View Full Version : Food storage question
The Mountain House (example) comes in sealed packages. Are they scent proof before they are opened?
I know I need to get a bag like a ursack but I don't know how much they hold. How many do I need to have to hold food for 2 people for a week long?
All opinions are helpful
On the AT a water proof food bag with 30+feet paracord is all that is needed. I could not fit but 2 days in an ursack. The bag itself will have a scent after your first meal, if not before. As far as size put together the food you are planning for your largest section and fill a container of measurable size(large cook pot) each quart is similar to a liter and buy a bag with 2 extra liters of capacity.
As far as Mtn house meals they only have at best about 600 calories in the entire package which is a nice appetizer.
Don't worry about it. Only lucky people get to see a bear. Even fewer have the pleasure of being ripped off by a bear.
Carry a rope and practice throwing it over a tiny tree limb, 10 or 15 feet high. Once you get the hang of it, forget about bears. Just haul your pack up each night, and hope you are lucky enough to see a bear close up.
Weary
Mountain Wildman
01-30-2010, 22:22
The Ursack holds 650 cu. in. which is estimated to hold about 7 days of food.
Cool
I owned a tree service and have a bean bag made to tie to a rope and throw it over a limb so I have the throwing thing down.
I have a waterproof bag and that will do it for me.
If the mountain house has so few calories, what do you suggest as food?
I wouldn't bother to carry the bean bag, it's just extra weight. Tie your line to a rock and use it to throw instead.
hikingshoes
01-30-2010, 23:39
I like my little waterproof bag with 75'of 550cord,w/carabiner.HS
GeneralLee10
01-30-2010, 23:53
I have used my water bottle for a weight it's worked so far for me.
Commercial food packages are NOT animal proof by any means. The issue being that your (or others) hands transfer food scents to them, be it at home or in the factory.
An Ursack holds anywhere from a couple days to a week of food/garbage, depending on your packing style.
As for bears....you have more to worry about than them - squirrels, chipmunks, mice, birds are more of an issue - and mice will rip into MH meals.
Thanks,
That answers my question. What I wanted to know is if I needed to hang MH food even if hasn't been opened yet, and you answered that for me........ YES all food and trash must be hung.
thanks,
JustaTouron
01-31-2010, 14:46
I wouldn't bother to carry the bean bag, it's just extra weight. Tie your line to a rock and use it to throw instead.
And if you are like me and inept at this. (Nine out of ten times the rock falls out before the line is over.) Use a tent stake bag or similiar size bag, put a rock inside and tie the bag closed. The empty bag weighs less than the bean bag.
Cool
I owned a tree service and have a bean bag made to tie to a rope and throw it over a limb so I have the throwing thing down.
I have a waterproof bag and that will do it for me.
If the mountain house has so few calories, what do you suggest as food?
Sticks of butter! ;)
Really, though, add clarified butter (Ghee) or cooking oil to every meal (except oatmeal maybe :D) to bolster its caloric value.
Eat lots of peanut butter, too.
Snickers and other candy bars are fair game, too.
Remember - eat whatever you want whenever you want it (or can get it).
That's why some of us hike! :banana
What to eat: Grocery store. Cruise the isles and look for products with at least 100 calories per ounce. That's why you see frequent reference to items like Liptons', Mac & cheese, peanut butter.
Didn't see a bear? I must have been luckier than most. I saw bears in at least 3 states on the AT, and heard them bound away from me in a couple more states.
...Didn't see a bear? I must have been luckier than most. I saw bears in at least 3 states on the AT, and heard them bound away from me in a couple more states.
How does one tell the difference between one critter's "bound away," and another critter's "bound away?" Since I haven't learned the distinctions, if I'm telling a story to gullible folks, I always suggest that it must have been a mountain lion that had been stalking me, ready to pounce for it's kill, that I wisely caused to bound away. I sometimes even attribute my survival to having beat the bushes with my homemade wooden walking staff in a final last second attempt to avoid doom.
Somehow, so far I've avoided the wrath of those who've heard my wild speculations, and I have survived. Who knows what the future will bring?
Weary
How does one tell the difference between one critter's "bound away," and another critter's "bound away?" Since I haven't learned the distinctions, if I'm telling a story to gullible folks....
Weary
Not trying to ruin your story telling.... but,
Bears tend to have a crash, crunch, boom, crash and maybe scatching bark as they climb a tree.
Dainty crunching leaves is everything else.
Not trying to ruin your story telling.... but,
Bears tend to have a crash, crunch, boom, crash and maybe scatching bark as they climb a tree.
Dainty crunching leaves is everything else.
Once while hunting, I ran into a kid who excitedly told me that he'd "gotten a great sound shot" at a deer. I asked him how he knew it was a deer.
He replied, "I've heard a lot of deer running away. They make a crash, crunch, boom sound when they are running scared."
Well, it happened somewhat like that. I don't remember his exact words.
Weary