View Full Version : Another GSMNP AT shelter q..
The squirrels have learned to jump over the barricades on the wire bear cables and crawl down the vertical lines and put holes in your food bags. Anybody got a solution to discourage them besides the illegal whatevers?
This is a new one ! :D How did you happen to see this and how bad did the squirrels chew up your food bag ?
vaporjourney
09-27-2006, 00:25
this seems to happen to me everytime i camp in GSNP, namely in Cosby and Big Creek. I've tried rigging a cd to a seperate rope, and hanging the food bag from this, and it didnt' discourage them. Very frustrating. They tend to nibble thru 1/8 of a package of poptarts, and a good handful of GORP. Other people in same campsite hung their entire packs and didn't have this happen. i wont do that because I dont want to risk holes in my pack.
bigcranky
09-27-2006, 07:05
I watched a raccoon chewing into food bags on one of the bear poles in Shenandoah. Seems the poles are bear proof, but not critter proof. We had the same problem in Georgia with the bear cables -- mice could still run up the lines and get in the food bags.
As I mentioned in another thread, I got a couple of Ursacks. They are heavier than a silnylon food bag, but lighter than a bear canister. Here's a review that I wrote for BGT:
http://tinyurl.com/hmzke
Gray Blazer
09-27-2006, 12:30
The squirrels have learned to jump over the barricades on the wire bear cables and crawl down the vertical lines and put holes in your food bags. Anybody got a solution to discourage them besides the illegal whatevers?
Another good reason to arm all the yougsters with BB guns.
Gray Blazer
09-27-2006, 12:31
Another good reason to arm all the yougsters with BB guns.
That's youngsters (as in kids).:o
I've had this happen before too in the Greenbriar area of the park, except that it was mice who dodged the frisbee hanging above the pack and managed to tear through the zipper on my Dana Designs pack. They also ate some of my coffee, I was mad.
anneandbenhike
09-27-2006, 15:02
Flying squirrels? We had them get into our stuff on the bear cables in the Smokies last summer.
gr8fulyankee
09-27-2006, 15:29
I know this is not LNT but, if someone was to liberly apply creosolt to the cables, critters would never be a problem again.
OldStormcrow
09-28-2006, 00:04
Ah, once again, the hanging food question. I have had the mice rappel down and around the tin can lids on the strings inside the Smokies Shelters just like some sort of special forces unit. This was before the bear cables. I still like to hang my food 'way up in the air with a piece of parachute cord over a high tree limb. With 10 or so feet of open space between your food bag and the tree limb above it, the mice would be very exposed and would quickly fall prey to hawks and owls. Just a theory.....
Hammerhead
09-28-2006, 07:28
Stealth camp.......
Our food bag was raided last time we camped in Walnut Bottom (2 yrs ago). It was hanging on the cable contraption. We were packing up to leave in the morning after discovering our food bag problem, when someone from another group came over to ask if we had gorp or not. Turns out he had found 2 or 3 cups of the stuff burried in his pack where some mice were trying to den up.
Pretty odd behavior.