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Thread: hanging food

  1. #1

    Default hanging food

    ok so i have anotehr newbie question.

    so let me see if I have this straight

    food goes in a seperate bag
    at nite, after dinner you hang the bag high up in a tree 5-10 feet away from the trunk 15-20 feet off the ground. or on the pole or cable if it is there

    get up bring it down have breakfast pack up walk away.

    what kind of bag does the food go in a dry bag or sil-nylon?

    am i missing anything?

    pt
    before washing your jeans shorts, pre-treat by throwing them away.

  2. #2

    Default

    I have never hung my food bag in over 20 yrs of long distance hiking, not even in natl. parks. I use a nylon bag and sleep with it and have never had any issues not even mice.

    RAT

  3. #3

    Default

    Hang it around your neck so hungry hikers don't steal it while you sleep, then blame it on the "mice."

  4. #4

    Default

    LOL good one, heh.


    RAT

  5. #5
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    Default

    There is an article available online that you may find helpful; the diagrams provided make it easier to conceptualize:

    http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/training/bearbag.shtml

  6. #6
    Registered User fonsie's Avatar
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    I been lucky in not having my food stolen when I hang it up. I was in the northern Va 20 miles south of Harpers Ferry. I did'nt hang it and I woke up with something sniffing around my tent. Since I had gotton a smell/water tight bag I never had a problem with critters. I don't hang my food just for the fact I caught a bum trying to steal my food one night. Just get a water/air tight bag to keep your food in and you should be allright.
    "It's better to try and fail than not to try at all"
    " www.myspace.com/bigfonsie "

  7. #7

    Default

    Don't listen to those guys. Even if they are telling the truth, which I doubt, they are just lucky. Hang your food as best you can, away from your tent but within sight. At best it's a delaying tactic. Determined animals can get almost anything. Hang your pans with the food. If you hear them in the night you can get up and often scare whatever is there away. If a bear already has your food forget it, it's gone. How hard is it to throw a line over a branch? Those other posters are pathetic.

  8. #8
    Registered User Jaybird's Avatar
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    Default food bag hangin'

    hang your food...it's better to be safe...than feed a bear (or mice)

    good luck with your hike!
    see ya'll UP the trail!

    "Jaybird"

    GA-ME...
    "on-the-20-year-plan"

    www.trailjournals.com/Jaybird2013

  9. #9
    Registered User fonsie's Avatar
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    O I do hang my food just out of sight from everyone else.
    "It's better to try and fail than not to try at all"
    " www.myspace.com/bigfonsie "

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blue Jay View Post
    Don't listen to those guys. Even if they are telling the truth, which I doubt, they are just lucky.
    RAT and myself ain't lying. The only time I hung food was back when I would sleep in a shelter. Now I only sleep in a tent and my food bag sleeps with me. Hanging food is not for me. Neither are Leki poles, filtering/treating water, or crossing the Kennebec in a canoe. But don't listen to me jettjames, i'm a bad influence.

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by saimyoji View Post
    Hang it around your neck so hungry hikers don't steal it while you sleep, then blame it on the "mice."
    I've always hung my food when I camp. Its not only a good practice to get into, but is the law in some places (not along the AT I don't think, but Yellowstone, Yosemite maybe...) to use the system provided...oh yeah, in NJ wherever there are bear boxes you are required to use them...like the backpacker site#2 just before Sunfish Pond, if you choose to stay there.

    Its not difficult and may save you much consternation should you fall victim to theft/destruction.

  12. #12
    Section Hiker ~ 125 miles adh24's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by saimyoji View Post
    Its not only a good practice to get into, but is the law in some places (not along the AT I don't think, but Yellowstone, Yosemite maybe...)
    I know it's a illegal in SNP. My buddy was down there got to where he was camping late on a cold rainy night. Never hung his food. I guess the ranger was by that morning and noticed a lot of Deer milling around his tent. Asked him if he hung his food and he said no. The ranger cut him a break since the weather was really bad that night but the fine was something like $500.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by adh24 View Post
    I know it's a illegal in SNP. My buddy was down there got to where he was camping late on a cold rainy night. Never hung his food. I guess the ranger was by that morning and noticed a lot of Deer milling around his tent. Asked him if he hung his food and he said no. The ranger cut him a break since the weather was really bad that night but the fine was something like $500.
    he shoulda stealth camped

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    Thru-hiker Wanna-be Fiddler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jettjames View Post
    15-20 feet off the ground.
    10-12 feet is plenty high.
    Remember this - - Even the best of friends cannot attend each other's funerals.

