Shelter Mice

[d.o.c]

right on i figured he used some sort of container

[WalkingUSA]

Have you ever seen themovie, Never Cry Wolf? The guy was up in the Northern Territories studing Artic Wolves. He ate mice to stay alive.

I guess if you look at it that way, a hiker that is really low on money could always eat mice all the way to Maine..Hmmm.. ketchup any one?

As someone who has eaten mouse while on much more difficult trails than the A.T. such as the CDT, when you are very hungry they do not taste bad at all.

From what I have read, your brain as the body gets hungrier and hungrier makes things that you would never eat seem more and more appealing. Its part of the survival aspect of a human.

[Hikes in Rain]

I recall reading a journal recently about a NOBO who started early and didn't see a mouse until PA. Do mice hibernate? Do they become less active active in the winter? When most of the hikers leave, do the mice leave the shelter to forage in the wild until the warmer weather bring the hikers back?

Just trying to educate myself about it.

Not sure of any of this, but I don't think they hibernate. They would certainly become less active, I'd think, to conserve energy and body fat. They're pretty territorial, as well, so my guess is that they stay there in the shelter, although they may range a little farther for good. "Farther" is a relative term, of course, for a critter only a couple of inches long!

[sheepdog]

mice live under the snow. they do not hybernate.

[TIDE-HSV]

I've got a bunch of shelter mice stories. Once, I positioned a granola bar I'd failed to put in the food bag where it was touching my nose. I woke up to staring at a mouse from point blank range, as he chewed on the other side. One of the more brazen wasn't at shelter but at back country campsite in the GSMNP. I'd set up my tent, and, at the time, also a small tarp over the front door for cooking shelter. For safe keeping, I stuck my gorp bag down on top of one of the vestibule poles. I'd turned to do some chore and heard a rustle behind me. There was a mouse, running off with an M&M. He'd climbed the pole, chewed a hole, and made his escape all in a matter of seconds. And, not only mice like snickers. Once in the Wind Rivers, I had a bear attack on my food bag. I managed to run him off, but he'd gone in the top of the bag first and bit into my lemon (for fish). He didn't like that, so he restarted from the bottom, where he hit the Snickers. About a week later, I pulled out a Snickers and it had one bear tooth-print in the middle. I shrugged and ate it...

[Doc Mike]

Just wondering assuming you decided to eat the mice. How would be the best way to cook them, Boil and add to pasta, blackened, slow roasted over an open fire?

[Hikes in Rain]

Rotisserie. On tiny little spits, over teeny fires.

[Sickmont]

I'd do 'em up like charbroiled nuggets on a stick over a roaring fire. Just think marshmellows with fur.

[Bronk]

All of them, because we keep feeding them.

Use shelters for cooking only and you'll be fine.

hmmmm.....

[royalusa]

At the Velvet Rocks Shelter on our 2008 thru-hike, we met section-hiker Sliver, who shared with us a poem he wrote about hiking. It was so good that we asked him to record it for us on our voice recorder. A very creative man obviously! He told us of how he crafted the poem over a year or so while doing his postal route.

Scarface Malone
by Sliver

Twas 2 weeks after Easter
And all through the woods
All the shelters and campsites were full like they should
The food bags were hung from the branches with care
Though no one had seen hide nor hair of a bear
My legs they were sore, my feet numb from the cold
My boots they were soaked, my socks covered with mold
But my belly was full and some rest was in store
I hoped those hikers did not keep me up with their snores
So me and my sleeping bag rolled out on my pad
For the miles I’d hiked, I wasn’t feeling too bad
The moon, it was full shining – just enough light
And the wind through the trees and the sounds of the night
And as I started to dose, my mind was at ease
When I heard this faint hiccup and then a hurricane sneeze
And the loudest most deafening clip cloppity sound
I feared for my life as I fell to the ground
I jumped up and grabbed then turned on my flashlight
To the most awfullest, grossest, most ugly sight
It’s teeth were huge and the nose and that head
And a scar across his face, I just knew I was dead
It had a wooden peg leg and a patch on one eye
And this big ol' fat belly, but stood only 3 inches high
All around it leered, “You haven’t got a dog?”
When I shook my head no, he plopped down on a log
“I’m Scarface Malone,
That’s the name of this mouse
These here is my woods and you're in my house
You're welcome to stay, but I got to charge you a fee
cause nothing in life, not even the woods, is free
You got any beer and some chips, the ruffle kind is best with some French Onion dip”
He threw down my food bag, he ripped out of the tree
And rifled all thru it on this big eating spree
“What? No peanuts. No granola. No berry poptarts.
You can have all this bean stuff, it stinks up me farts.”
Then he found my three Snickers and ripped open the wraps
As chocolate and peanuts went all over his lap
He talked as he ate and then he clip clopped away
But came back in a moment and said, “Yeah, you can stay
But let me tell you about the cat.
I wandered out too far.
It nearly cost me my life.
All I got was the scar”
He told me his tales - the ups and downs of his life.
About his 10 little rug rats and an overbearing wife
He shoved food in his cheeks and the rest in his shirt
But he got every crumb even the ones in the dirt
And as he scurried away, he stopped to pause and think
then he flipped up that patch and gives me this wink
“Now let me set you straight
What I really want is chips and beer”
In that thick Irish drawl said
“You come back now, you hear”

