I hate my Bear Vault 500. Ugh.
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HooKooDooKu makes a good point regarding regarding bears being attracted to "food" and their tendency to avoid people. Many hikers sleep with food in their tents (not something I would ever advocate) and get by with it for this reason.
However, the notion that bears target certain spots is not entirely true in my opinion. This summer I camped south of Damascus and knew I was in trouble when shortly before dark a wide-eyed hiker said he packed up and was moving on because a bear tried to get his food and would not leave. Sure enough, the bear then showed up at my campsite at 8:30 PM trying to get my food and I used rocks and bear spray to chase it off 8 times until 3:00 AM. The next morning I passed food strewn all over the trail at least a mile from where I camped. I feel certain it was "my" bear. This bear was clearly on the prowl and not targeting a specific spot. It is possible that this bear was an exception ... I suspect not. These were all isolated campsites along the trail.
-Slumgum
However, the notion that bears target certain spots is not entirely true in my opinion.
well.........
don't ever leave a pack unattended at Russell Field or Cosby Knob........
ask Patman.........
I will qualify my statement: If a bear finds a place that results in a "sure thing" they will certainly return for seconds, and thirds, etc. But the idea that remote camping away from shelters or heavy use campgrounds will make your food hang safer ...? That has not been my experience.
This is unfortunate because a bearvault makes a crappy pillow. My food bag on the other hand works quite well. This was bound to happen after seeing some pathetic hangs over the years.
enemy of unnecessary but innovative trail invention gadgetry
AT: 695.7 mi
Benton MacKaye Trail '20
Pinhoti Trail '18-19'
@leonidasonthetrail https://www.youtube.com/c/LeonidasontheTrail
I had 4 hikers decide to cook and eat IN Morgan Stewart Shelter, that's when I decided to set up tent after a long hard day with no regards for animals.
This site has no bear box, and they hung their food real low
Gov't knows best
Be Prepared
RO011670.jpg
Vermont; September 2019. This was not staged. These are actual food bags from a group of hikers.
Hikers espouse HYOH and will not police themselves. I would prefer the gov't not have to step in either. However, when hikers get mauled by bears guess where fingers will point ... the gov't. At this point they have no choice. BTW, without "the gov't" there would be no A.T.
That's nothing. I spent the night at Eagles Nest Shelter a couple of years ago. There were two hikers there already both of whom were sitting and eating in the shelter. I was tired and didn't want to tent. After they were finished, they prepared to leave to setup their hammocks. when they informed me that they were going to hang their food in the shelter. I swear - true story. I told them no they weren't. They were very unhappy with me. So, they went about 50 yards away and tied their food to the trunk of a tree. I wish I had taken a picture of it. If someone told me this story, I probably wouldn't believe it.
Our ancestors didn't have these problems. They would have been thrilled with a bear which entered their camp--easy to collect high-fat food wrapped in a valuable, warm skin.
Gave up hanging two years ago. Don't miss it and the extra bulk/weight of my small can more than pays for itself in time saved looking for suitable hang spots, etc. I had one try to get into my can in Ocala National forest late last year. The same bear went into multiple tents over the next few weeks looking for food but never came back to my camp areas. Cans work if everybody is using them.
I wouldn't argue with a word of that, but would also point out that LOTS of things work if everyone does it right. When I learned about backpacking back in the old days, I learned to hang between two trees, not from a single tree limb. This is much simpler and I think inherently more effective than the PCT method that folks seem to regard as some sort of gold standard for hanging, and I've never spent more than five minutes selecting trees and another five setting the line. Odor-proof sacks inside another sack that are well-hidden far from camp work well (plenty of BWCA trippers do this.) Bear boxes work well (trails in parts of Colorado used to have 2-3 ammo cans attached to a tree.) IMO, the container is not the real issue.
I continue to contend that the real issue is that our ranks as backpackers are somewhat contaminated with a small but persistent group of slackers and slobs, and my experience is that we don't do much in the way of self-policing. The stories some have told above are probably more common than we'd like to believe, and it is those morons who are backing the land managers into a corner. They can't institute IQ tests as part of the permitting process, so they end up settling on something than "can" work and that they can get some consensus on, then mandate it across the board. I don't really blame them, but I sure hate the thought of carrying an extra 2-plus pounds to solve a problem that will probably persist regardless of the measures put in place.