View Full Version : bear bags/ food info
Pickleodeon
07-29-2008, 20:38
Hi, I backpacked in the Smokies for about a week once and fortunately never saw any bears, but I think I would pee my pants if I did see a bear on the trail. So, I'm curious about bear bagging.
Do I need any special kind of bag to hang my food from bears/other critters?
I'm a pretty petite (5'2") female planning on going solo, will I be able to actually get my food in the tree?
What's the easiest and safest (to avoid critters getting to it once hung) way to do it?
Do I really need to put my cooking clothes, chapstick, anything with a scent in the bag?
Is it best to hang food every night despite location on the trail (like different states- are there any places that I shouldn't bother)?
Sorry that is a lot of things, but I'm a little paranoid about them.
bobgessner57
07-29-2008, 21:03
Any sort of sturdy waterproof stuff sack will work. I prefer a strap on the bottom so it will hang upside down on rainy nights. That helps keep rainwater from trickling in the string closure end.
Some keep their food down a lot. I prefer to hang most nights to keep all sorts of creatures from messing with my stuff. On the AT I don't worry too much about clothes and chapstick, etc. Shelter dwellers tend to hang food from the string/tuna can hangers found in most shelters.
Some heavy bear areas have permanent bear cables at shelters or designated campsites such as in the Smokies. The Shenandoahs have poles, other places you have to throw a line over a high branch, pull the bag up at least 10 feet above the ground and 4 or more feet from branches and tree trunks.
If you know racoons are in the vicinity keep shiny stuff like spoons, pots, etc put up or away as they like to steal the stuff.
Odor proof food sacks are available from www.backpackinglight.com (http://www.backpackinglight.com) if it makes you feel safer. Use an old stuff sack that doesn't already have food odors to put your grub in. The PCT method is probably the safest hanging method for areas that don't have cables or a box. It takes a little practice, though. There are numerous articles on the method if you Google it.
If you really don't want bears in your camp, put anything that you can smell at all in your bear bag. A bear's sense of smell is infinitely better than yours.
Good advice above, I would add that if you plan on staying around shelters check the log and you will know if bears are a problem in the area. Most nights I don't worry about hanging food, but as a rule I don't cook often where I sleep, and most nights I sleep in a stealth unestablished sight where critters don't know to look for food. Never in 30+ years of camping and hiking have I had a problem just following a few simple common sense rules.
Check out "Ursack" and the videos ("Bear Test Videos"):
http://www.ursack.com/ursack-catalog.htm
A little pricy, but what is the value of peace of mind about your food? :-?
I happen to carry a Bear Vault, so no concerns or need to hang food:
http://www.rei.com/product/768902
Makes a great little seat and dinner table for one also! ;)
http://www.rei.com/product/768902
Interesting...straight from the site link provided from product.
"It has been discovered there is a bear in the Marcy Dam area of the Adirondacks that has learned to open BearVault food containers. Until further notice, BearVault advises that their product should not be used within 20 miles of the Marcy Dam area of the Adirondacks."
Clever. I hope it has a chance to pass on genes before it gets in trouble.
Clever. I hope it has a chance to pass on genes before it gets in trouble.You beat me to my first thought on reading that. I was going to say wow, I hope it's not hereditary! :D
I'd like to know more details because unless the bear somehow breaks the little plastic notch that you have to depress (kinda like a medicine cap press and turn), it would be very difficult for a bear to use a claw to depress the notch and turn the lid - quite a feat to perform with a large paw.
I am not aware of any campsites in GSMNP that doesn't have at least one set of bear wires.
As to hanging food inside the shelter, I don't have a big problem with this during the day, but I will request others to hang their food at night on the wire. The reason we have problems with bears in the shelters is because someone "educated" the bear as to what it could find there.
I don't use anything other than a waterproof sack, but I put just about everything in ziplock bags. I do this to keep it dry, not to try to mask it from a bear.
minnesotasmith
07-30-2008, 10:55
I used a set during the first part of my thruhike. I found them to quickly stop sealing, and not long thereafter tear up in normal use. I don't intend to use them again. For trips over 3 or 4 days, I don't recommend them.
Blissful
07-30-2008, 13:01
Last year on the hike I saw only one bear - in PA and he was forgaging. Of course others saw many more. SNP has the famous bear poles for hanging your food - and that is the place where you are likely to see them on a thru huke, esp if you come through in June. When I saw the big one in PA I just hit my poles together and shouted and he ran off.