  15. #15
    Registered User Big Dawg's Avatar
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    I sleep w/ my food,,,, never had a problem.

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    Default Just curious

    Quote Originally Posted by Big Dawg View Post
    I sleep w/ my food,,,, never had a problem.
    Do you have protection (not what comes to mind first:-); i.e. pepperspray, Saturday night special, etc for the worst case scenario?

  17. #17
    Registered User moxie's Avatar
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    Default

    My first experience was less than a week into my thru hike. At the cheese factory site mice at through my backpack to get at my toothpaste, my food was hung. Once at Hogpen Gap and again near Max Patch I slept with Snickers bars in my tent and all night had mice running up and down the tent. Once in the Grand Canyon my wife set her pack down to use a privy and when she came out a rodent had eaten through her pack to get at her gor., I have never had a problem with bears but coons and mice have caused me fits. Bears are frequently more frightened of you than you of them and if you show no fear and make lots of noise they will leave your food alone. There are exceptions to this but with the black bears we have on the AT I usually will shout and walk right at them and they have allways run away, perhaps I have been lucky. I have seen a racoon open a plastic cooler strapped shut to get at a hikers butter. they are very smart. I never hung my food very high or very far from my tent and I did use a waterproof food bag. Hanging simply makes it harder for critters to get at it but a determined critter wil be successful A very strong human scent will keep alot of animals away and perhaps that is why some of us have better luck just keeping our food in our tents or shelters.
    Don't eat the yellow snow. O

  18. #18

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    What... No one has mentioned mouse hooks in the shelters??? While in shelters, there are mouse hooks made from an empty tuna can with a stick attached to it. They are mostly effective to stopping mice. When tenting, its up to you. The Smokies and a few locations in Maine have bear ropes, Shenadoa has bear poles and New Jersey has the most effective way of bear boxes. I got my food broken into twice, once on a bear pole in Shennadoa by a mouse or squrrrell. It ripped a hole in my food bag and ate peanuts from my gorp. In NH, I low hung my food and a squerrell used the same hole and ate peanuts from my gorp. Where bears are a problem, use whats given, hanging in shelters is neccessary and then its up to you when tenting.
    TB
    Madness does not always howl. Sometimes, it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "Hey, is there room in your head for one more?"

  19. #19
    •Completed A.T. Section Hike GA to ME 1996 thru 2003 •Donating Member Skyline's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TurkeyBacon View Post
    What... No one has mentioned mouse hooks in the shelters??? While in shelters, there are mouse hooks made from an empty tuna can with a stick attached to it. They are mostly effective to stopping mice. When tenting, its up to you. The Smokies and a few locations in Maine have bear ropes, Shenadoa has bear poles and New Jersey has the most effective way of bear boxes. I got my food broken into twice, once on a bear pole in Shennadoa by a mouse or squrrrell. It ripped a hole in my food bag and ate peanuts from my gorp. In NH, I low hung my food and a squerrell used the same hole and ate peanuts from my gorp. Where bears are a problem, use whats given, hanging in shelters is neccessary and then its up to you when tenting.
    TB
    Mouse hangers in overnight huts in SNP are discouraged, and we maintainers are supposed to take down any we find at the shelter(s) we maintain.

    The reasoning is that while "mouse hangers" might provide some protection from mice, the food smells coming from what is hanging inside a shelter attract other critters that visit during the night.

    This isn't theory, it has happened. One night a few years ago a medium-size bear decided to investigate smells at Pinefield Hut and the snoring occupants were lucky to escape without injury. What was hanging inside the shelter didn't fare as well. I have read entries in the register of a hut I maintain that indicate visitation by chipmunks, skunks, and raccoons. The entries also indicated food was being stored in various ways inside the shelter rather than out on the bear pole.

  20. #20

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    We had a bear making nightly visits to Ethan Pond campsite in the Whites. He got our food, and that of several other hikers. There were others in PA and NJ. I also saw bears near the shelter in NY and ME.

    Generally you will know from the registers where bears are an active problem. In those places, hang your food. The AT bears are pretty habituated - meaning they have no fear of you. That is very bad if you want to keep your food. Some of the bears were coming up to us as we cooked dinner. Others had regular rounds of shelters and campsites.

    We have slept with our food in some areas without problems, but in areas where we know there are bears, we hang. I have heard a lot of stories of PCT hikers having bears tear into their tents and stealing the food under their head/feet. One hiker was grabbed by the foot when the bear tried to steal his food. The bear let go - but did get the food. This was not a 'friend of a friend' story, we knew the hiker and saw the sewed up tent. The bears on the AT are active and hungry.

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