Favorite Food Bags?

[khaynie]

With all the recent talk about food and peoples favorite fancies, I've been pondering over food bags. What do you consider to be the ideal food bag? For instance - size, weight, versatility, etc...

On our thru we saw everything from plastic grocery bags to sleeping bag sacks and everything in between. My wife and I carried an Ursack, 650 cubic inches of bear/mice proof storage (yeah right), on our sobo thru last year.

For those who aren't familiar with the Ursack, ours was composed of two kevlar bags. We decided to pull them apart and use them individually. We could only fit about a max of 5 days of food/person/bag which was sometimes annoying. Also, my "bulletproof" bag was compromised when we stealthed on Mary's Rock in the SNP by some type of rodent. Previously I had bragged about it's invincibility to the CT side of the JHP, consequently, they never let me live it down. Bottomline - I'm in the market for a new food bag and I'm seeking the expert opinions availiable here on WB. Help me out would ya?

P.S. The picture attached shows our "Bear proof" food bags.

[Cheesewhiz]

I use a granite gear dry sack and I removed all the clips clasps tags and extra strapping and now I just tye it shut and I can fit like 6+ days food in it. Mine is a size large.

http://www.granitegear.com/products/...ack/index.html

[khaynie]

Thanks, Cheesewhiz - looks like a nice food bag. Good luck on your hike.

[Peaks]

Real simple. I use a stuff sack for my food bag. Sil-nylon bags are about 1/2 the weight of regular nylon stuff sacks, and waterproof also.

[mweinstone]

its a stuff bag by golite probubly about 9 x18.no such thing as mouse proof. if you put your bag in a tree far from the shelter its mouseproof . near the shelter,not mouse proof.oce i cashed food in an old hollow sump and closed the openong tight with rocks kicked in with my boots. inside a few ziplocks were ,salt,pepper,cans of sardiens,tea and coffie,and foods i belived had little or no scent.this was at pocohauntiss spring in the summer in PA. came back about 5 weeks later to find no rocks,no food, nothing in the stump.down the trail 50 feet was the remains,one ziplock bag and the pepper.

[lbbrown]

check out the O.P. saks made by Aloksaks. Odor proof means if the critters can't smell it, they won't eat it! Price is reasonable too. They tested a bag with peanut butter in it and placed it in a cabin known to have mice and packrats. 2 weeks later the peanut butter was even touched! The bags come is several sizes also. Waterproof to 200 ft.

[betic4lyf]

the problem seems to be that the smell would get on the outside after repeated use

[Skidsteer]

the problem seems to be that the smell would get on the outside after repeated use

Yet again you impress me! Are you really 17? For real?

[RITBlake]

[quote=khaynie]Previously I had bragged about it's invincibility to the CT side of the JHP, consequently, they never let me live it down. /quote]

As Keith said, he loved to brag about his Ursack bag. We never heard the end of it. So you can imagine our delight when he showed us his rodent damaged bag. We just had to laugh.

Here is Keith holding up his 'invincible bag'

[UCONNMike]

Gills...I'm speechless.

You are gonna ditch the Ursack????

[khaynie]

Gills...I'm speechless.

You are gonna ditch the Ursack????

I've been thinking about it. But It's almost a treasure now; not sure of my plans...it's gonna be a hard decision.

T, I actually forgot about that picture. Too funny!

[Kerosene]

As Keith said, he loved to brag about his Ursack bag. We never heard the end of it. So you can imagine our delight when he showed us his rodent damaged bag. We just had to laugh.

Hey, at least it stopped the critter from getting to the food!

[Kerosene]

I too have ditched the Ursack and now use a silnyl stuffsack about the size of what you stuff sleeping bags into. I've attached a small carabiner on the bottom strap to facilitate bear bagging.

I only use the "scentless" plastic bags for food caches, as they are pretty expensive to use for everything and the smell will eventually get to them anyway.

[RITBlake]

Hey, at least it stopped the critter from getting to the food!

im pretty sure the animal got some of keiths food that he had to throw away. In its first real test, the Ursack failed

[khaynie]

im pretty sure the animal got some of keiths food that he had to throw away. In its first real test, the Ursack failed

With all do respect, that sharp toothed rodent probably spent 8 hours knawing on that bag only to get a small nibble of my peanuts. With all things considered, it could have been much worse if it was in a sil-nylon sack. Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet that the little varmant chipped a tooth during his conquest...

[Footslogger]

On my thru I used a regular silnylon stuffsack that measured about 16" x 7". I could get up to 6 days of food in the sack and with that amount of food the total weight was around 12 lbs. I used a mini-caribeener and clipped the webbing on the bottom of the sack directly to my line.

'Slogger

[Tipi Walter]

This is another subject I have studied over the years and it seems to be there are two considerations to deal with: Rodents(or bears)and Rain. Like everything else, some flexibilty is useful such as in a sleeting rain when the hung food bag(s) is soaked and then a hard freeze hits solidifying the whole wad and by morning the thing is a mess and hard to pack. In this case I usually put the bag(s) in my tent vestibule and wait out the storm. 95% of the time though I hang my food bags and over the years I have had numerous rodent holes and one time a racoon drug off my food bag in the night while I was near camp getting settled and it had each item layed out in a straight line down to the creek. There were little claw marks in the half-eaten cream cheese.

The bigger problem though is rain and I have sort of solved this by first getting a watertight stuff sack(Outdoor Research used to make some heavy duty ones), and pulling the drawcord tight and hanging the bag up side down by its haul strap(the bottom strap). This seems to keep all of my food dry and I take a lot, two full stuff sacks for 10+ days of eating.

Beyond all of this, a food stuff sack is temporary and can be replaced often so I don't worry too much about it. Now, I have thought about starting a two week trip and losing all of my food on the first day to a bear. That's a whole new topic.

[jlb2012]

I use plastic grocery bags (triple bagged) for my food - that way I can replace them often and its no big deal if they get a hole in them. To keep the rain out when hanging the food and other stuff I use either a trash bag or compactor bag - twist the top and fold over then use a cow hitch to attach the rope - water proof so long as the trash bag is not ripped.

[BW2006]

I'm going to use an Outdoor Research dry bag. The top folds down and it's pretty light. It should work well until some critter chews a hole thru it. Then I will either replace it or cover it with a trash bag.

[Kerosene]

Now, I have thought about starting a two week trip and losing all of my food on the first day to a bear.

Better the first day than when you're 5 days away from the closest egress point!