Ok, sorry if it seems like i’m flooding this site with questions, but they’re all coming to me with my shakedown right around the corner. What do people do about hanging their food? Is their food kept in a seperate bag inside their backpack, and they just hang that? Or does the whole pack go up? Or what? And what’s the general agreed upon height and distance? 100 feet from camp? 10 feet up? I really have no clue.
C-Giddy
Not a prob, Giddy. That’s what we’re here for. The term bear bagging is simply a method of getting your eats away from critter. Off the ground is best but it can be done by putting it in an animal resistant container like one of those Ursack thingies or a plastic bear can. Some parks require the plastic ones or putting your food in metal lockers near the camp site. On the trail, or any trail for that matter, we hang the our food in some kind of water resistant bag. What ever you have, I use a very old sleeping bag stuff sack. The “recommended” distance, I think from my Boy Scout manual, is 20’ up and 20’ out. Away from where you sleep and cook. In real bear country, hang it high, double roped, 200’ from whee you sleep, 200’ from where you cook, a triangle. Not very practical in most places as trees don’t grow nice branches where you want them. So you just tie a rock to the end of your 50’ parachute cord-you have that?-and chuck it over the easiest branch that gets it off the ground and away from the trunk as high as you can get it. ( this gets a lot of laughs since no one, not even this old Scout can throw a line on the first, third or tenth try) Tie the bag to one end and whilst lifting the heavy food bag pull the rope or have some pull while you push the bag up, tie the rope off around the tree. In some cases you can double rope it, one rope to one tree branch and the other from another tree’s branch and then pull both ropes. Confuses the bears. In the shelters we have mouse cans or hooks or whatever is there. A small bit of rope with a tuna can above it. Hang your food on it and the mice can’t get around the can. Yes, they can. They jump, poll vault, trampoline, cannon thier way to it. most of the time you’re good to go. There are somebear cables inthe Smokys. Keeps them off but not any other four legged vermin. Leave your pack unzipped and every pocket and leave nothing that smells like food. Wrappers, an M+M. they’ll chew holes in it. Outside the shelter there may be some nails you can hang your pack on. Its easy. If you tent, especially down south, don’t leave or bring any food inside. Chipmonks and mice will eat thru the tent to get at it. We got raided in the Highland a few weeks ago. Mice got my M’s. If its cold, food in the tent is okay. Everything will be asleep for the most part. On long hikes I stash a bar up in the top of the tent. I can here if somethng is trying to get it. A skunk climbing on your tent is fun to watch from the underside.
Bushwhack
“Parachute cord” is a generic name for 3-4mm nylon line. Tent guy line of any sort will do. From you local outfitter, K-Mart. WHite nylon line is at almost anyplace that sells camping gear. Lowes has it in the rope section. The cheap white stuff, about a few dollars for a 50’ piece. Get it in green from an army surplus store. for example;
http://www.epcamps.com/Parachute_Cord.html
but you can find it locally
BW
I used to try to hang mine the way Bushwhack suggests. In the Smokies a Raccon got someone elses food, who had hung it better than mine (prior to the cable system). Now I hang it as well as I can, but within sight of my tent. I want to be able to wake up and possibly have a chance to scare anything off prior to them getting it. I hang my pots under the food as a bell.
Blue Jay
Last shelter out of the Smokes we hung the food and immediatly watched a opossum scamper right over all three deflectors and down a line. No?, it was Ice Water Springs, yeah. High wire act. Doodledooditdoodoo…
BW
I wouldn’t suggest not hanging your food in NJ. The bears are worse than the mice.:smokin
tribes
I also would definitely advise against not hanging food. On a number of occassions last year I had bears walking around camp at night. I was sure glad I had hung my food!
Downunda
My main concern right now is whether to hang it in the Whites of NH. That’s where I’m going this upcoming week. Sooo… do I have my food, or are the whites pretty safe as far as bears are concerned?
C-Giddy
For the most part, New England bears are skittish around people and don’t often go looking for human food. But there are exceptions. There was a bear at the Ethan Pond campsite a couple years ago who made a habit of raiding food. And there was a problem bear at the October Mtn. Lean-to in Mass. which prompted the installation of a bear cable there. My attitude is to always hang food in a bear-proof manner. Then you won’t cause some bear to acquire a taste for human food and become a problem (which could result in the bear being shot).
