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  1. #81
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    Quote Originally Posted by LazyLightning View Post
    Didn't realize so many people don't hang there food but it makes me feel better now when there's a bunch of people camping and mine is hung.... Same thing sometimes I do a hang I feel isn't the greatest but you know there's at least 5 easier ones for the bears to get
    Wrong. They will go after your half a$$ed hang because it was left unattended in the woods. Would the bear rather go after food left in the woods or guarded by a potential dangerous protector? I think this has an obvious answer.

    As far as this age old debate, canisters would give peace of mind and is 99.99% effective. Crappy hangs are at the opposite end of the spectrum, the worst possible option. I truly believe sleeping with food is much closer to canister effectiveness than crappy hangs. And 90% of the hangs I have seen are a joke.

    Here is by far the best hang of my career.
    360.JPG
    enemy of unnecessary but innovative trail invention gadgetry

  2. #82

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    I almost always follow the same routine, but I'm big on routines. I'm happy to utilize bear cables, a bear pole, or best of all, a bear box. But, none of them being available, I find a decent branch somewhere away from camp, and string up my food and cooking stuff. Granted, some hangs are better than others, but the idea of keeping my food away from camp, and up in the air, seems like a good idea to me. Anyway, it gives me something to do. I take it as a little camp challenge each evening. You actually get so you're fairly good at it, and then it's not a huge deal. Bears are a tiny bit overplayed, but they are out there.
    virgil

  3. #83
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    I use a method that I have not seen discussed. A) All unopened packages are placed in the freezer bag in which they will be cooked. All open packages like trail mix are double bagged in freezer bags. This food is kept in a bag inside my tent's vestibule with the socks and shirt that I wore that day draped over the bag. I also sleep with bear spray handy. B) All trash is placed in a sacrificial bag and hung 20'-30' from my tent. Attached to the bag is a 130db alarm similar to the one linked below. The bag/alarm is set to go off if the pin in the alarm is pulled out....very easy to set up and it will awaken the dead for a square mile!

    Fortunately this system has not been tested while backpacking but the alarm worked very well at the bird feeders in my yard after they had been raided twice by bears. The 3rd raid was stopped and they have not been back for two years even though my trail cam has shown them 1/4 mile from our house.

    https://www.amazon.com/Vigilant-130d...ce+alarm&psc=1

  4. #84
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malto View Post
    Wrong. They will go after your half a$$ed hang because it was left unattended in the woods. Would the bear rather go after food left in the woods or guarded by a potential dangerous protector? I think this has an obvious answer.

    As far as this age old debate, canisters would give peace of mind and is 99.99% effective. Crappy hangs are at the opposite end of the spectrum, the worst possible option. I truly believe sleeping with food is much closer to canister effectiveness than crappy hangs. And 90% of the hangs I have seen are a joke.

    Here is by far the best hang of my career.
    360.JPG
    That is The "perfect" hang, but.... Easy for a bear to climb that tree and just break that little limb, then go on down and feast. These bears are getting pretty darn resourceful.
    " Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. "

  5. #85
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hatchee View Post
    I use a method that I have not seen discussed. A) All unopened packages are placed in the freezer bag in which they will be cooked. All open packages like trail mix are double bagged in freezer bags. This food is kept in a bag inside my tent's vestibule with the socks and shirt that I wore that day draped over the bag. I also sleep with bear spray handy. B) All trash is placed in a sacrificial bag and hung 20'-30' from my tent. Attached to the bag is a 130db alarm similar to the one linked below. The bag/alarm is set to go off if the pin in the alarm is pulled out....very easy to set up and it will awaken the dead for a square mile!

    Fortunately this system has not been tested while backpacking but the alarm worked very well at the bird feeders in my yard after they had been raided twice by bears. The 3rd raid was stopped and they have not been back for two years even though my trail cam has shown them 1/4 mile from our house.

    https://www.amazon.com/Vigilant-130d...ce+alarm&psc=1
    That's a pretty cool little thing. May be a good thing to have on ya anyway in case of any time of real emergency. I imagine people would come to investigate that sound if heard and bear and dogs and raccoons and skunks and all the critters near you when that goes off would probably be moving in the opposite direction rather quickly.
    " Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. "

  6. #86
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malto View Post
    Wrong. They will go after your half a$$ed hang because it was left unattended in the woods. Would the bear rather go after food left in the woods or guarded by a potential dangerous protector? I think this has an obvious answer.