I always hung my toothpaste and toothbrush with my food. Never did hang my chapstick.
Plodderman
07-30-2008, 14:39
I always hang my food when at the Shelterer's to be considerate of everyone else. When I tent I Alys hang my bag some distance away and have never had bear problems but I have met people on the trail who have lost all their food. I use a waterproof bag from Wal-Mart and the nylon rope from there also in the camping department.
Pickleodeon
07-30-2008, 18:40
thanks so much for the great advice!
Speaking of bear wires/cables, I would plead for people to hook them back to the tree after use. Not only does it improve the first impression/appearance for the next hiker who comes along, but I still have visions of a cable system with a half-eaten moose hung up in it by its antlers in Banff NP, Canada. The evidence of a ghastly struggle by this beautiful creature was quite evident.
It would be quite possible for a large rack deer to get caught up in the cables anywhere along the AT, and of course moose in the northern part. Every time I come upon the cables, some are just dangling. It's not that much effort to hook them back to the tree.
I am also a small female that learned how to really bag on the AT section last year from thru hikers. On our first night at Jerry Cabin, there was a bear up the trail ( we saw the scat the next morning) so we figured we better learn how and not our usual midwest casual ten feet off the ground hang. Take a pair of thin leather gloves with you. The toughest bit is pulling the rope to get the bag up without tearing up your hands. I did bag all food, stove, toothpaste, unmentionable female items but not my chapstick. I could not part from my chapstick!
Berserker
07-31-2008, 12:41
Odor proof food sacks are available from www.backpackinglight.com (http://www.backpackinglight.com) if it makes you feel safer. Use an old stuff sack that doesn't already have food odors to put your grub in. The PCT method is probably the safest hanging method for areas that don't have cables or a box. It takes a little practice, though. There are numerous articles on the method if you Google it.
If you really don't want bears in your camp, put anything that you can smell at all in your bear bag. A bear's sense of smell is infinitely better than yours.
I agree with the PCT method. I always use this method (unless there are bear cables nearby), and it's not difficult once you do it a few times. You may want to practice on a tree near your home before you go out on the trail. As for the food bag, I use an OR Hydroseal. It's a light weight dry bag.
Your question seemed to be related to hiking in the Smokies, where the bear population is dense. Every GSMNP campsite is equipped with bear cables. We prefer to hang our entire packs - including food, trash, cloths we cooked and ate in etc. We just clip a mini-biner to our packs and pull that up through a trash bag, then tie the bag tight around it to deal with the likely rains, then hoist them up.
Cause we fear the bears? Nah, not at all. We see lots of bears. They are usually moving very quickly away from us. Hardest GSMNP critters there are to get a good pic of... (and Cade's Cove bears most certainly do not count).
The smartly designed bear cables used in the GSMNP and elsewhere - with the disk barriers and clever rolling pieces of plastic black pipe over the cable - will also keep the far more common mice, boomers, racoons and the like from tearing a hole in your pack because they smell where food is or once was.
Waking up to a chewed up pack will ruin your whole day :(
minnesotasmith
08-02-2008, 09:53
There is a midpoint between running industrial-grade grizzly-proof bear lines a dozen or more feet overhead/distant from trees, and just dropping one's food bags on the ground. If you run a line about 6' off the ground on either end, while bears (thankfully relatively rare on much of the AT) can still get it, should they come along, but the more numerous animal food thieves (mice, squirrels, raccoons, etc.) are much discouraged. I call it running a raccoon line.
No, it's not ideal, but more than once I found (when exhausted after dark, and I'd already set up camp) that I just could not find a place to run a bear line within a reasonable distance. It was better IMO than doing nothing, and as I never got my food raided the few times I resorted to this, it did work for me...
Homer&Marje
08-02-2008, 10:01
I just put all the food in my pockets, never hang, cook and eat in the tent....prefer to tempt fate... no seriously i'm kidding... that's about as smart as not treating your water:D What do you think LW?
Homer&Marje
08-02-2008, 10:15
I always use the 10ft 4ft rule unless (like places in the whites above 4k) the caretakers will tell you of no bear population and in that case I simply tie a rope 6' off the ground (head height for me) and tie it off in the center, then using the center knot I attatch both ends of my stuff sack w/food to the center rope and tie tightly, I think I have a picture of the system
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=26745&original=1&c=694