Bear hang

[HoosierGal]

I am hiking along the TN/NC border for three nights. I want to make sure our food is safe, but I also don't want to buy something heavier and more expensive than necessary. What has worked well for you? I will be just east of GSMNP. Thanks

[daddytwosticks]

A 40 foot section of rope and some sort of stuff sack like bag. Extra points if the bag is water proof. I use an Ursak Minor (rodent proof). Google PCT hang and practice. Good luck.

[daddytwosticks]

Oh, a carabiner is needed for the PCT style hang also.

[Rocket Jones]

I've seen people successfully use 40' of paracord and a few plastic grocery bags. Keep your food in gallon ziplocs in the grocery bags.

[bigcranky]

There are some Youtube videos on the proper PCT-style bear hang. It takes a little practice and a couple of extra items (a mini carabiner and a small stick or tent peg), but once mastered it works very well.

I like to keep my food in an "OP Sack" odor proof sack inside my food bag, available at outfitters, because it reduces the chance that critters will find my bag. At least, that's my experience. But it's not required. A simple roll top lightweight stuff sack from WalMart will work as the bag.

[garlic08]

The trick to everything is being able to tie a stone to a piece of cord and throw the stone over a tree branch about 15-20' high and have the cord follow smoothly. This can be harder than it sounds when the woods are crammed full of trees. It never looks like the nice diagram in the book. It's common for the beginner to get the line stuck in the trees. Don't tie anything important to the cord. The first few camping places on the AT are full of stuff sacks, socks, water bottles and knives hanging from trees on broken pieces of cord. Something as simple as knowing how to roll up cord without twisting it is important, too. It might be worth practicing in a local park. (Also be very careful of the slingshot effect of the stone vs your face as it swings around the branch. If branch height x 2 = cord length and you have a strong arm, you could have a problem.)

I agree all you need, in addition to some skill and a few minutes of time is 40' of paracord and a food bag. You should have the paracord anyway--it can come in handy in emergencies like first aid, repairing a pack strap, storm guys for a tent, or even a spare shoelace. I even repaired a backcountry ski binding with the stuff once.

[GoldenBear]

I just put my food in an Ursack, close it tightly, then tie it around a large tree branch about 100 feet from the shelter. A bear might well find the bag, but it will never get my food.

I tried to do the PCT method, but found I spent too much time & effort finding an adequate branch, and then throwing the rope over such a branch at just the right distance from the tree.

Obviously, some people have no trouble fully & correctly using the PCT method. I'm just not one of those people.

[nsherry61]

For minimum weight and expense hanging a stuff sack is hard, or impossible to beat.
Downside: Already mentioned, finding and using a good hang site. Practice is important.
PCT method works pretty well.
I'd argue that THIS modification is more versatile better in many or most situations.

Also, for what it's worth, the PCT method also works well WITHOUT a carabiner. If you tie a 1-2" loop in the haul line, with say a bowline, and then tie the food bag to that loop with, say a sheet bend, then, instead of threading the tail of the line through a carabiner, you can just thread the tail end of the line through the loop and use the loop just like the carabiner as a stop for your small stick.

Have fun!

[ChrisJackson]

I just put my food in an Ursack, close it tightly, then tie it around a large tree branch about 100 feet from the shelter. A bear might well find the bag, but it will never get my food.

I tried to do the PCT method, but found I spent too much time & effort finding an adequate branch, and then throwing the rope over such a branch at just the right distance from the tree.

Obviously, some people have no trouble fully & correctly using the PCT method. I'm just not one of those people.

Same here, GB. Protects the bear, protects the food, simple.

[pafarmboy]

[QUOTE=bigcranky;1996683]There are some Youtube videos on the proper PCT-style bear hang. It takes a little practice and a couple of extra items (a mini carabiner and a small stick or tent peg), but once mastered it works very well.

After a few frustrating times trying to tie a clove hitch on a stick whilst hanging onto a foodbag, I found it was WAY easier when I:

1) drilled a hole through a gutter ferrule I had laying around (a piece of carbon fiber arrow aka the CF toothbrush would work well too)
2) thread the line through the ferrule
3) use a cord lock to keep the ferrule from falling off the cord
4) Tie knot at end of line.

I put the ferrule/cord lock through a belt loop on my pants while throwing so it doesn't go flying off into the woods. As I hoist the food bag, I mosey the ferrule/cord lock until I reach maximum height. Works like a charm. Well, once I get the freaking rock over the tree branch correctly.....

[Fredt4]

Hanging food will not work, it may make you feel like you've done something appropriate, but you haven't.

Hanging food from a tree, has been, and Will be defeated by any self respecting bear. Using a bear canister (and possibly the Ursack) is the only method that works if you're going to leave your food unattended. The only other option is sleeping with your food. Some may consider sleeping with your food risky, but the data doesn't support their opinion. They're entitled to their opinion, but there's no there there. Your entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. Hang food from trees simply doesn't work.

