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Tin Man
03-23-2008, 07:32
...or not...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuYUlqoEehg&feature=related

canoehead
03-23-2008, 08:11
I'm gonna say not......

superman
03-23-2008, 08:47
...or not...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuYUlqoEehg&feature=related

In the beginning of your thru hike take some time to just watch your fellow hikers hang their bear bags. I refer to it as the "Bear Bag Follies." How hard is it for adults to throw a rope, with a stick or rock tied on the end, over a branch? How hard is it to pick a branch strong enough to hold the weight of the bear bag? How hard is it to pick a branch that sticks out far enough from the tree? How hard is it to tie the stick or rock such that it doesn't fly off the rope? How hard is it to throw it in a direction that if the stick or rock flies off the rope that it won't hit a fellow hiker?
The good news is that most hikers master this process within days of starting the AT or decide to keep their bear bag in their tent.:)

Lone Wolf
03-23-2008, 08:59
just sleep with you food bag. it's so easy

superman
03-23-2008, 09:23
just sleep with you food bag. it's so easy

Yes, keeping your food bag in your tent is easy but it's not as much fun to watch.:)

dessertrat
03-23-2008, 10:23
So many questions I could ask these people. . .

BradMT
03-23-2008, 10:41
Personally I'd not bother to hang my food on the AT with the exception of SNP and Maine.

OTOH, you're a fool if you don't hang your food around here.

Funny clip tho!

Lone Wolf
03-23-2008, 10:46
why maine?

Foyt20
03-23-2008, 12:49
why no hang food?

Lone Wolf
03-23-2008, 13:05
no need to

Tin Man
03-23-2008, 13:11
no need to

LW, I know you have more miles under your feet than most, but have you never been visited by a nocturnal animal? I hang my food, not because I am concerned about bears, just the everyday critters that roam the woods at night including mice, raccoons, porcupines, etc.

Lone Wolf
03-23-2008, 13:12
LW, I know you have more miles under your feet than most, but have you never been visited by a nocturnal animal?

nope. never

Tin Man
03-23-2008, 13:23
nope. never

Cool. I can save some weight and leave the rope home now. Although I would not try this in Brown Bear or Grizzly country. When I was a kid our scout troup was visited by a bear in New Mexico once and we knew a boy who had his feet chewed on by a bear going for food in this tent.

Lone Wolf
03-23-2008, 13:51
Cool. I can save some weight and leave the rope home now. Although I would not try this in Brown Bear or Grizzly country.

me either. i'd be packin' also.

buff_jeff
03-23-2008, 14:08
I agree with Lone Wolf. I don't waste my time. I might in some areas, though.

dessertrat
03-23-2008, 15:20
Bears are scared of people in Maine. I think I would definitely hang it in the Smokies and in the Adirondacks, etc.-- anywhere that bears have been known to be bold in pursuing a meal.

dessertrat
03-23-2008, 15:21
why no hang food?

Quoth Tarzan and his friend Tonto.

GGS2
03-23-2008, 15:45
me either. i'd be packin' also.

Don't want to discourage those of you who like to carry lumps of iron around on the trail, but a couple of days ago in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, some cops wasted somewhere between 15 and 30 rounds of service ammo on a stray steer that was running at people. I don't know for sure, but I expect that was 9mm. (News reports had one cop firing his "revolver" 30 times. Must have been one of those Hollywood models.) Action like that might annoy a Brown Bear. Or a moose.

Skidsteer
03-23-2008, 18:22
Don't want to discourage those of you who like to carry lumps of iron around on the trail, but a couple of days ago in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, some cops wasted somewhere between 15 and 30 rounds of service ammo on a stray steer that was running at people. I don't know for sure, but I expect that was 9mm. (News reports had one cop firing his "revolver" 30 times. Must have been one of those Hollywood models.) Action like that might annoy a Brown Bear. Or a moose.

Cows are hard to kill with a handgun. I could tell some stories....

Lone Wolf
03-23-2008, 18:24
Cows are hard to kill with a handgun. I could tell some stories....

when i lived and worked at my uncle's dairy farm we put down cows with a .22 between the eyes. deader than *hit each time

Skidsteer
03-23-2008, 18:35
when i lived and worked at my uncle's dairy farm we put down cows with a .22 between the eyes. deader than *hit each time

I tried it once with a .22. Ran out of ammo.

Maybe Brown Swiss have thicker skulls than Holsteins?

Lone Wolf
03-23-2008, 18:36
I tried it once with a .22. Ran out of ammo.

Maybe Brown Swiss have thicker skulls than Holsteins?

nope. gotta do it between the eyes. point blank

smokymtnsteve
03-23-2008, 18:38
jist bust it's head open with an axe

Skidsteer
03-23-2008, 18:49
jist bust it's head open with an axe

An axe woulda bounced off that old bossy's head.

