View Full Version : Food Bag..Hanging or Tent???
jkspeese
03-01-2011, 17:24
Hey,
First time thru hiking and planning on heading out from Springer around March 5-9th.
I have most of my gear but I was wondering about hanging my food bag at night(from bears) or keeping it in my tent??
also should I hang my entire Backpack or just food bag?
and is it ok to have my backpack in my tent at night after food has been in it all day? basically just looking for advice or helpful info on food storage safety. thanks !
Llama Legs
03-01-2011, 17:27
hang your food. Then you only have to worry about people stealing your food...
Lone Wolf
03-01-2011, 17:32
Hey,
First time thru hiking and planning on heading out from Springer around March 5-9th.
I have most of my gear but I was wondering about hanging my food bag at night(from bears) or keeping it in my tent??
also should I hang my entire Backpack or just food bag?
and is it ok to have my backpack in my tent at night after food has been in it all day? basically just looking for advice or helpful info on food storage safety. thanks !
i never hang food or my pack. it stays with me in the tent
WingedMonkey
03-01-2011, 17:41
It's not just bears, I've had squirrels eat through my mosquito netting to get in, raccoons open food boxes and fire ants chew holes in my tent floor. Hang it
I'm with Lone Wolf. Last year, I used the bear cables, if they were available. But if there were no cables, I kept my bear bag in my tent, wrapped in my shell under my head as a pillow and I never had a problem with bears or other critters.
In fact, one night at Watuga Lake, I got a little drunk at the beach on some outstanding trail magic and wound up hiking around the lake to a campsite after dark. I didn't know until the next morning that this campsite was regularly visited by bears (closest site to the beach at Watuga). When I "fell asleep," I had food strung out all over the inside of my tent. That night a bear came into our campsite. It went after the hanging bearbags and rummaged through all the trash left by the regular picnic people, but it never came anywhere near my tent. I woke up the next morning and heard all the crazy stories about the bear bashing open an abandoned cooler and people getting scared to death and running on to the next shelter at 3 am. (Another hiker got her trail name that night when the bear followed her to the shelter :).) Maybe I was just lucky, but like I said, I have never had an animal of any kind screw with my tent.
Unless there are readily available bear cables, my food stays with me. My theory is that black bears will go after anything they can get to easily without confronting a human being. A bear always knows whether there is a human in a tent and I think the bear would have to be really, really hungry to engage that human.
Mr. BuffaloMan
03-01-2011, 18:45
Hang your food bag if you can (sometimes there is just nowhere to put it). Your pack can stay in the tent with you if you have the space. I only hung my pack while in shelters to conserve space and try to keep the mice out (which doesn't work--the mice will always get in if they want to--leave the zippers open).
DBCFlash
03-01-2011, 19:04
I have had raccoons tearing into my tent while I was in it, just to get at the food. Bold critters didn't care that I was shouting at them. I finally threw the food (banana's, I think) out of the tent and they wandered off after them.
Now the food NEVER goes in my tent.
Toolshed
03-01-2011, 20:08
Here's the deal:
If you have to ask, then hang it.
If you are not sure, then hang it.
If you are new to BPing (and it kinda sounds like it), then hang it.
If you cannot get a bear bag hung in a reasonable amount of time (Less than a couple of minutes after you locate your tree, then hang it.
Hang it until you are so good at it, it doesn't take any time.
Hang it anytime you are camping around others.
Hang it until you are so certain of your skills on the trail that you can tell from where you are camping, whether there will be critter activity - Once you reach this point, you will know whether you want it as a pillow that night or hang it.
As for backpack, if you can pull it into the shelter and use it as a pad under your legs, great. For a long time, I used a piece of cord wrapped somewhat tightly around a tree and clipped it to the cord , by it's hang loop with a beaner (void of food of course). I then put my pack cover over it, although even without a raincover, it usually stays dry under the canopy in all but the hardest rainfall.
Toolshed... ur the voice of reason on this...
learn the PCT-Method - hang it- every now and then, it's raining like hell, cold, I 'm tired or drunk or whatever and I decide' "oh hell, no critter is going to get my food tonight - I'll just set it here in the vestibule or whatever" -- THAT is when the mice eat my sh#t. Always, hang your food, toothpaste, etc. Bears are an important consideration but mice, and raccoons are much more likely to chew through your stuff. Raccoons are pretty much just little bears.
