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  1. #1
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    Default Novice Hiker Looking for Bear Bag Advice

    I need some help. I've read many different posts, articles, etc regarding food and animals. As an example, let's say I've arrived at an AT shelter in mid afternoon and promptly set up camp and made a meal of beef stew and a peanut butter sandwich. If I take all the smelly stuff (food, pots, toothpaste, etc) and put it all into a commercial grade garbage bag and walk 50 yards into the woods. What now? Specifically, do I need an Ursack type bag, a Silnylon bag, is a garbage bag enough? How high does it need to be hung form a tree? What method for hanging the bag should I use.

    Thanks in advance for any thoughts/ideas.

  2. #2
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    Easier to go to the top bar on the home page. Click on search. Wealth of info on lots of stuff.

  3. #3
    Formerly "Totem"
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    Get some Paracord or something that'll hold the weight of your bag, sling it over a tree, Tie it to the bag, hoist it up 10-15 feet or so and tie the other end to the tree. It's a lot simpler than you're making it.
    up over the hills, theres nothing to fear
    theres a pub across the way with whisky and beer
    its a lengthy journey on the way up to the top
    but it ain't so bad if you have a great big bottle o'scotch

  4. #4
    LT '79; AT '73-'14 in sections; Donating Member Kerosene's Avatar
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    Here's a list of threads with "bear bag" in the title.

    I use a lightweight silnyl stuffsack for my foodbag, about the size of what I'd need to stuff my sleeping bag, with a small carabiner on the end. With about 40' of lightweight rope, I tie the rope around a convenient stone or stick and throw it over a branch about 15-25' high and at least 6' from the treetrunk (careful not to get hit by the stone as it swings over the branch!). There are alternative methods to this approach that you can read about in one of the threads.
    GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014

  5. #5
    Formerly thickredhair Gaiter's Avatar
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    your options: u can risk it or you can be smart and just go ahead and hang it, just don't sleep with it!!!

    check out the other threads mentioned above,
    there are also good diagrams (probably found in the links above) about hanging a bear line, throwing the line can be fun, but also frustrating, but really it doesn't take much time...
    Gaiter
    homepage.mac.com/thickredhair
    web.mac.com/thickredhair/AT_Fall_07

  6. #6

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    I use the same method, except that I have tie a very small mesh bag to the end of the rope and drop the rock in that. Then I store the rope inside the bag when not in use.


    Quote Originally Posted by Kerosene View Post
    Here's a list of threads with "bear bag" in the title.

    I use a lightweight silnyl stuffsack for my foodbag, about the size of what I'd need to stuff my sleeping bag, with a small carabiner on the end. With about 40' of lightweight rope, I tie the rope around a convenient stone or stick and throw it over a branch about 15-25' high and at least 6' from the treetrunk (careful not to get hit by the stone as it swings over the branch!). There are alternative methods to this approach that you can read about in one of the threads.
    Some people take the straight and narrow. Others the road less traveled. I just cut through the woods.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gaiter View Post
    just don't sleep with it!!!
    why? i ALWAYS sleep with it

  8. #8

  9. #9
    AT 4000+, LT, FHT, ALT Blissful's Avatar
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    I got a sea to summit bag sil dry bag for food hanging - like it very much. And waterproof.







    Hiking Blog
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    Shenandoah NP Ridgerunner, Author, Speaker


  10. #10

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    The PCT method described on JERMM's link is the easiest, lightest, and safest bear-baging method I know of.
    Art
    ----
    "Strength is life; weakness is death."
    --- Swami Vivekananda

  11. #11

    Default Don't spend a lot of money os my advice

    Paracord will haul my food and my dogs food for 5 days. Anymore than that and I would bring a second paracord - pulling heavy loads can be difficult and it wears on the cord and damages the limbs. I see folks that willl basically hang it over their tents. I go a little distance - but not way down the hollar.

  12. #12
    Garlic
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    I do exactly what Kerosene says. I saw some very poor hanging practices on the AT and a few people missing days of food and a few bears getting more habituated. Don't be lax about it, a fed bear is a dead bear.
    "Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning

  13. #13
    Getting out as much as I can..which is never enough. :) Mags's Avatar
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    The Chinese tend to have advanced techniques...


    Paul "Mags" Magnanti
    http://pmags.com
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    The true harvest of my life is intangible...a little stardust caught,a portion of the rainbow I have clutched -Thoreau

  14. #14
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    I've had it, can you pronounce it?

  15. #15
    Registered User turtle fast's Avatar
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    A sil nylon bag is just enough with some para cord. Some shelters have bear cables or poles to hang your food and smellables from. Most of the time though, you will need to dangle it from a tree limb...several techniques exist and can be found here on Whiteblaze. But do hang it....I have seen mangled bags from bears, raccoons, squirrls, and mostly though from mice!!!