    As far as this age old debate, canisters would give peace of mind and is 99.99% effective. Crappy hangs are at the opposite end of the spectrum, the worst possible option. I truly believe sleeping with food is much closer to canister effectiveness than crappy hangs. And 90% of the hangs I have seen are a joke.

    Here is by far the best hang of my career.
    360.JPG
    Yea so your best hang is what I mean by not being totally satisfied with one, being on such a dead looking branch and all. ...
    I would also think about mice chewing through my tent or attracting small rodents or any other animals with food in my tent, not just bears... I know, knowbody else had that happen so its all good.
    I'm rarely not satisfied with a hang but there are times when a good one is hard to find. I actually felt better doing my own hangs then using some of the provided cables, particularly in GA.... The food bags were hanging so low a bear could have easily stood on its back legs and either got them or cut them open spilling the food.

  7. #87
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malto View Post
    Here is by far the best hang of my career.
    360.JPG
    As a former regular hanger this is a thing of beauty...well done!
    AT: 2007-2019 (45 sections)
    JMT: 2013

  8. #88
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    A couple of points that folks bring up on this thread that are of interest actually support the practice of sleeping with the food. One point is the fact that hanging food is basically broadcasting the smell all over the place if there is any breeze, which there normally is about 99% of the time. If you have the food bagged up and inside the tent then food smells aren't being blown all over the woods.

    The other issue is small critters. There's talk of paranoia (I say this because there were very few documented actual incidents in this thread) of mice and/or other critters chewing a hole in the tent. There is not a lot of evidence that this happens very often, so I'd say it's a fairly rare occurrence.

    I'm not gonna go on record and tell people to sleep with their food, but if one chooses to I do have a couple of tips:
    1. Bag everything up and put it in something. I use a sil-nylon food bag that's placed in a trash bag that I close. I then put that in my empty pack in my tent. Can a bear still smell the food? I'm sure it can, but this likely knocks any odors back significantly.
    2. Carry stuff that that's sealed and/or doesn't stink to high heaven.
    AT: 2007-2019 (45 sections)
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  9. #89
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    So maybe the ultimate answer is to get a 2nd mortgage on your home and buy a Bearikade, then sleep with it inside your tent. Doubles as a camp seat too and possibly a level area to cook if you are in unlevel terrain. Then, if you make the mistake of leaving it unattended, you will likely have your shelter shredded, but the bear won't get the payoff at the end, and if you can find it, you can still eat while sitting out it the rain. No other critters will get to it either, which is another plus. Might make a nice nightstand in the tent? Convenient for those midnight munchies?

    My only concern about sleeping with food is how much do I trust that the progression of boldness of these table-fed bears, won't ever get to the level that they are willing to challenge me for my "kill"? Especially those who are already SO people food ingrained that if we all start protecting our food better that it leads to a shortage for the bears and some begin to reach desperation. Is that a real concern or am I being overly dramatic?
    " Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. "

  10. #90

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    The proper thing to do is keep wildlife wild. Don't let wildlife get your food. That also means being mindful of not leaving behind cooking trash, food packaging, cross contaminating food with gear, CS's, etc. It means proper disposal of cook remains.

    I like what Handlebar recently said about how he cleans his small cook pot swishing around water, his spork after eating and finger and then drinking the water. A quick wipe from a bandanna or micro fiber ditty rag leaves little to nothing to contaminate the CS for those too follow. I've been doing the same for many yrs born out of water logistics management on desert hikes and wanting to build in the skill of not requiring to always camp at a water source. Keeping gear especially pack, cookware, and food bags regularly washed should be a priority.

  11. #91

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    Quote Originally Posted by randall_mcduberson View Post
    I can't help but notice the large number of posts regarding campsites being closed due to bears. I think Strategic put it perfectly that it is not so much an issue of the bear eating your food or attacking you, but rather the bears seeing it as a food source/opportunity. I, for one, could not care less about your food. After all, it is YOUR food, not mine. But if campsites that I want to use are being closed due to bears seeing them as a potential food source, and the solution that is being suggested by the people who's job it is to manage these areas is to hang my food, then I will hang my food.

