With my one man tent there isn't room for the pack, even with the vestibule. So, it stays outside, under the pack cover.
i always keep my pack and food in my tentOriginally Posted by skeeter
This could be cruel but his heart is now by-pass strong. Have a bear skin costume and attack Wolf's tent for his food, some night.
On the other hand, it may be a good way to get shot.
my pack, usually with food in it, is my pillow, inside my tent.
I always keep pack and food inside the tent. Solo tent, ample room.
"If you don't know where you're going...any road will get you there."
"He who's not busy living is busy dying"
One thing Tag-along and I appreciated about our Tarptent Rainshadow 2 was that we had plenty of room for us and our emptied packs/gear. All food related items usually got hung outside. This worked well for us all the way to Maine.
Black bears will totally trash a tent, pack, all your other gear and chase you out of your campsite, especially if the site is one that has been used in the past (much for LNT practices!). Racoons, 'possums, fox and skunks are nearly as intrusive, including when you are inside, and have claws that make tent fabric like tissue. They can be rabid. Mini-bears, also known as chipmunks, will do serious damage. (We won't discuss weasels and their propensity for taking things!) They are drawn not only to the food smells that will permeate your pack (they live off their sense of scent, and are far more sensitive than yours) but also dirty clothing, especially underwear and socks, particularly to satisfy salt cravings.
These are not the fevered imaginings of a cheechako; each has happened to me, and each has occured to me in AT areas as well as Michigan. It's not going to happen every time, it's not going to happen most times, but it's going to happen. Putting your pack in your vesibule will at least keep most animals a few feet from you if they get interested in your pack, and most of them, after ruining a few things and dragging a couple others off, will leave you alone.
Those who choose to disagree are invited to read my suggestions w for Backpackers (articles section) for making sure your homeowners/renters insurance provides coverage for such damage. I'm aware of one claim that exceeded $1,000 for tent, pack, clothing that was trashed by a black bear in northern Michigan.
TW
"Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service
How many people lost their properly hung foodbags to the bear at Neel Gap this year ? How many people lost their properly hung foodbags to the bear at the campsite north of Mt. Madison ? Lots! I can name more than a few.
Hanging your food bag in a tree or better yet, several food bags in a tree is pretty much the same exact thing as "baiting" a bear.
I sleep with everything inside the tent with me. I've never had a problem with mice, skunks, porcupines or the bears that seem to be of such concern.
I can't say the same for a lot of people who left their gear or food outside.
I guess the question that's been asked is about keeping your pack in the tent though..and yeah, I always keep my pack in the tent.
"Going to the woods is going home" - John Muir
"Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truely get into the heart of the wilderness" - John Muir
I was working at Neel Gap the week all this was going on, and yeah, it was basically a bear pinata party with food bags and backpacks.
I have very seldom heard of anyone in a tent on the A.T. being seriously bothered, harassed, or threatened by a bear, and I have NEVER heard of anyone who lost a backpack to a bear when the pack was in a vestibule or the tent itself.
Some nights I use my pack as a pillow. Sometimes it's under my knee so I can elevate my leg. But wherever, it's always still there in the morning.
On the first night of Northern Harrier's thru-hike in '04, we stayed at Stover Creek Shelter; like all Georgia shelters, it has cables which all of us used to string up our food bags. In the morning, some critter had gotten Harrier's food bag resulting in loss of some trail mix and a dinner or 2. None of the other 6 campers suffered this fate. We surmised it was a raccoon or mice.
Despite that inauspicious start, he went on to complete his thru-hike.
you're a wise manThis could be cruel but his heart is now by-pass strong. Have a bear skin costume and attack Wolf's tent for his food, some night.
On the other hand, it may be a good way to get shot.
you've got like 600 AT miles? i've got 16,000 or so. you really do not know what you speak of
With no disrespect to Weasel or anyone else, I've been around the A.T. awhile, too, and I've heard of exactly two people who had their tents "trashed" while they were inside them or were forced to flee a campsite in the middle of the night because of bear activity.
The Eastern Black Bear is usually very skittish around humans and will very seldom bother people camped in tents.
I'm not saying it doesn't ever happen. But it's not really something one has to worry about on the A.T.
I have heard though from several hikers that got nice holes in their tents because of mice and other vermin who ate through looking for food. We had our food bag sitting in the vestibule right beside us in the WHites and a squirrel got it. PB hung it in the pouring rain.
Oh yeah, a tent we just got from a hiker off WB said a bear sliced through the netting on it.
One or two tales like that is enough for me to protect my investment (tent and food) and get out and spend a few stray minutes hanging my food bag.
Very OLD SCHOOL.....
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
no chip, very intelligent
Where's Chaco? Bears gravitate to his tent...
In SNP this summer I did the right thing and cooked 100 yards down wind from my campsite and stored my food and dishes there too, in a bear canister. I was woken up at 3am by a bear stomping around about 20 feet from my hammock. I had no food what so ever at my site. That was the first time I didn't sleep with my pack and food. Sometimes bears and other critters just happen upon your site and investigate.
This past week, I took all the necessary precautions, climbed into my bag in my hammock, I felt a lump in my pocket and pulled out my bag of sunflower seeds. Nice, salted seeds......now all over the inside of my hammock. I truely felt like a stuffing mix in the hammock in bear country. I survived.
paranoia. hype. marketing....
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