View Full Version : Ursack: successful on AT?
McIntyre
03-26-2008, 14:31
I'm new to AT-land and understand that rope & stuff sack is one good way to keep the bear from eating your gorp. Advice please, anyone with experience -- gossip, even -- using the Ursack ballistic-cloth bag, either set out on ground or used as bag from rope? Thanks.
Appalachian Tater
03-26-2008, 14:32
Mice are a much bigger issue.
bigcranky
03-26-2008, 16:10
Our first section hike, we hung our food on the bear cables in Georgia, only to wake up every morning to little holes in our food bags and mouse droppings inside. Ick.
Now we use an Ursack or two. They keep the small critters out -- mice, flying squirrels, even raccoons. (I watched a raccoon trying to get inside my Ursack for a while, he was pretty frustrated.) I don't worry about bears on the AT, so that's not a factor in my decision.
My Ursack TKO with an odor proof liner bag weighs 6.6 ounces. If you add up a food bag, 50 feet of rope, a carabiner, etc., the Ursack isn't much heavier, and it's lighter than some system's I've seen out there.
I haven't used an ursack yet, but I think I'm going to try one out next chance I get. I like that it frustrates the small critters. They are much harder to deal with than bears, most of the time anyway.
…Perhaps for the ultra lightweight guys maybe you can go without. …In 20 plus years of distant hiking the only time I have had problems with mice have been in shelters. The 90% of the time I stealth camp in areas that are not established, mice and other larger critters don’t know where to look, and the risk of a chance encounter…well it hasn’t happened. Just a thought…It sounds like the ursack will work if you will be staying in established areas.:)
Tipi Walter
03-26-2008, 19:03
I've had many encounters with mice and chewed food sacks, just part of the backpacking game. Nothing to get excited about. The Yoursac looks to be too small for what I carry foodwise, and anyway, even a chewed up foodbag is still good for many more years of trips.
Like Deerleg said and I'll add, some tentsites are worse than others for mice, but most stealth sites won't see any rodent activity at least for the first night. Other well-used sites can get pretty active, and I'm not talking about AT shelters either. Does the Yoursac repel rodent teeth? I guess it does.
Appalachian Tater
03-26-2008, 19:08
Honestly, unless it is in a known bear-problem area, such as the Smokies or Shenandoah Park, or New Jersey, I just sleep with my food in my tent or hang it on a mouse cable or nail. However, if there are bear cables or bins provided, I always use them.
I see you're from California, remember the bears are different out here.
Honestly, unless it is in a known bear-problem area, such as the Smokies or Shenandoah Park, or New Jersey, I just sleep with my food in my tent or hang it on a mouse cable or nail. However, if there are bear cables or bins provided, I always use them.
I see you're from California, remember the bears are different out here.
Speaking of out west...here's what they use in Big Bend NP:
http://i28.tinypic.com/v3lnjk.jpg
RedneckRye
03-28-2008, 00:41
Food bag as pillow seems to work fairly well for me on the east coast. If a bear, mouse, or the guy next to me tries to get my Snickers I usually know pretty quick into the process and can get them to stop.
smokymtnsteve
03-28-2008, 00:50
duct tape
minnesotasmith
03-28-2008, 01:32
I used one all the way through my thruhike in 2006. Mice regularly broke their teeth on it. I lost NO food to mice that was in it, ever. It's an act of public-spiritedness IMO to have one when you hit a shelter, as you don't use up limited rafter/bear cable/bear box space. It's also far quicker to tie one to a tree than to hang a bear line.
I highly recommend the Ursack for any hiking that's overnight, on up to a thruhike. Some things to remember:
1) The fabric they're made of, Vectra, doesn't handle UV well, a real issue if yours is on the outside of your pack. I dealt with that by using part of a contractor bag around mine, and including another CB in each of my mail drops to replace them as they tore.
2) The odor-barrier bags tear in no time. I wouldn't bother with them.
3) As Ursacks are extremely abrasion-resistant, they work out very nicely when tied on the outside bottom of backpacks. PA/NH/ME rocks hardly did visible damage to mine.
4) When the military took their entire production of Vectra for making flak vests for soldiers and Marines bound for Iraq, the people who make Ursacks used leftover material to make long narrow green Ursacks for a while. I found one left in a shelter, and used it for a couple weeks, but eventually left it in a hostel's hiker box. They are hold very little food for their weight and volume, being so narrow. The only good thing to be said about them IMO is they fit in pack loops where Thermarests, small tents, rolled up pads, etc. are commonly packed. I'd give them a miss.
Yes, definitely, get an Ursack. Even if you can't fit all your food in one, you can put your most critical food in one, and save time at campsites/shelters to boot.
I spent a few days in Yosemite last summer, and there was 1 guy with an Ursack. Bears visited camp and took off with his Ursack full of food. When he eventually retrieved it, the bears had not gotten IN to the bag, but the food was all completely smashed, ruining at least half of his food supply for the next few days of his trip. If a bear gets a hold of your Ursack, most of your food will be destroyed, which kinda makes them useless in my opinion.
Mrs Baggins
03-30-2008, 17:40
I have to say that I think the bear problem, at least through GA and probably NC, is vastly over stated. If you have even one person in camp with a dog you probably won't have a bear show up no matter where you are. I don't like dogs on the AT but that is their one useful function. We hung our bags every night through GA but I'm guessing I could have kept my food bag in my pack with me in my tent and been just fine.