ChinMusic
03-01-2011, 20:42
Unless there are readily available bear cables, my food stays with me. My theory is that black bears will go after anything they can get to easily without confronting a human being. A bear always knows whether there is a human in a tent and I think the bear would have to be really, really hungry to engage that human.
That paragraph sums it up for me as well.
I've even volunteered to keep other people's food in my tent when hanging wasn't an easy option for them. They were nervous about having food in their tent, and I was not. I do not place my tent close to shelters.
Griz country is a totally diff story.
YMMV
double d
03-01-2011, 20:52
Hanging a food bag is decided on alot of facts, as you can read from our posts (which, btw, are from many experienced long distance hikers). My own opinion is this: if I'm in bear country (GSMNP) I will hang it, but if I'm in Vermont, forget. Now...Glacier NP, that is another story, that place scared the heck out of me the first night I was there. But on the AT, use your common sense and when in doubt, hang the food in a secure location (high branches, away from your tent/shelter, etc.).
Blissful
03-01-2011, 20:52
Hanging your food is the best bet. Bears aren't an issue by the way the time you are starting (if they are, there are bear poles and bear boxes or warnings put up). Up in New England its wily squirrels and chipmunks. Down south its more raccoons, mice, and such
This reminds me of something funny. There are always hikers who keep walking until well after dark. They show up at the shelters very late and either wake everyone in the shelter up or pitch a tent nearby. One morning I woke up and some guy had come in after midnight and pitched a tent directly under the a bear cable with about 8 bear bags suspended from it. I had a picture of it, but cannot find it.
jkspeese
03-01-2011, 21:16
Thanks everyone...good advice and a lot to consider.
I've done many day hikes and a lot of car camping and two over night hiking trips so hanging food hasn't really been an issue until tackling the AT.
Starting out March 8th at Springer.
Turtle Feet
03-01-2011, 21:35
Here's the deal:
If you have to ask, then hang it.
If you are not sure, then hang it.
If you are new to BPing (and it kinda sounds like it), then hang it.
If you cannot get a bear bag hung in a reasonable amount of time (Less than a couple of minutes after you locate your tree, then hang it.
Hang it until you are so good at it, it doesn't take any time.
Hang it anytime you are camping around others.
Hang it until you are so certain of your skills on the trail that you can tell from where you are camping, whether there will be critter activity - Once you reach this point, you will know whether you want it as a pillow that night or hang it.
As for backpack, if you can pull it into the shelter and use it as a pad under your legs, great. For a long time, I used a piece of cord wrapped somewhat tightly around a tree and clipped it to the cord , by it's hang loop with a beaner (void of food of course). I then put my pack cover over it, although even without a raincover, it usually stays dry under the canopy in all but the hardest rainfall.
Who gave this post a 'thumbs down'? This is the most intelligent comment in the bunch.
WingedMonkey
03-01-2011, 21:55
Who gave this post a 'thumbs down'? This is the most intelligent comment in the bunch.
Thumbs up.
I knew I'd been in the woods too many years when I could smell a bear. Hogs are another story, I could always smell them LOL. Yes you learn.
Big Dawg
03-01-2011, 22:18
Sleep w/ your food...
vamelungeon
03-01-2011, 22:55
Use your pack containing your food bag for a pillow.
Toolshed
03-01-2011, 23:57
Who gave this post a 'thumbs down'? This is the most intelligent comment in the bunch.
Thanks TF - I think I accidentally gave myselfa thumbs down. I went in and edited it (didn't even knowI had that thumbs capability!!) :D
Wicked irresponsible posts to this... Thanks Turtle Feet for some sanity... Bunch of future "Darwin Award" winners posting here...
ChinMusic
03-02-2011, 00:24
Wicked irresponsible posts to this... Thanks Turtle Feet for some sanity... Bunch of future "Darwin Award" winners posting here...
Yeah, I've seen those people trying to hang properly too..............:cool:
Bear Killers.........
Yeah, I've seen those people trying to hang properly too..............:cool:
Bear Killers.........
And the Award goes to...
ChinMusic
03-02-2011, 00:53
And the Award goes to...
.....those that go hungry.
I sometimes hang, sometimes keep it in tent. If i see much bear sign around i will hang it just in case. I keep my food in an OP sak (they say it is odor proof) . The times when i do keep it in my tent i'm not worried and have never had bears or mice around.
Hanging food is done properly about as often as using a pump to get "clean" water - not very.