very honest about making a return trip later” for the animal resistant container (we’ll ignore for now those who would use a regular bag just to be cheap). All hanging from trees or hidden under rocks/stumps. My guess is hundreds would be lost each year, only to add to next years pile-up, many would be left behind with the intent to “making a return trip later”, etc etc etc. Not a pretty picture, is it?

Food caches are not a really good idea. Maybe once when the 100 mile wilderness was really 100 miles, but even then, many caches were lost. Animal resistant containers are only that, animal resistant, not animal proof. Even the Ursack people realized that testing their bags, after some practice, the bears figured out how to tear open the bags.

Having the AT look like an Installation Art theme of hanging bags everywhere is a terrible thought, I think you should leave the viability of that to your garage where you hang your stuff off season.

You did ask us to be critical…

-xtn

airferret

#3

Airferret - Yes I did want critical - thanks - fair enough.

That’s why I am only going to place I think three caches. I am purposefully placing them near locations where I can easily and quickly trash the containers. I understand others might not do that.

I understand what you are saying - the 100 mile Wilderness is no longer that - there are logging roads and other ways to reduce that distance between resupplies.

My main desire is to see how the hanging technique works (if it does at all). I’m also thinking the technique might work for hanging/hiding your pack when you have to walk or hitch a distance into a resupply town. At least in that case you wouldn’t have any “trash” to dispose of.

At any rate, I’ll give it a shot and report back here down the road as to how it works. I sure don’t want to open up a can of worms that results in a large number of discarded containers and eyesores on the trail.

I think that any cache that is placed at ground level or buried will be a victim to the animals. Even legit bear-proof containers (the heavy, bulky, expensive, hard containers) can be dug up by animals and moved quite a distance before the animal gives up on it. By then you will probably never find your container.

But the idea of properly hanging the container from a tree limb is still intriguing. Of course we have all seen trees downed by the weather; etc. So that idea may not work either. Will let everyone know.

Thanks!!!

Brutus

#4

http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Falls/9200/bearbagging.html

And that won’t stop small furry critters.

BW

#5

Caching food is an interesting thought, but I don’t really see the point in caching on the AT. To me, it seems like you’re combining some of the worst aspects of maildrops (being tied into a set menu, requires orginization, expense, etc) with the worst part of town resupply (uncertainty,) and removing some of the benefits of resupply in general (social aspects, hot shower, fresh food.) Caching makes sense if you’re going on a trip way out in the middle of nowhere, but the AT is neither extremely remote nor uncivilized. It would definitely be intersting to see what kind of containers would be capable of storing food outdoors for that amount of time, but the AT might not be the best place to find out. We’ve got some really clever wildlife around here in GA, mail me a cache and I’ll be glad to hang it up for a few months as an experiment ;). Finally, if you take your pack in when you’re hitching, you’ll get a ride much faster as people will (probably) know you’re a backpacker. Have fun!

Skittles

#6

Some hikers do food caches especially the golight crowd. Now if you are a good hiker and do the caches say 20 to 50 miles ahead and definitely retrieve them, then yes, go for it. But food caches 200 to 300 miles down the trail, forget it. You might never make it there.

I think the best/smartest way for any hiker to cache food equipment is to do so in a locked vehicled parked at the trailhead down the trail a ways. That way you will always have wheels for town. So park it ahead, cache food and equipment it it, hitch back down the trail and hike up to the vehicle. Seems to me this would be a very smart way to do a thru hike. And talk about a nice place in out of the weather to sleep if it raining super super bad.

See you out there.:cheers

Maintain

#7

I thought about doing this in Gorham, NH. I met my parents at Pinkham Notch (i believe the is the spot before wildcat). Hung with them for a day and then headed back out. Thought it would make life easier to hang my resupply in a tree near the parking lot/road crosssing so I wouldn’t have to hitch back to the Barn just for my food.

didn’t do the cache, went back to the hostel, ended up zeroing and getting behind my presidentials crew, and never caught them again. Kind of wished I did, but I made new friends that I stuck with till the end.

blip

#8

Maintain, I could see the car cache idea working on a shorter hike than the AT. But it reminded me of that
(in)famous book A Walk in the Woods by Bryson. When he was walking straight through, he was honest. But once he got the car involved, he couldn’t stick to his plans, started hopscotching up the trail, ultimately skipping whole states, and his hike unravelled pretty quickly. It might have ended differently if he hadn’t involved the car.

Aeschylus

#9

I met a section hiker @ Thomas Knob who had cached several food bags this way for his hike. He did exactly what you said, hung them in a tree out of view, now we joked a bit about getting there first, finding them and rehanging them. Course we didn’t do that to this soul, but I did talk to him after he found one of them and even though he had just done it on his way down south to start hiking, it took him a while to find the tree again.

Second instance was last Fall on the LT. This (smelly) guy was doing the entire LT by not going into towns. So far it had worked for him, but he was hauling A LOT of food and I tell ya, he was pretty ripe (and fairly obnoxious to boot, but that’s another story).

Bluebearee