She always was a mean one.

REBELYELL
04-04-2008, 09:05
After my just resupply food bag was hung at Icewater Springs was snatched off the bear cables by a fellow hiker (I use that term loosly)I sleep with mine for my pillow.The two uncracked pints of Dickle was missed the most.I heard the varmits were caught but that didnt help me much because I was already miles away

johnny quest
04-04-2008, 09:17
the locker plant across the street used to have one old bolt action .22. .....killed everything from bulls to emus with it. its all about placement....

hopefulhiker
04-04-2008, 09:20
I am in favor of hanging bear bags. I had a bear come to my tent because I had a candy bar in there. I was scared.

johnny quest
04-04-2008, 09:24
how do you know it was the candy bar he smelled and craved? how do you know it wasnt your feet or b.o.? this is a serious question. has someone done a study and found that bears are drawn to the smell of human food....or is it the smell of human-food?

HIKER7s
04-04-2008, 09:35
I wonder, (having never actually had the bear bother the tent) if loud snoring acts as a deterrant.

Fiddleback
04-04-2008, 09:52
As I've posted before, 'what smells good to a bear?' Or, what merely piques its curiosity and causes it to check out what's stinking up the place? There are scents that seem to be a no-brainer to keep out of the tent...bacon, honey-scented shampoo, dried salmon,... But bears, specifically grizzlies, are said to have a sense of smell 1000 times that of a dog. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/07/29/news/mtregional/news05.txt I don't think I'll be hiding or masking much no matter how hard I try so I'll keep keep baggin' and hope me and the rest of the stuff in the hammock/tent isn't interesting.

I've read that some anthropologists think that Early Man survived all the stronger, faster predators, not because of his bigger brain, but because he didn't taste good. I think of that often before going to sleep with the grizzlies.:-?

FB

johnny quest
04-04-2008, 10:00
there is something about bacon. i know hardcore vegans whose one downfall is the smell of bacon.

DavidNH
04-04-2008, 10:03
From Virginia northward (2006 thru hike) I never once did a bear hang. 90+ percent of the time I actually just hung my food from the mouse hangs in shelters. Mice are a problem bears are not. Where bears where known to frequent shelter areas, bear boxes where nearly always provided.

When I did hang my food, in the southern most sections, where everyone was so darn scared of bears, I hung it almost always less than 10 feet from ground and not that far from trunk. bears could always have gotten the food.

It was funny, at one point, I think in NC before Fontana dam, you would have a full shelter and maybe 10 or more bear hangs out side. In each case the food was close to the trunk and well within a bears reach.

It was at standing bear farm I learned that people do sleep with their food in some cases (from a guy who was a river guide and actually spends time in the woods). he never had a problem.

I never ever saw a bear near a shelter. It stands to reason..shelters are crowded and bears like to avoid people.

I never ever had any troubles with bears on my AT hike.

Don't worry about bears folks. Consider your selves blessed if you see one ( I saw bears sevral times..always away from shelters!). Use the mouse. Mice are the problem, not the bears.

DavidNH (Snickers)

Sly
04-04-2008, 11:09
I wonder, (having never actually had the bear bother the tent) if loud snoring acts as a deterrant.

Could be. I add cigarette smoke.

Summit
04-04-2008, 13:39
As someone else said, my primary reason for hanging food is that every time I didn't skunks, mice, or raccoons kept me awake until I got up in the middle of the night and hung it. Didn't happen every night but more frequently than I wanted to deal with any more.

Why some folks (like LW) never seem to have the slightest problem I can't say. It could be body odor including foot odor. What smells good to animals doesn't necessarily equate to what smells good to us. In other words, LW may never get bothered because either (A) his body/feet smell good, or (B) his body/feet smell really bad.

I just believe it makes sense to err on the side of caution and hang your food (the right way). I avoid all that today by using a bear vault, which I usually leave on the other side of my campsite clearing, and my food stays safe and dry. ;)

borntobeoutdoors
04-08-2008, 01:25
Cool. I can save some weight and leave the rope home now. Although I would not try this in Brown Bear or Grizzly country. When I was a kid our scout troup was visited by a bear in New Mexico once and we knew a boy who had his feet chewed on by a bear going for food in this tent.

Go check out some bear sites.

Fact: Black bears are more aggresive then grizzlies.

As for the suggestion to keep the food in the tent, that's exactly the opposite of what should be done.

It doesn't make any difference where I hike. Montana, California, New York. I always hang a bear bag, except where Bear canister are mandatory because people didn't hang bear bags.

And as someone else said, there is always the problem of mice, fishers, Pine Martens and other varmits.