Didn't hang or store my food outside my tent after beauty spot, TN. And even before that always slept with my breakfast. Do what makes you feel comfortable.
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Didn't hang or store my food outside my tent after beauty spot, TN. And even before that always slept with my breakfast. Do what makes you feel comfortable.
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I currently use an Ursack S-29 All White with certification tag and the aluminum liner and double bag the contents in Base Camp odor resistant bags.It serves a stool in camp and is easy to tie to the fork of a tree.Not mouse proof but so far no mouse has found it cause I sleep in the woods and avoid mouse hotels except for the picnic table.
While it is true that the bear might think you would fight to "protect your kill" for food stored where you sleep,I would rather not tempt them to try it because I may be too much of a wimp to defend mine.There was a bear run over 2 counties south of me that weighed 564 pounds just last week.His picture with the DNR officials that reported the incident was enough to get my attention and give me pause.
I've done quite a bit of backpacking in Yellowstone, you couldn't pay me enough to sleep with my food. (I gave away a pocket full of Jolly Ranchers last summer in the AT, because I had already hung my food).
I use the PCT method of hanging my food and cooking equipment, with a down haul line attached away from my tent or a trail.
With the bear population in the U.S. getting larger, all it will take is a drought to reduce the amount of berries and nuts in a given area and there are going to be people having guests in their tents in the middle of the night wanting to check out their food bag.
So, maybe I’m bored, but it seemed right to review all the responses, and since I started this thread, and wanted to keep an unofficial score, I did. While there were 104 posts, quite a few were from the same poster(s) simply responding to a post or amplifying an earlier comment. All in all I was surprised at the results, but not at the sincere and strong positions taken. Lots of personal experience, some research cited, pros and cons aplenty, just as I expected.
In my most unscientific accounting I declare the following: Sleep with your food - 25; Never sleep with your food- ( Hang, poles, cables, boxes) 25; Variation of both based on locale, bear activity - 4; Suck it up and carry a bear canister -8.
I seriously doubt if anyone changes their personal style of food storage after following this thread, but as always, it’s been fun reading. Thanks.
"How can something this hard be so much fun".
a couple thoughts my wife and just returned from a week section hike from fontana south to franklin.
our food storage was this we slept with it 2 nights, hung a perfect pct method 2 nights, stood back and said yup looks like the picture.
and hung 2 of the sorriest hangs ever stood back and said yup be lucky if its there in the morning. whatever happened to the days when we just hung it
on the mouse hangers in the shelter.did this way for 20 plus years with no problem. now people come unglued if you mention this. yet every shelter still has a handful. the lack of good trees to hang from makes it hard, maybe the local clubs could just run a horizontal rope between 2 trees that we can hang from pretty cheap option compared to a bearbox
Quite an interesting topic. I prefer using a hard canister. But your sleeping with your food poses no additional risk to me. Your awesome/sketchy/absolutely crappy hang poses no additional risk to me.
My own opinion is that the best approach is what is risk acceptable to each individual, personally.
Sleeping with your food can result in situations that lead to this:
https://www.ocala.com/news/20190318/...orest-campsite
Not worth it for people or bears. FWIW, this bear tried to get into my bear can just before Thanksgiving. On each of my continuing visits the bear's behavior was getting worse and it would raid tents right after sunset rather than waiting for midnight. It never came back to my campsites because it knew my food was unobtainium.
You seem very certain. How can you be sure that a bear that associates tents with food is going skip checking out yours? You think it can tell you have used a canister instead?
Consider this quote from the article martinb linked:
... a group of campers set up their tents with no food, toiletries or other attractants inside. Following BearWise guidelines, the group was cooking dinner approximately 50 yards from their campsite when a bear entered their tent, the release notes.
“These people were doing exactly what they needed to do to not draw bears to their campsite,” said FWC bear biologist Mike Orlando in the release. “However, because some people camping in the area previously did not follow these guidelines, this bear associated tents as an easy place to find a meal, which could have resulted in a very dangerous situation for campers.”
One could interpret your reasoning as making an argument for not using a tent because a bear might think tent = food?
I didn't claim certainty, and I can't be certain. But I did say that to me it's a personal risk decision. I personally believe that the likelihood of your scenario is so low that it poses no additional risk.
Add a vote for suck it up buttercup and carry a canister
Sleeping with your food just sounds like a justification for doing what we all want to do (carry less weight.) I get why it's tempting but it doesn't seem like a responsible choice to me. If you encounter the wrong bear then the bear (and any other bears in the area) are in danger of being euthanized and other hikers are going to be put at risk by a habituated bear as well. Hanging can be effective but bears can be really clever at getting bags out of trees and a lot of hikers end up feeding them even if they are trying to do the right thing.
No one wants to carry a couple of extra pounds but it doesn't it seem like kind of a selfish choice to do otherwise when you consider the alternatives?
By extension to this line of thinking:
I've never died in a car crash so I don't need to wear a seatbelt
My house has never burned down so I don't need fire insurance
I've never had a heart attack so I don't need health insurance
I've never drowned so I don't need to wear a life jacket on that whitewater raft trip
I've never had cancer so I guess I'll keep smoking
Etc.
It's about risk mitigation. It only takes once.
I think that the reason the bear seldom enters the tent is because he senses/smells a creature in it’s “den”/territory and chooses to move on. If your food is well sealed, you cooked away from camp and cleaned up and if your food bag is directly with you in the tent then you are all set. If there is a bear that has the guts to get into your tent then he would do it regardless.
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But risk mitigation should be proportional.
Car crashes kill about 35,000 people a year.
Heart disease and cancer, EACH over 600,000 a year.
There are over 300,000 house fires.
Everybody gets sick, so health insurance is sensible unless someone else is covering it for some reason.
Drowning kills about 3,500, nearly 100% preventable.
Bears kill about one person a year. Seldom, if ever, has a person in the United States been dragged out of their tent and killed because they were sleeping with their food. If a bear was going to do that, why would it be concerned about scoring some Poptarts if he could just kill and eat the person?
Now there are some places, say Yosemite, where it is both illegal and a bad idea to sleep with your food because there are known habituated bears. And if it makes someone feel better to carry a bear canister or do a very good job hanging their food, that's their call to make.
I assume this argument has a major east coast / west coast divide. I can't fault folks for sleeping with their food in the east, but it isn't without risk.
"I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
- Kate Chopin
I have done 3 hiking trips in Wyoming’s Wind River Range(14,5,5 nights). 14 out of 19 nights there were no trees at the campsites suitable for hanging food or no trees at all.
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Spot-on! Risk = likelihood x impact, and determining how much risk is acceptable is a very personal decision. For me it's too risky to sleep with food regardless of how it's packaged, less risky to hang a food bag where that's actually possible and done correctly, least risky to stow food in an odor-proof barrier inside a bear can placed about 30 paces away from your tent. I'm willing to sacrifice the added weight for simplicity and peace of mind. I also love using the bear can as a table to cook on and eat from, as well as to clean laundry in from time to time if there's a convenient water source :-)
Not to mention there is no way I want to take the chance that a mouse gets in my sleeping bag with me!
Jeanine - http://www.naturetrailbackpacks.com
I'm a fan of a bear canister myself. Different strokes for different folks I guess : )
Jeanine - http://www.naturetrailbackpacks.com
I would use a bear canister if I camped in lower elevations of Yosemite or Yellowstone
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