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  1. #61
    AT 4000+, LT, FHT, ALT Blissful's Avatar
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    Default

    That's why I plan to tent - in my new Christmas squall tarptent (unless the weather is really, really nasty). Leave the mice to braver folk.







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  2. #62
    Registered User middle to middle's Avatar
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    Default piano wyre

    I do not recall where I learned this but I hung my pack in the shelter from piano wire. The logic is that the attacking mouse will climb up and attempt to shinny down the wire. Too slick for his little feet and he slides and crashes off your food bag or pack. They chew anything with sweat on it too. The wire is light weight and works.

  3. #63

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by middle to middle
    I do not recall where I learned this but I hung my pack in the shelter from piano wire. The logic is that the attacking mouse will climb up and attempt to shinny down the wire. Too slick for his little feet and he slides and crashes off your food bag or pack. They chew anything with sweat on it too. The wire is light weight and works.
    I would hike from shelter to shelter in the south with some poisen but I'm afraid some hiker who couldn't rean would eat it thinking it was health food.

  4. #64

    Default

    I have had both good and bad experiences with mice. I have been in shelters that had none and one that ran me out during a freezing rain to set up my tent. Ever since then I try and not stay at them. I find the critters a pain in the butt and get tired of them running around. I like to use the shelters to eat etc, but go set up my tent up to sleep. I also have less tolerance for people that snore than the mice, so to avoid both I sleep outside. :-)

  5. #65
    I hike, therefore I stink.
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    Default

    There's a mouse repellent on the market that relies on natural herbs for it's action. You can put a couple of bags of it in your pack or around yourself and keep the critters away.

    This stuff will not only repel the mice, but make your pack smell purty.

    http://www.northerncorners.com/fresh_cab.htm
    If you don't have something nice to say,
    Be witty in your cruelty.

  6. #66
    Registered User neo's Avatar
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    if ya stay the ****** away from shelters ya will not have a problem with mice neo

  7. #67

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Uncle Wayne
    I have a friend that uses a Dorito bag to hold the mice and then releases them the next morning. Here's what he recommends:

    Place your pack diagonal to the corner of the shelter (or use your boots) and place the empty bag in the void created. Your pack or boots will hold it up nicely, and allow the mice to climb up to enter the bag. But, they will not be able to climb out! They will be nicely contained for the evening.

    I've never tried this but may on our next section hike just to see if it will keep the mice from climbing through my wife's hair. She doesn't like mice climbing through her hair.
    Or you can just smash the bag with a rock...

  8. #68

    Default My experiences with mice on the AT...

    Totally variable. (Summer 2005, I section-hiked all but the northern-most 8 miles of the AT in Georgia; this post is based solely upon that experience.) Some shelters, never saw a one. Others, they drove me nuts, even though I bear cabled everything I owned that I didn't need for sleeping. The two nights I have shared a shelter with someone who had a dog (young pit bull, to be precise), I did not see nor hear a single mouse; I suspect there was a connection.

    I may bring a mousetrap and try to "trap out" the most aggressive mice at a shelter, and see how that works out. I've heard of someone catching as many as 29 mice in a night with a single trap, so that may or may not help much. Anyone who wants to kill mice (e.g., by pouring boiling water in their holes) is okay by me; I might even help you collect wood for the fire you're heating water on...

  9. #69
    Registered User halibut15's Avatar
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    Default

    From all my experiences, just tent it. Screw the mice and their shelters.

  10. #70
    Registered User dizzyT's Avatar
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    Default

    Where are the areas that you are not allowed to use a tent?

  11. #71
    Surveyor & cartographer wyclif's Avatar
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    Default Smokies shelters

    Smoky Mountain National Park does not allow you to use tents as far as I know...it's bear country and you'll notice that many of the shelters there have chain-link fence over the open end of the shelter.

    However, some people stealth camp in the Smokies anyway especially hikers who hate mice or, to a lesser degree, snoring or crowding.

    Even with black bears around as long as you hang your food away from camp and don't smear peanut butter or coffee grounds on your clothes, you should be fine.

    I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

    ~John Muir

  12. #72
    Registered User dizzyT's Avatar
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    Default

    I'm sorry.....what is stealth camping? Is it legal?