[X-Pat]

Hanging food will not work, it may make you feel like you've done something appropriate, but you haven't.

Hanging food from a tree, has been, and Will be defeated by any self respecting bear....

Sorry, but I disagree. IMHO, no bear, large or small, will defeat a properly executed PCT method bear bag hang.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Sorry, but I disagree. IMHO, no bear, large or small, will defeat a properly executed PCT method bear bag hang.

While I still think that hanging food has merit and recommend the PCT method, certain bears have learned to defeat most if not all styles of hangs. If I recall it was two years ago when bears in GA were reported to be simply climbing out until the branch broke or actually diving at the bag repeatedly until they got it. Once a habituated bear learns that those colorful bags hanging from the trees are full of unattended calorie laden hiker food, they'll go to great lengths to get them.

Eventually I think the needed solution will be steel bear boxes at all established shelters. We have them at almost every shelter in my area and we have almost no problems in areas where they are in place.

[Heliotrope]

Had 2 bears enter my camp in the boundary water just after cooking a meal and hanging my food. We left the campsite and paddled out into the pond and waited. The Bears left after 15 minutes or so without any food. We returned to camp and slept. My first time camping in bear country (Yosemite) I just climbed a tree each night and tried to reach out far enough on a branch to hang food. Bears had a great feast on the third night. Since my yosemite trip I have hung my food successfully without incident.


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[X-Pat]

Wow. Couldn't imagine a bear willingly falling from a 20' high branch.

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[nsherry61]

. . . Your entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. Hang food from trees simply doesn't work.

If you're espousing "facts", please share what you have that is unequivocal.
Please, provide sources for the absolute failure of bear hangs and the absolute safety of sleeping with your food.

My experience is that bear canisters, bear hangs, and sleeping with food all work in most all cases when managed correctly. AND, there are examples of all of them failing in certain circumstances as well.

All we can do is take reasonable precautions for the area we are in and the animals we expect to encounter. And, to my knowledge, all areas and all animals are not all the same.

[Fredt4]

Blood Mountain in Georgia: hikers regularly lose food hangs, and this has been going on for years.

That's an indisputable fact.

Please post your fact that bear canisters, bear cables, bear poles or sleeping with food fails on a regular basis.

[Fredt4]

Sorry, but I disagree. IMHO, no bear, large or small, will defeat a properly executed PCT method bear bag hang.

Ok, let's assume for a moment that you're correct. If a bag is hung properly using the PCT and a bear defeats it, was the bag hung properly? You should now see that your statement makes no sense. In Yosemite and other areas where black bears are a problem the PCT method is prohibited. Why? Because it doesn't work. Why doesn't it work, for various reasons:
· People don't know how to do it properly.
· People are lazy and won't do it properly.
· Try as they might, they can't do it properly.
· The trees branches are no high enough to do it properly.
· Even if done properly, bears will figure out how to defeat it.

Pick your reason why it fails.
I vote for all of the above.

Rangers simply vote that it's not a suitable method for backcountry use because it's been tried and it doesn't solve the problem, so we'll simply ban it and require bear canisters.

The Smokies went with bear cables.
Other use bear poles.
See a pattern here?
If bears getting the food becomes a problem, then food hangs from trees is prohibited.
I'll grant that perhaps a few individuals may be able to hang a food bag from a tree such that bears can't get to it. But you must grant that most can't no matter how hard they try to get it right.

[Fredt4]

Please, provide sources for the . . . and the absolute safety of sleeping with your food.

Many AT thru-hikers sleep with their food every year and have do so since the trail was established. To date no hiker has been attacked because they're sleeping with their food. If you have evidence to the contrary please post it as I've been searching for it for years. A few hikers have been attacked in their tents but it's always alleged that there was no food in the tent. If bears were regularly attacking hikers sleeping with their food, then there would be an abundance of credible stories to cite, yet there's none. Perhaps "bears attacking hikers sleeping with their food stories" belong with the Yeti and Sasquatch stories.

[nsherry61]

There is little doubt that in problem areas, bear canisters or other industrial type bear proofing is prudent. I don't think that is in much dispute.

For what is worth, I can list two examples off the top of my head where bear canisters consistently failed. 1) in Denali NP, in about 1988 a sow grizzly figured out how to sit down hard on the Garcia type canisters they used up there and pop them open. 2) in recent years in the eastern high peaks region of the Adirondacks, a sow figured out how to defeat the tabs on the bear vaults, and taught her cubs to do the same.

I can't name any specific instances of bears entering tents with people in them to get food, but the horror stories abound with first hand accounts being described even on these forums if I recall.

And finally, if park requirements are you standard of responsible bear security choices, many more parks recommend hanging food than require bear canisters. Canisters are generally only required in problem areas. In the other 99% of public lands Hanging seems to work for most people most of the time.