View Full Version : Hanging Food
Just wondering, when hanging your food is there any need to include the foil wrapped freeze dried packs, (mountain house) food? I'm thinking just any fresh or unsealed food needs to be hung. We're leaving in three weeks and I'm finalizing my pack as well as my boys.
thanks
Footslogger
05-09-2006, 13:40
If you're gonna hang your food then I'd say YES. Reason I qualify my answer in that way is that many hikers don't hang their food at all.
I personally hang ALL mine. If it has a potential smell of food it goes in the bag.
It's all a matter of personal philosophy really. To me, hanging a bag is no big deal and I'd rather do that than tempt fate. Chances may be slim that your food stash would be raided ...but all it takes is once to make you a believer.
'Slogger
bigmac_in
05-09-2006, 14:31
Like every other question that is asked on here - it depends....
If you ask L. Wolf, he'll say don't hang anything.
I agree with 'Slogger - if you are going to hang anyway, hang it all, including anything that might have a tasty smell.
Kerosene
05-09-2006, 15:04
Remember that those foil packets are likely to share the same bag as other food, so they may pick up food smells. If you're going to hang anyway, then throw them in (along with your toothpaste!).
hammock engineer
05-09-2006, 15:24
I agree with hanging your food. The places that I go it is not so much for the bears, but for the raccoons. If there is a smell, they will find a way.
Footslogger
05-09-2006, 15:30
I agree with hanging your food. The places that I go it is not so much for the bears, but for the raccoons. If there is a smell, they will find a way.
============================
...and if they don't get it the "minibears" (chipmonks) will.
'Slogger
I would definitely hang everything. Like others said, not so much for the bears, but for all the other critters that would love to get in to your chow.
As I recall, mice have no problem chewing into a corner of a freeze dried meal package just like everything else.
blitz134
05-09-2006, 18:59
I've heard stories of bears getting into MREs and those are supposedly super sealed. I keep all of my food in a silnylon bag from Sea to Summit, it makes a nice loop at the top and is waterproof in case of rain while it is hanging, and it probably seals smells in better than some other kinds of bags. I make sure to put my Jetboil stove in there as well since it has a tendency to really hold onto food smells.
I'm sure others might say don't worry about it, but it would have been worth the trouble the first time your food gets raided. Plus on my trips hanging the bearbag right before bed is one of the most amusing things we do. It always seems like there are no good trees or the rope is too thin to hold up the food of 5 to 6 people...or the bag ends up 6 ft off the ground under all of the weight...we just hope that only short bears visit our camp...
....and on the off chance your "super sealed meal" gets opened by a rodent and some larger creature smells this and comes to investigate...? Agree, don't we keep those sealed meals in with all the other food during the day?
I also hang toothpaste (kit), the pot & spork (unless I'm catching rain water overnight), and the trash too... My very first night on the AT (GA) bears came into camp and we were VERY happy to have hung our food between two trees and high enough for them to not grab it. They do sound, perhaps, like little elephants as they run by your tent.
Judging from my cats, well fed, totally spoiled. They can still tell if it's food they like while still in the sealed can, by its' smell. I suspect that food smell from packing lingers on the package. Just cause you can't smell it, don't mean the critters can't.
So, I also vote, hang it.
Doctari.
Kerosene
05-09-2006, 21:28
Caution to food bag hangers: I wrapped the end of my bear bag rope around a rock and made a lovely throw over an outstretched limb perhaps 20' above me. The rock cleanly sailed over the branch before the rope caught in the bark a little bit, turning said rock into a projectile that proceeded to race across the ground with frightening speed looking to break my shinbone. :eek: Only a quick sidestep allowed me to keep the hike going for another week!
Footslogger
05-09-2006, 21:34
Caution to food bag hangers: I wrapped the end of my bear bag rope around a rock and made a lovely throw over an outstretched limb perhaps 20' above me. The rock cleanly sailed over the branch before the rope caught in the bark a little bit, turning said rock into a projectile that proceeded to race across the ground with frightening speed looking to break my shinbone. :eek: Only a quick sidestep allowed me to keep the hike going for another week!
===========================
I'll see that and go you one better ...
I had taught some Boy Scouts how to attach a rock and throw their line for a food bag out away from the campsite. About an hour later I heard a commotion and went to investigate. Turns out that one of the boys decided to throw a line (rock attached) a tad bit too close to his tent. The rock cleared the intended branch and then broke loose, flying through the air downward towards the wall of his tent. Needless to say he had a little tent patching to do after that exercise and he promised to always pick a tree/branch a little further away from the campsite in the future ...
'Slogger
LostInSpace
05-09-2006, 21:36
Caution to food bag hangers: I wrapped the end of my bear bag rope around a rock and made a lovely throw over an outstretched limb perhaps 20' above me. The rock cleanly sailed over the branch before the rope caught in the bark a little bit, turning said rock into a projectile that proceeded to race across the ground with frightening speed looking to break my shinbone. :eek: Only a quick sidestep allowed me to keep the hike going for another week!
You made me laugh! Yes, I have done that too many times. Now I only use "light" rocks. :D Skill was learned at the price of much experience!