  13. #73

    Default

    1. Stealth camping is camping where you technically should not, i.e. setting up your camp somewhere you either know, or have reason to believe that camping is prohibited. (This usully but not always involves a location or Park where overnighting is limited to specific posted areas and prohibited in others).

    2. And tenting IS permitted in the Smokies, with two conditions: You can only do it when a shelter is full, and you can only do it in the area immediately adjacent to a shelter. Otherwise, it is prohibited in the Park, and people caught tenting otherwise risk a hefty ticket and expulsion from the Park.

  14. #74

    Default

    Stealth camping by its very definition involves breaking rules and regulations; in some cases, this does indeed mean it is against the law, which effectively means that stealth campers do this at their own risk understanding the possible consequences.

  15. #75
    Registered User dizzyT's Avatar
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    Default

    I prefer mice to fines thats for sure. Are the Smokies the only place like this?

  16. #76
    Surveyor & cartographer wyclif's Avatar
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    Thumbs up stealth

    Quote Originally Posted by Jack Tarlin
    Stealth camping by its very definition involves breaking rules and regulations; in some cases, this does indeed mean it is against the law, which effectively means that stealth campers do this at their own risk understanding the possible consequences.
    Far be it from me to advocate illegal activity, and you should definitely weight the risks mentioned above.

    BUT...even if the shelters aren't full in the Smokies (unlikely if you're doing a NOBO), some hikers don't want to deal with the mice and sleeping behind 3 walls and fence instead of under the stars.

    If nobody knows where your camp is, you're out of sight of the trail, and you hang your food and don't disrupt the environment, nobody will ever know the difference.

    I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

    ~John Muir

  17. #77
    Cool Change - Donating Member drsukie's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by wyclif
    Even with black bears around as long as you hang your food away from camp and don't smear peanut butter or coffee grounds on your clothes, you should be fine.
    Damn! I figured it would be easier to wear breakfast! Now I have to think of something else to amuse me while stealth camping.... Sue
    "there is no price too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself" - R. Kipling

  18. #78

    Default

    Stealth camping by its very definition involves breaking rules and regulations; in some cases, this does indeed mean it is against the law, which effectively means that stealth campers do this at their own risk understanding the possible consequences.
    LOL... That's Jack's "holier than thou" AT definition. Originally it was a term used by Ray Jardine in the PCT Thru-hikers Handbook in an effort to get away from people and bears in the High Sierra and to have a better experience...

    "Stealth camping. If you can manage to camp away from the water sources, and from the established campsites, then the many wonderful advantages of stealth camping will be yours. Stealth camping is a cleaner, warmer and quieter way to camp, and it offers a much better connection with nature. In all likelihood no one has camped at your impromptu stealth-site before, and the ground will be pristine. Its thick, natural cushioning of the forest materials will still be in place, making for comfortable bedding without the use of a heavy inflatable mattress. There will be no desiccated stock manure to rise as dust and infiltrate your lungs, nor any scatter of unsightly litter and stench of human waste. The stealth-site will not be trampled and dished; any rainwater will soak into the ground or run off it, rather than collect and flood your shelter. Bears scrounging for human food will be busy at the water-side campsites, and will almost invariably ignore the far-removed and unproductive woods. Far from the water sources you will encounter fewer flying insects, particularly upon the more breezy slopes and ridges. Above the katabatic zones the night air will be markedly warmer. And you can rest assured that your chances of being bothered by other people will be slim.

  19. #79

    Default Anti-stealthcamping rules...

    Quote Originally Posted by dizzyT
    I prefer mice to fines thats for sure. Are the Smokies the only place like this?
    Not being allowed to camp virtually whereever is also a major problem for nonrich and/or ascetically-inclined hikers in the White Mountains (which the Appalachian Money Club personally created, and are kept in existence only through the constant efforts of everyone working for the AMC). I've often wondered what the logic is, if it's okay to WALK or SIT on the bare rocks there, it's NOT okay to lay down (and sleep) on the bare rocks there. All I can figure is that the AMC was both smart enough and crooked enough to get a special privilege to try to force people unconnected with their organization into paying for use of a public trail, akin to making everyone buy a breathing license, or the local Mafia making every business chip in a 5% tax on every transaction. In economics, this is called successful "rent-seeking".

  20. #80

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