DebW
On the Appalachian Trail, your primary concern will be to keep your food away from the little critters (mice, squirrels, raccoons, etc). Bears, for the most part, aren’t much of an issue (the notable exceptions being near Springer in GA, GSM & Shenandoah NPs, and NJ) in this regard. Keeping this in mind, the best system I’ve found is the URSACK. It is made of armid fibers (Basically Kevlar) and is impossible to chew through (except by the large brown bears in the Sierra, which have managed several times to successfully rip holes in one, and which you’ll find nothing of it’s kind on the AT). This way, you can hand hang your food on a branch right next to your tent, or tie it to a small treetrunk right next to you and not worry about it. It’s a helluva lot better than trying for ten minutes in the dark to throw some stupid line over a treebranch you can’t even really see anyway. To avoid bears crunching it in the locations that I listed above, you may want to keep it in a shelter, bear box, or up on a line…just so if a bear finds it, you won’t get squashed food back. The cord is made of kevlar and is also impossible (or nearly so) to chew through. Thus, tying it to something that a bear cannot break using proper knots will make sure that your food will still be there in the morning. Again, it’s the little creatures that you will be most likely to lose your food to, not the large ones. Just pay attention to shelter registers and notices around camping areas about bear activity. Use your brain and you’ll be fine.
-Howie
Hungry Howie
I always wonder what the real value of an Ursack is. So a bear can’t chew through it, but doesn’t it make more sense to make sure a bear doesn’t get his paws on it in the first place?
I know that if I just hung (not bearbagged) an ursack on a branch or whatever and a bear found it in the night and was trying to gnaw thru it, I wouldn’t consider that a successful outcome, even if the bear didn’t actually eat any of the food. Sure you still have the food, but it’s all squished up and more importantly the bear knows that there was food in the bag. Any bear that comes that close to getting a free meal will probably check back for easier pickings.
It just seems to me that the only real value of an ursack (when it comes to bears) is that in the event that a bear does get hold of it, you don’t lose all your food (even then, maybe the bear trots off with the whole ursack). Anyway, my point is that I don’t think the use of an Ursack should affect your bear bagging practices. Always bearbag food in bear country.
Wedding Singer
In that same mindset, what is the real value of a bear canister? Without Bearcans, hikers would fear to go into the Sierra, especially the Yosemite area. Even counter balancing your food has been prohibited in most backcountry areas in the Sierra (because the bears can get your food with relative ease). The only viable way to store your food in the Sierra is either in Bear lockers or canisters. The bear knows that there is food in it…but he can’t get it.
To my knowledge, there’s never been an Ursack failure on the East coast…
-Howie
Hungry Howie
One person on trailforums had a problem with a mouse eating thru his ursack. Check the Long Trail forums for the post. That was probably after 4 months of use. That’s only one case, but it is an ursack failure on the east coast.
As for a bear canister, I believe some of the areas on the PCT for which bear canisters are recommended are treeless (the high seirras). In this case, an ursack or canister is better than nothing since hanging food isn’t an option(even though most PCT thruhikers don’t use either). But that just doesn’t apply to the AT’s bear country - it’s all below treeline so hanging is always an option and there’s no regulations. I’m not fundamentally against ursacks, but for me, I just don’t think the additional weight is worth the insurance policy since it only helps you if a bear actually gains control of your food bag. I’d rather try to prevent the bear from getting at my food bag in the first place.
Wedding Singer
When we hiked the Pct we rarely hung our food. We just put our gross socks over the bags and slept with them at our feet. On all our walks that is pretty much what we have done… except up here in AK. We then find boulders and basically bury it. We have never had a problem on any of our hikes. Does this mean our socks TOTALLY STINK ??..
yappy
enless i was in an area that was known for bear activity, as stated above, i just hung my food bag at arms reach on a branch. no worries. its never that far to a road if anything ever happened and your food got eatten…
Werewolf
Werewolf
I used a Ursack last year on the AT and had a mouse chew through the bag. But to be fair I had cooked dinner on one of those shelves on the side of the shelter leaving the bag there as I ate nearby and he got through a crease on the collapsed bag. I was low on food at the time so the bag collapsed easily.
Food in a tent requires only one bold or very hungry bear. I talked to people that have had bears come in on them.
Two Scoops
C-Giddy:
when in BEAR COUNTRY…always hang your food bag! I’ve gotten that advice from some wise thru-hikers…& never cook inside the shelter! (those occasional spills attract more critters)
I’ve owned an URSACK for over 3 years now & have never had any problems with mine.
“Jaybird”
www.trailjournals.com/JaybirdandJigsaw
“Jaybird”
Just use it as a pillow. Then you’ll know if something’s trying to take off with it!
May as well, you smell like food anyway. We simply under-estimate an animals sense of smell. Our packs smell like it, our clothes smell like it, our hands, etc. Hanging food is just a psychological thing to make you feel better.
BearBait