Etiquette for hanging food in shelters (Split from another shelter question)

[Another Kevin]

it's a democracy majority rules. otherwise you go pitch your tent.

No, it's an anarchy. Nobody rules, or everyone does, or it's rule by the loudest and most obnoxious nether orifice.

My usual practice: If others have already stored food in the shelter, I sleep elsewhere. Otherwise, I hang a bear bag. If others come in and start looking as if they're storing food in the shelter, offer: "I've already got my line in a tree, want me to hoist your food bag with mine so you don't have to heave your own line?" If they're just lazy, that solves the problem. If they answer, "No, I was planning on sleeping with my food," well, then, "I'm sorry, I hadn't been planning on sleeping with your food, so please excuse me while I go pitch a tent." No need either to tolerate stupidity or to be rude about it.

You know, that's also a pretty good way to avoid being awakened in the middle of the night by a lot of alcohol-scented guys stumbling out to puke. The guys who'll refuse to hang when someone else has done the work and the guys who will have a frat party in the shelter tend to be the same set.

I don't have a good answer for Harriman, where you aren't allowed to tent away from the shelters and they don't have bear boxes, poles, or cables. (Or privies, either. Harriman is great for day trips, but has numerous disadvantages for backpacking.)

[Malto]

There is an easy answer...... Don't stay at the shelters. Regardless of whether people hang food there are hoards of enormous scary mice with huge fangs waiting to tear your throat out.

[Berserker]

There is an easy answer...... Don't stay at the shelters. Regardless of whether people hang food there are hoards of enormous scary mice with huge fangs waiting to tear your throat out.

This is true...I have seen them and lived to tell about it.

[atmilkman]

What if one offered you a token of friendship. How can you turn this little guy down?imagesCADCLAYW.jpg

[bfayer]

I also don't particularly like hanging food in shelters, but that is not my issue.

My issue is the idea that someone thinks its OK to mess with someone else's stuff because they don't like what the other person is doing.

I don't like a lot of stuff that happens in a shelter, and food just brings in pests. But the reality is every pack in the shelter probably has some type of food or smellable it it even if someone does hang their food outside. Even if they didn't, the last hundred or so hikers that spilled raman in the shelter are reason enough for mice and other pests to visit every night.

The bottom line is hanging food in the shelter is not going to add or subtract from the mouse population. Bears are creatures of habit, if they find food even once they are coming back again and again. If the people last month left food in the shelter, you not hanging your food in the shelter is not is not going to stop a bear from visiting.

Now for the record, messing with someone else's stuff is as wrong as wrong gets.

If you don't like what someone is doing, you either talk with them respectfully and work it out, or hike on. The only time anyone gets grief from me is if I have kids with me and they start doing inappropriate stuff.

[Slo-go'en]

If your not staying in the shelter, it's probably because it's full. If it's full, there probably isn't any place to hang your food in there anyway. Okay, once in a while some lazy or late arriving hiker will tent but hang thier food in the shelter, but that doesn't happen often from what I've seen over the years.

Hagging food in the shelter is a very common practice and I've never known it to be a problem, except some times mice still get into the bags.

I do get a kick out of the hikers who hang their pack from the food hangers. Like that's gonna keep the mice off it. Hanging a pack like that just gets in the way. And hanging wet clothes in a shelter? No way thier gonna dry and they just drip water on everyones sleeping bag.

[Another Kevin]

If you don't like what someone is doing, you either talk with them respectfully and work it out, or hike on.

Yup. As I said, there's no call to be rude.

[Sarcasm the elf]

It really amazes me how many potential issues I avoid just by bringing a tent. I hike to relax, not to deal with this sort of nonsense. Since I can't comment further without invoking Godwin's law, I'll just leave it at that.

[HikerMom58]

If you don't like what someone is doing, you either talk with them respectfully and work it out, or hike on. The only time anyone gets grief from me is if I have kids with me and they start doing inappropriate stuff.

Ok.. bfayer. You bring up another point that seems to be appropriate to discuss on this thread. Everyone's "buttons are pushed" at different levels & for different reasons.

When you say, "the only time anyone gets grief from me is when I have kids with me and they start doing inappropriate stuff"- I particularly like this example you gave because kids would be present. What would that "gets grief from me", look like?

Even tho you would be terribly upset and insulted by someone's behavior- would you "teach" respect & try to work it out or hike on? Would your behavior be dictated by highly charged emotions?

I'm coming from the thought - we can't control what other people do but we can control ourselves.

