Food Odors - Appalachian Trail

imported
#1 
									I've seen about a million posts on food / bear cannisters / PCT hanging method, so I don't want to belabor a point.  But I don't understand the value of going to all of the work of locating your food away from you.  Isn't the smell of food going to permeate your hands, hair, tent, and pack after only a couple of days?  Aren't all of the shelters and campsites going to reek of the smell of food - at least to a bear? Can't the bears smell this from miles and miles away?

Do most people hang their food trash as well their food? What do you normally carry your food trash in? Ursacks and Opsacks? Or Ziplocks? Do most campsites/shelters have trees that are large enough / tall enough to hang food?

									_Spencer_
#2 
												I use a gallon ziplock for all of my trash. I have all of my daily food packed in specific ziplocks for that day. I keep that in the same opsack as all of my food. I have the Ursack White without the aluminum frame. In some of the areas in the West/Northwest (maybe the PCT,) there MAY be places where Ursack/Opsack combo are not approved for use and you are required to go to a cannister. But I am not sure. It is "suggested" that you hike, cook and eat in different clothes from the ones in which you sleep. I have always cooked and eaten a mile or so before I got to camp. That way there is no food waste around when I go to sleep and my clothes air out a little more. Perhaps some folks would hang their clothes with their food? I dont know. My snoring is usually enough to scare anything off within a few miles. 

												_Birdog_
#3 
												We carry our trash in a ziplock and put it in the bear cannister or hang it with the rest of our food and all smellables.  When in areas with known bear problems, we will eat wearing the same jacket on the outside for all breakfasts and dinners. Then that jacket (and weather permitting, also hiking pants and shirt) go in our backpacks at night and we sleep in a t-shirt that is only for sleeping and wearing the last day. We would hang the packs if possible, but often have to leave them down, but not right next to the tent. We would rather the bear investigate the packs than our tent. These precautions are for areas with problem bears. In those areas it is much better to camp where no one else has camped, but that is not always possible. It is also advised that you do not eat where you camp. We also gather some rocks outside the tent door, but we have never needed to use those. We saw 6 bears on the Ray Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon. On that trip we even put out decoy bear bags - a couple plastic grocery bags tied to bushes. The idea is the bear would investigate those first, we would hear it, and scare it away. We have never had a problem with a bear, but seeing them in the wild is a thrill.

												_Turtle Walking_