  16. #16
    Registered User Pickleodeon's Avatar
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    This PCT method of bear bagging.. well, I've tried it. I'm 5'2", a girl, and frankly, can't throw so save my life. I tried the rock in bandana method.. it punched holes in my bandana when it landed on the ground I also hit myself with the rock more than once when it swings down or misses the branch and falls. I've heard about trying a 2/3 full soda bottle with water in it- havent tried it. Dont get me started on getting it tangled and yanking it until it catapults onto another branch. Also, I've had trouble finding decent trees with thick branches that I can throw over and have it far enough from the actual tree- they're all really high up. I just can't throw high enough. I'm sure if people watched me try to hang my food they would die laughing, that's if they didnt die from being hit with my poorly thrown rock. Plus it's hard for me to pull the bag up, it's like 10 lbs maybe for 5 days of food over a rough branch that the rope gets stuck on, 15 ft up, and then trying to retrieve the end of rope with the PCT method involves me jumping like a maniac. I've practiced this process in my yard and just cannot get it down.

    Long story, well, long, I got an Ursack. I plan on tying it to a tree, so it doesnt get dragged away, but I trust that, especially against mice and squirrels, more than I trust my throwing arm. I dont want to spend 3 hours in the dark trying to hang a bear bag and end up being medivacced for a head injury from my rock.

  17. #17
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    Default How/what to do

    Quote Originally Posted by markAT2009 View Post
    I need some help.What method for hanging the bag should I use. Thanks in advance for any thoughts/ideas.
    Quote Originally Posted by Lone Wolf View Post
    why? i ALWAYS sleep with it
    Quote Originally Posted by rootball View Post
    Paracord will haul my food and my dogs food for 5 days. Anymore than that and I would bring a second paracord - pulling heavy loads can be difficult and it wears on the cord and damages the limbs. I see folks that willl basically hang it over their tents. I go a little distance - but not way down the hollar.
    Quote Originally Posted by Pickleodeon View Post
    This PCT method of bear bagging.. well, I've tried it. I'm 5'2", a girl, and frankly, can't throw so save my life. I tried the rock in bandana method.. it punched holes in my bandana when it landed on the ground I also hit myself with the rock more than once when it swings down or misses the branch and falls. I've heard about trying a 2/3 full soda bottle with water in it- havent tried it. Dont get me started on getting it tangled and yanking it until it catapults onto another branch. Also, I've had trouble finding decent trees with thick branches that I can throw over and have it far enough from the actual tree- they're all really high up. I just can't throw high enough. I'm sure if people watched me try to hang my food they would die laughing, that's if they didnt die from being hit with my poorly thrown rock. Plus it's hard for me to pull the bag up, it's like 10 lbs maybe for 5 days of food over a rough branch that the rope gets stuck on, 15 ft up, and then trying to retrieve the end of rope with the PCT method involves me jumping like a maniac. I've practiced this process in my yard and just cannot get it down.

    Long story, well, long, I got an Ursack. I plan on tying it to a tree, so it doesnt get dragged away, but I trust that, especially against mice and squirrels, more than I trust my throwing arm. I dont want to spend 3 hours in the dark trying to hang a bear bag and end up being medivacced for a head injury from my rock.
    As you can see there are many ways to do it and the above posts seem to cover the range. I bought a Ursack and don't use it. Kinda heavy. If you want to go that way pm me and we can work something out. LW doesn't hang his and he's hiked a lot, though I always mean to ask where/when etc. ( Not to start anything just to gather more info to make a better choice) The question seems to be one that comes up often (very often). Maybe someone could do a poll so others could get a better idea of what most people do.


    chair/ofthearth

  18. #18
    Registered User hopefulhiker's Avatar
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    I saw a lot of people just hanging their bags from the roofs of shelters. I found that mice are more of a problem than bears..

  19. #19
    Hiker bigcranky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pickleodeon View Post
    Long story, well, long, I got an Ursack. I plan on tying it to a tree, so it doesnt get dragged away, but I trust that, especially against mice and squirrels, more than I trust my throwing arm..
    I use an Ursack. Makes life a lot easier. When you tie it to a tree, use a Figure-8 knot, so you can easily untie it if some critter tries to drag it away.
    Ken B
    'Big Cranky'
    Our Long Trail journal

  20. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Manach View Post
    The PCT method described on JERMM's link is the easiest, lightest, and safest bear-baging method I know of.
    If you are not in bear country (most of the AT is), then sleep with it. If you are, then use the PCT method, and don't let anyone tell you that paracord will work, it isn't slick enough. Use this:

    http://www.antigravitygear.com/prodd...=TRLINE&cat=93

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