Mother Nature
05-09-2006, 21:37
I remember a backpacking trip in NC just past Albert Mountain at the Big Spring Shelter. There was a sign warning of recent bear activity.
The journal indicated that a group of campers staying there the night before elected not to hang their food. A bear had entered the shelter area during the night and ripped up 5 backpacks. :-?
We were scouting the area behind the shelter for firewood when we spotted something very unusual on the ground. There was bear scat all over the area filled with shredded silver foil and other undigested items. The labels Mountain House and AlpineAire were distinctly visible.:p
We followed this silvery scat up the trail the next day. We assumed passing all that aluminum foil gave the bear so much indigestion he left us alone at the shelter. :D
Mother Nature
Lone Wolf
05-09-2006, 21:38
Like every other question that is asked on here - it depends....
If you ask L. Wolf, he'll say don't hang anything.
I agree with 'Slogger - if you are going to hang anyway, hang it all, including anything that might have a tasty smell.
I say don't hang anything but I carry maps. Lotsa folks hang food but have no maps. Fear of bears. Rediculous. Break a leg/ankle and try to get out without a map.
Green Bean
05-11-2006, 11:49
I hang it all and carry maps and seems to be working so I am sticking with it. ~GB
I say don't hang anything but I carry maps. Lotsa folks hang food but have no maps. Fear of bears. Rediculous. Break a leg/ankle and try to get out without a map.
what if you break a leg trying to hang your food? what then?
sliderule
05-15-2006, 10:35
Just wondering, when hanging your food is there any need to include the foil wrapped freeze dried packs, (mountain house) food? I'm thinking just any fresh or unsealed food needs to be hung.
Your question suggests that you greatly underestimate the sensitivity of a bear's nose. And other critters' noses as well.
Hang all food and anything else with an aroma, like tooth paste, sunscreen, insect repellent, etc.
House cats can smell out foil packets of tuna ;) My fat cat found my buddy's resupply box and tore into it a couple years ago Ripped open tuna and jerky packtes don't smell good when your cat is rolling in it.
First time out backpacking, I didn't have enough room in my bear canister so I hid a FD meal and yep..a chipmunk ripped it open.
FD and metal packs do not equal smell free. Hang food, use an Ursack or a bear canister......
Your question suggests that you greatly underestimate the sensitivity of a bear's nose. And other critters' noses as well.
Hang all food and anything else with an aroma, like tooth paste, sunscreen, insect repellent, etc.
I don't underestimate, I just don't know, so I ask. Thanks for the feedback, we will hang all food and tooth paste.
I don't underestimate, I just don't know
Do the bears a favor and make sure you "know" how to hang your bag. The only time I've ever heard of a bear getting someones food, it was hung. They figured this out in the Sierras, where it's illegal to hang your food. Just read a thread yesterday where someone hung their food on the AT and a bear got it.
Back in the day, hanging food on the AT was unheard of, except in the doahs. I'd point out in the registers that some of those poles were so low they were useless. I'd call them bait poles. Maybe that has changed?
After reading this thread, I'd say you have a better chance of getting hit in the head with a rock than a bear getting your food.
Fair enough, I'll know how to hang the bag.....and I'll watch out for rocks.
Amigi'sLastStand
05-25-2006, 19:13
Bears, smears. 'Coons and minibears is why I hang. Hang it all - food, toothpaste, soap, pots, etc. Ppl who tell you not to either lucky or stupid. They haven't met raccoons that can undo bungies and click open coolers, gnaw through backpacks, and pick locks. Food bag must be at least eight feet up and four feet off the side of the tree out on the branch. I never use those provided for you at the shelters. I figure the 'coons put those there to show you where they like to have their meals.
fiddlehead
05-25-2006, 23:41
Well, i don't consider myself stupid. AT least when it comes to backpacking. And maybe i'm just lucky but, to have this wonderful luck for 17 years of backpacking seems a little strange.
But, you asked for advice and some of us told you what we do. I don't hang food because i like to keep it. I have hung it but saw how bears can get it anyway. so i stopped.
I still hung it once more because we were all tripping and thought it'd be cool to chum a bear in. Of course we were making so much noise the bears didn't come near us. (i guess you could consider that stupid, but then again, it was a great night)
TIDE-HSV
05-25-2006, 23:47
The biggest black bear I've ever seen stole my wife's pack at Sheep Pen Gap between Gregory and Parson's Balds in the Smokies. It turned into a long story, including my going back the next weekend to try and rescue it, that I won't bore with, but, in the process of the theft, a ziplok dropped out, which contained my wife's drinking tube (pre-bladder, fitted onto a Nalgene). The bag had been in an outside pocket, nowhere near food. The lesson? The bear had come to associate ziploks with food, on sight, no scent necessary. I believe they, like domestic cats, can come to associate the appearance of cans and other food containers. We may, on occasion, give a little too much credit to their noses.
TIDE-HSV
05-25-2006, 23:49
Forgot to add that the bear stopped to bite the ziplok several times and then dropped it on the ground...
warren doyle
05-26-2006, 11:36
I don't cook anymore in the backcountry. I don't eat where I camp. I don't camp where others have camped consistently.
Therefore, I have never hung my food up.