[pct-l] sleeping with your food everywhere except in the Sierra

[Stephen Adams]

I can relate to that comment about hanging food, and I'm good at it.  But I always got that weird feeling seeing my food bags swinging silently in the nearly dark night, and there was always that nervous moment in the dawn going to get 'em, and "phew", cool no problems.  I've only hung food down in the trees, and while I normally camp off trail and above tree line, and have never had a food issue, I am not so sure anymore.  Thus I got the Ursack as a compromise.  I've seen so much string and parachute type cords hanging from trees over the years, and so many poorly hung food bags along the JMT and other areas that I can completely understand that the bears have by now been fully trained at getting food hangs from just about anywhere, and can now show their young.  Bears will take your freaking pack too 'cause it has had food in it for a long period of time and is probably permeated with good smelling stuff.  I know my pack will trend towards coffee, peanut butter and cinnamon raisin bagels.  So my pack gets set up next to me with the pot and lid with the hiking poles staked atop that as a sort of alarm for me and deterrent to drag it off.  
On Dec 6, 2009, at 9:02 PM, Will Hiltz wrote:

> If you don't put your food right up against the tent wall, rodents aren't
> usually an issue.
> 
> 
> Sure, bears could come around, but they could come around anyways.   Its way
> better (from both your perspective AND the bears/rodents) to have your food
> with you and be ready to defend it if necessary than to do a poor job of
> storing it away from where you are sleeping and having critters or bears get
> into it overnight.
> 
> Those of you who don't sleep with your food in the non-canister areas--
> might I ask how you do store your food in that case?  As has been discussed
> in this forum numerous times before, I firmly believe that hanging is a bad
> idea on the PCT and rarely, if ever, done properly by through hikers.
> 
> 
> Easy
> 
> On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:52 PM, Jereen Anderson <jereenanderson at yahoo.com>wrote:
> 
>>> From MendoRider,
>> I would not recommend sleeping with your food. Along the PCT there are
>> bears in other places than just in the Sierra. You don't want to wake up
>> some night to bruin sniffing at your tent. And bears are not the only
>> critters that will want your food. Ever heard of rodents? They will chew
>> right through your tent to get at your food. I always store my food in an
>> OPSAK. They are 100% odor-proof - will not let ANY odors escape. I used them
>> in all three states during my PCT ride. You can get them from REI or order
>> them on line.
>> MendoRider
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