[CarlZ993]

Lackadaisical attitudes toward proper food storage increases food storage problems for everyone. Especially at shelters and close-quarter campgrounds/sites. The question is how you address the problem. And how far you push the issue.

A few imported California Park Bears would definitely create a paradigm shift on food storage along the AT.

[hikerboy57]

it's just amazing that I never see these arguments over food bags at shelters. only here on line. somehow everyone manages to get along.

[aficion]

A shelter is likely to be the one place with the highest concentration of wild animals trying to get into your food. Add to that the threat of disrespectful hikers messing with it and one quickly concludes that a shelter is the last place one might want to leave unattended food. What am I missing here.

[max patch]

it's just amazing that I never see these arguments over food bags at shelters. only here on line. somehow everyone manages to get along.

Yeah, last year someone puffed out his chest and said that if he heard anyone talking on a cell at a shelter he was going to physically remove the phone from the person and turn it off. Right.

[aficion]

A shelter is likely to be the one place with the highest concentration of wild animals trying to get into your food. Add to that the threat of disrespectful hikers messing with it and one quickly concludes that a shelter is the last place one might want to leave unattended food. What am I missing here.

Besides the right punctuation?

[bfayer]

Ok.. bfayer. You bring up another point that seems to be appropriate to discuss on this thread. Everyone's "buttons are pushed" at different levels & for different reasons.

When you say, "the only time anyone gets grief from me is when I have kids with me and they start doing inappropriate stuff"- I particularly like this example you gave because kids would be present. What would that "gets grief from me", look like?

Even tho you would be terribly upset and insulted by someone's behavior- would you "teach" respect & try to work it out or hike on? Would your behavior be dictated by highly charged emotions?

I'm coming from the thought - we can't control what other people do but we can control ourselves.

Hiker Mom, grief from me means I stop being polite very quickly, and if what is being done is illegal I have no problem calling the authorities.

I am not talking about people being annoying, I am talking about much more serious kinds of things. For example if a couple decided it was a good idea to have sex in front of other people in the shelter, that's inappropriate (Sad, but I have seen it happen), if I am by myself, I leave. If kids are present, I do something. Other examples include selling or trying to sell drugs, continuously inappropriate language in front of the kids, and significant racist or discriminatory behaviour. You get the idea, I have a rather low tolerance for that kind of stuff around children. This is not just while hiking by the way. its everywhere else too. The way I see it is, if you wouldn't put up with it in public in your neighborhood, why would you on the trail?

The good news is the vast majority of hikers are good people and are just as protective of kids as I am, so it is a rare situation where any intervention is required on my part.

Some things in life require you to make a stand, and when they happen, its not about going along to get along, it about doing the right thing.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[ChinMusic]

A few imported California Park Bears would definitely create a paradigm shift on food storage along the AT.

More likely a paradigm shift affecting those coddled bears.

[Don H]

Yeah, last year someone puffed out his chest and said that if he heard anyone talking on a cell at a shelter he was going to physically remove the phone from the person and turn it off. Right.

An appropriate response to that would be "lighten up Francis!".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OnpkDWbeJs

[Berserker]

Everyone's "buttons are pushed" at different levels & for different reasons.

I like what Hikermom says about buttons pushed at different levels and for different reasons. The problem is that the trail and shelters are for public use, and there are a whole range of folks that use them from the teetotaler LNT people all the way to the ones who don’t care and trash everything with no regard for the rules. It’s a problem with society in general, and there is no solution to it.

Do I despise hitting a shelter that I plan to stay at only to find some dude in it that has trashed the place, and seems to not give a crap about anyone else? Well of course I do…it freakin sucks. But unfortunately that’s the way things are so I can get my undies in a bunch about it or I can just move on. I chose to just move on.

And to apply this to the discussion here, in my opinion a person’s possessions, including their food bag, should be in their care at all times to the maximum extent reasonably possible when in public. So for example, if someone puts their pack down at a shelter to run down to the water source to grab water, that’s ok. However, hanging a food bag or any other possessions in the shelter overnight and then jetting to a campsite ain’t ok.

For the record I will say that I lean more towards the teetotaler LNT type, and anything that involves trashing a place, using poor etiquette, or just being an arse in general just ain’t cool…dang that felt good to get that off my chest.

[Drybones]

i might take that offending food bag for a walk and hang it my self. And depending on how i feel in the morning, maybe leave a map so the owner can find his food.

Some people feel they have a right to protect thier property...you may not feel anything in the morning.

[Drybones]

your worried about a 4 gram mouce but your going to screw with a 200 lb hikers food?i thought you said you hated stupidity?

Pretty good Bear(LOL)...glad to see you're on your toes taday.