[wolf]

the mice are good eating,over a open fire pit

[Blissful]

It's not only the shelters that have mice, pick any used campsite and when the lights go out (if not before), the party begins!

Actually more at established campsites. We had mice ratting people's garbage left in a firepit for quite a while up in Maine.

[d.o.c]

Actually more at established campsites. We had mice ratting people's garbage left in a firepit for quite a while up in Maine.

i saw some just north of fullhardt knob goin thru some trash in a pretty used cmp spot fire ring just the other day..

[Jim Adams]

what do you think.. Does a shelter mouse count as wildlife or a pest?

Panzer

Definitiely pest. If the shelter was not used by people and was just a structure in the woods, the mice wouldn't stay! It is a human caused problem.

geek

[Jim Adams]

1990, I hiked with my cat Ziggy. He rode on my pack and did the entire trail except GSMNP and Baxter...he wasn't a legal "hiker" in those areas. He ate lots of mice but beware if you decide to try....he gained 12 pounds in those miles.

geek

[Old Hiker]

My friend hiked with a mouse he found. Did we tell you about Jeramiah's mouse?

I thought Jeremiah had a bullfrog.

Sorry - couldn't help it - I'm old enough to remember the song and to know the lyrics by heart. Lord help me!

Summer camp counselor in training: nothing like a mouse sitting up on your cinder block lamp base eating the last of your peanuts as you shine the light to see what the "munch, munch, munch" noises are!

[Newb]

Blue mountain has the sexy mice.

[v5planet]

100-mile wilderness in Maine had the worst mice.

Cerveza, I'm with you. Some of us discussed though, wondering if maybe it had more to do with the time of the year and scarcity of other food than Maine's last week or two.

Still, I remember camping in random places off the side of the trail in the 100-mile wilderness, and as soon as dusk approached the mice would suddenly appear from every nook and cranny. They'd run along the edge of my tent by my head -- always scary when they pounced next to my ear on my Tyvek groundsheet waking me up. The last two weeks in Maine I was really concerned about my foodbag being raided, and I went to extreme lengths to hang it from trees in such a way that it was at least a couple feet from any nearby branch.

I remember camping with SlowGo and he let his food bag touch the branch he hung it from and his food was raided. And not just the mice either, those ******* red squirrels in Maine are completely incorrigible and acrobatic and persistent. And they're active in the day. Had my fig newtons stolen by one, little bastards...

[harbohiker]

Two quick things, neither really relevant to the actually topic of where are mice the worst, but both fairly entertaining.
1. I hiked in 09' for a good portion with someone who found an abandoned cat along the trail she hiked the rest of it with the cat she named katahdin, Kat for short.

2. Also ran into an old timer hiker named TunnelRat who walked til lunch with an annoying lump in his boot thought it was his balled up sock, nope... Dead mouse.


My opinion on the mice in shelters, if theyre that bad dont sleep there. they were there first. I'm pretty sure that the appalachian mountains have enough nice to keep the traps busy and pointless. I feel that setting a mouse trap with something like peanut butter for 8 hours can attract many many more creatures than it has the ability to kill unless you feel like waking up every 15 minuts to check and clean it.
(i hope you mouse trap people take your kill far far from campsite and any water sources tho!!!!)

[harbohiker]

Oh yea one last thing, my favorite shelters are the ones with the backpack lines hanging with cans to keep the mice off. I love hearing mice fall 6 feet thump! it always wakes me up smiling!!!!