[pct-l] rodents and resupply/A solution that works

[Edward Anderson]

Hi David,
The important lesson that I learned from my Beldon Town experience - and the info that I want to communicate to my hiker-friends is that while the dang rodents can smell food through even the fairly thick plastic and airtight seal of Food-Saver bags (and this is also true of ZipLock freezer bags), they absolutely cannot detect food in an OPSAK. They must have walked all over the OPSAK bag containing my food in breaking into the ten Food-Saver bags containing the horse food. They got ALL the horse food but did not get my food. The effectiveness of that product is something that every PCT hiker should be aware of.
MendoRider




--- On Thu, 4/22/10, David Ellzey <david at xpletive.com> wrote:

> From: David Ellzey <david at xpletive.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] rodents and resupply
> To: "Pacific Crest Trail List" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010, 4:58 AM
> My daughter works at a pack station
> each summer and has told stories about how they will open
> the seal on a 50gal barrel of oats and as they are scooping
> the oats out into bags the local picas will make a massive
> "storm the beaches" charge. The little rodents will run
> right up the body of a packer to attempt a jump into the
> barrel. Occasionally one will get through their substantial
> defenses and make it into the oats only to burrow quickly
> beyond reach. Usually that berserker pica is found the next
> day laying on top the oats, so bloated with food that it
> can't even climb out. 
> 
> Never underestimate the tenacity of rodents when it comes
> to food.
> 
> BigToe
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net
> [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]
> On Behalf Of Marion Davison
> Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 9:41 PM
> To: Pacific Crest Trail List
> Subject: [pct-l] rodents and resupply
> 
> 
> Mendorider wrote:
> A ranger who was there at Beldon told me that this was the
> work of 
> RODENTS. This was the second time that I learned that
> rodents are not 
> repelled by moth ball smell.
> 
> We had a similar rodent experience.  We parked our van
> and stock trailer 
> at Horseshoe Lake (Mammoth) and left it there for a month
> while we did 
> three loops.  We returned to it twice for
> resupply.  We had lots of 
> people food and llama feed stored in the van for the second
> and third 
> loops.  While we were out on the first loop a bunch of
> mice moved into 
> the van and made a thorough mess of the food and the
> feed--tearing into 
> bags, eating and pooping everywhere.  We secured what
> was left (for the 
> third loop) in coolers before leaving.  We took a road
> trip in the van 
> after the llama trek (to hike Eagle Creek in OR) and had
> mice living 
> with us.  We had to set traps at night to catch
> them.  We trapped one 
> every night for a week.  We found five mouse nests
> concealed in the 
> vehicle, and removed one mouse carcass from the heater
> fan.  Ewwww.  It 
> is known forever after as "the summer of the mice". 
> It was hard to 
> sleep knowing they were running around the bed.  We
> learned from that 
> and now we always store resupply in coolers or 5 gallon
> buckets.
> 
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