    I think this is an issue of problem framing. Are you trying to protect your food or are you trying to reduce impact and prevent the attraction of animals to campsites. The question may change your answer. Perhaps a bear canister is the solution to your problem?

    I congratulate everyone who has never lost their food to a bear. I am sure you are responsibly controlling your food and trash in order to minimize your impact. The unfortunate thing is that some are not responsible, and see you keeping your food in your tent as an excuse to not hang their own food. This isn't the root of the problem, but that does not make it any less true.

    I find "it is how I have always done it" to be a lazy answer to this. I will admit that change is difficult, and I am rarely surprised but still frustrated when people do things solely because of convenience.

    Best post on this thread and sleeping with food. Don't let it come down to just you protecting your food. That's not always good enough. Reducing impact and preventing the attraction of animals to campsites should ALSO be included.

  12. #92
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sojourner74 View Post
    what about the Ursack? How's that working for you guys?
    It works great unless a bear has a go at it. It did keep the bear from getting my food but the bear bear shredded everything in my bag - through the OPSACK, through the 1 gallon zip lock, through the 1 quart ziplock, and through the food packaging. About 50% of my food was so shredded it was completely unusable (e.g. a mixed puddle of mixed dehydrated dinners, gatorade, jellied honey bun remnants, and bear saliva in the bottom of the bag) and the other 50% was edible as long as I wasn't too squeamish about bear slobber. Of course it rained for the next 2 days on me so in addition to the holes and bear slobber, the salvaged food got wet from the weather. I could probably return it and get a new one because some of the holes in the bag were bigger than .25" (depending on how you measure it I guess) but I will never use one again.

  13. #93

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    Quote Originally Posted by Berserker View Post
    A couple of points that folks bring up on this thread that are of interest actually support the practice of sleeping with the food. One point is the fact that hanging food is basically broadcasting the smell all over the place if there is any breeze, which there normally is about 99% of the time. If you have the food bagged up and inside the tent then food smells aren't being blown all over the woods.
    A bear, in the area, is going to smell the food whether you hang it or keep it in your tent. The gamble involved, if you sleep with it, is whether the bear will be fearful enough not to make an attempt at getting it.

  14. #94

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    The goal is not to sleep with your food, which is mostly done out of human convenience. It's in how to protect food from wildlife AND! reducing impact and preventing the attraction of animals to campsites...NOT just for yourself but all that might follow. If there exists many problematic hangs the answer is in learning how to execute better hangs OR using a canister or Ursack...NOT sleeping with food. Offering in a public forum the general idea TO ALL that sleeping with food is a OK is bad advice.

  15. #95
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    Russian Roulette??? Go for it!

  16. #96
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    Hiking from Wind Gap, Pa. to Katahdin starting 5/3/19....gonna go with a bear canister this time...have used z packs bear bag from Springer to Mt. Everett in Mass. in 16 and 17. trying to simplify...went stoveless from Pearisburg, Va to Pawling, NY, and that went great. Gonna go with the canister this time...one less thing to do once you reach camp...no cooking, no hanging bear bag....keeping it as simple as possible...

  17. #97

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    Another vote for sleeping with food with rare exceptions of known hazard or high risk

  18. #98
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    Quote Originally Posted by scope View Post
    I'm a lazy hiker. I loathe hanging a food bag. I also don't want mice getting into my food or ruining bags/packs trying to. I also want a place to put cool stickers. That's why I use a BV450.
    Dang - I've been using a BV for years and never thought to put stickers on it!!! Trouble is, all my stickers smell like bananas.

  19. #99
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    I have used LocSak odor-proof bags and keep all food in one and trash in the other. My only encounter was snacking on some peanut M&M's in my tent late one night. Never did that again.

  20. #100
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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadeye View Post
    Dang - I've been using a BV for years and never thought to put stickers on it!!! Trouble is, all my stickers smell like bananas.
    You’re a monkey?


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