[pct-l] food containers when you don't need a bear vault?

[herbstroh at charter.net]

In the good old days pre-bear container, we hung food using the
counter-balance method. In a non-bear area, we would just tie off the food
in stuff sacks high enough to foil the varmints.

In areas where you are not required to have a container but there is a bear
threat, counterbalance is done as follows: tie a rock to parachute cord (or
put a rock in a stuff sack and tie the sack to the cord) and throw it over
a tree limb. Split the food by weight evenly between two stuff sacks.
Remove the rock, tie one sack to the end of the cord and pull it up until
it is just below the limb. Tie the second sack to the cord. Push it up with
a stick until the two sacks hang next to each other. If they are reasonably
even in weight they will hang without a problem. We usually loop the extra
cord to the top of the second sack so that when we want to retrieve the
food, we catch the loop with the stick, grab the cord, and pull it down to
untie. 

The ideal hang is 10 feet high, 10 feet down from the limb, and 10 feet
from the trunk. The hardest part can be finding a decent tree to hang from.

Which reminds me of our often repeated backpacker joke. After hanging the
food a perfect 10x10x10 one night I looked at my friend and said, "dude we
are well-hung tonight." 

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Laura Newman lanewman at mac.com
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:34:00 -0700
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] food containers when you don't need a bear vault?


As a girl who has mainly backpacked in the Sierras, I have always  
used bear canisters to hold my food and other stinky stuff.  As I  
daydream about not having to haul that thing for the entire 2,650  
miles it dawned on me that I don't know what to use for the other  
areas where a canister is not needed.

Any good suggestions to insure not ending up with a bag of crumbs for  
dinner or the possibility of spilling something all over one's gear?   
And how do you keep the critters out if using a stuff sack?  Lastly,  
is the point to start using it at Kennedy Meadows?  And when can one  
safely send that thing home?

Thanks in advance,

Laura
Class of 2009

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