Strategic
03-30-2008, 18:17
You might want to take a look at this thread (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=578270#post578270) for a bit on the bear situation even away from the traditional trouble spots. What with the late drought last year and all, I'm betting we'll see more bear problems this year (less food in the fall so they're hungrier in the spring as they ramp up activity again.) I'm on the verge of buying an Ursack myself for this and the small critter reason. I bear-bag now, but it's so much easier to just strap up the Ursack and it works so well against the more usual pests too.
minnesotasmith
03-30-2008, 18:28
I spent a few days in Yosemite last summer, and there was 1 guy with an Ursack. Bears visited camp and took off with his Ursack full of food. When he eventually retrieved it, the bears had not gotten IN to the bag, but the food was all completely smashed, ruining at least half of his food supply for the next few days of his trip. If a bear gets a hold of your Ursack, most of your food will be destroyed, which kinda makes them useless in my opinion.
1) Ursack.com also sells a lightweight aluminum insert that makes them a regulatorily-compliant container for the Sierras. Presumably it makes them substantially more able to protect food from bear damage.
2) Even if the bears render one's food inedible, surely there's some satisfaction in having public-spirtedly kept from rewarding a bear from getting to eat food it swiped from people? Given "a fed bear is a dead bear", removing the reward from food theft is better for the bears as well as other hikers.
3) I agree that rodents and mid-size varmints such as raccoons are a greater danger to one's food. Excepting only creatures such as marmots and weasels, an Ursack should laugh off their teeth.
Note that during my pre-thru shakedown section hike of GA in 2005, when I had just a stuffsack for food, I had a flying squirrel raid my bear-cabled foodbag at Low Gap shelter. (Caught it in the act around 0200 when nature's call interrupted my sleep.) Little SOB cost me parts of 5 different food items and a quarter-sized hole in my stuffsack. Bet he'd have been luckless had I had an Ursack then...
another subject to search, pages and pages of bear bag/ food storage debate
Well, this is not a lightweight option, but I use a plastic airtight kitchen canister that happens to fit pretty well in my pack. I pack it with food and anything that might be odor-attractive (toothpaste, tums, trash, etc.) or anything I want to keep dry (tp, etc.). At a shelter I still hang with it with a spare stuff sack, but at any other site I don't bother to hang - just leave it sitting out at the perimeter of the campsite or several paces from where I'm sleeping. I can't tell that its ever been noticed by wildlife. A bear would probably be able to rip it open if it kept trying, but since its airtight, it shouldn't draw them to a site.
take-a-knee
04-01-2008, 14:43
Someone posted awhile back that they used a large UTZ plastic pretzel jar inside a silnylon sack for there food, certainly not bear proof but maybe rodent resistant and cheap. I plan to spring for an URSACK, it is only six ounces.
sixhusbands
04-01-2008, 14:58
I have a pack of the scented dryer sheets ( any brand will work) with me at all times. They repell the bugs, keep rodents and bears from your food stash and I put one in my clothes bag to keep them more tolarable. I had one in my food bag and I watched as several mice and a red squirrel would not go near it... they ran for the hills. The scented variety must really irritate their sense of smell. (Now, don't turn me in to PETA)! I have never seen a bear near camp when I use them. They are great for your boat when you put it away for winter too!
Speaking of out west...here's what they use in Big Bend NP:
http://i28.tinypic.com/v3lnjk.jpg
i think i have used that exact box...is that the trail head to lowery peak??
Hana_Hanger
04-01-2008, 15:58
[quote=sixhusbands;582435]I have a pack of the scented dryer sheets ( any brand will work) with me at all times. They repell the bugs, keep rodents and bears from your food stash and I put one in my clothes bag to keep them more tolarable.
Wow what a great idea...I will try that this time.
I had a Ursack S29 the newest one and loved it.
We had no worries and slept well at night.
Smashed...it all gets smashed anyhow:p
We did have one bear visit us ...well my son's tent...his own fault...brushed his teeth too close to his tent.
They work great for the AT for all the mice and little critters.
No longer approved at the moment for the PCT or JMT though.
"No longer approved at the moment for the PCT or JMT though"
It's not that bad; I'll start thru-hiking the PCT later this month and plan to use an Ursack for over half of it, and will use nothing at all for the first 700 miles or so.
For the JMT portion, indeed, a bear can is now required for much of this, but the specific details are a bit more complicated.
AlwaysHiking
04-01-2008, 17:28
1) Ursack.com also sells a lightweight aluminum insert that makes them a regulatorily-compliant container for the Sierras. Presumably it makes them substantially more able to protect food from bear damage.
Not this year they aren't.
http://www.ursack.com/ursack-update.htm
Phil1959
04-01-2008, 17:58
The only time,I had trouble was when I hung my food! Most nights I slept with it,never even had a mouse show up! Tho I am the only one who had 2 boar show up when in Tenn,but I was eating a can of sardines and they were having trouble finding food.Not a good combination!
bigcranky
04-02-2008, 20:21
I spent a few days in Yosemite last summer, and there was 1 guy with an Ursack. Bears visited camp and took off with his Ursack full of food. When he eventually retrieved it, the bears had not gotten IN to the bag, but the food was all completely smashed, ruining at least half of his food supply for the next few days of his trip. If a bear gets a hold of your Ursack, most of your food will be destroyed, which kinda makes them useless in my opinion.
While this is certainly true in Yosemite, their bears are very, very different from those along the AT. For now, anyway.