[pct-l] Grizzly

[Edward Anderson]

Hi Tortoise,
 
Use an OPSak as your food bag.  Smells can not get either in or out.  When using the OPSak's it is very important that you follow the instructions when sealing - and that you get no food smells ON THE OUTSIDE of the OPSak.  Then you can surround your food with the bear charms without the mothballs influencing the taste of your food. I also cover my food bags, saddle, and packs with a tarp at night so that bears can't see the food inside the transparent OPSak. I also lay a circle of bear charms around my tent - none closer than about 12 or15 feet.
 
An incident that made me a believer in the effectiveness of the OPSaks was when I had arrived at my cache location near the RR tracks about one-half mile south of Beldon Town.  Under about a foot of leaves, I had buried my resupply food including 34 pounds of processed horse feed, about nine days prior.  My food was in an 11.5" x 20" OPSak. The horse feed was in heat-sealed freezer bags, each containing either three or five pounds. I had thought that the thick plastic of the freezer bags would contain the horse feed smells, which included that of COB with molasses.  Wrong!  What I saw, while still mounted, when I arrived, was that all of the leaves had been scattered.  All of the horse feed was gone, the freezer bags shredded.  The OPSak with my food was intact as were one canister of fuel and two cans of V8 juice.  All had been buried together with 10 mothballs (I always use 10 so that I can be sure to recover all 10, by count, for recycling in
 future caches. I LNT when caching, by camoflaguing. After recovering a cache, I leave that spot looking as it did before I cached).  A ranger there told me that my horse food loss was the work of rodents. I don't think that a bear would have dug there because of the moth ball smells. The rodents could obviously smell the horse feed but not my food - and were not repelled by the moth ball smells. After that, and all the way on the PCT to Canada, I stored ALL food - mine and Primo's, in OPSaks - and continued to use the mothballs at caches and the bear charms while in camp. I had no further losses. I have since tested the effectiveness of moth balls with rodents and can say that the rats and mice here in Agua Dulce are not deterred by the smell of moth balls
 
Have a great hike!
MendoRider

From: Tortoise <Tortoise73 at charter.net>
To: Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com>
Cc: "pct-l at backcountry.net" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, July 8, 2011 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Grizzly


That makes sense. Years ago we carried moth balls (as I heard from another hiker (last name Reynolds) who hiked in Alaska). The moth balls were in small nylon sacks which were carried in a glass jar. We hung the small sacks with the mothballs on the outside of our food bag when away from camp / at night. The food picked up a taste of mothballs which we did not like.

Maybe I'll try again this year with a small OPsack when carried then put the "bear charms" around the base of the tree or around the canister while in camp.

Thanks.

Tortoise

<> Because truth matters.  <>
On 2011.07.08 11:49, Edward Anderson wrote: 
Hi Tortoise,
>
>When I am on the trail I store my bear charms in my saddle bags. They are IN an OPsak - I don't like the smell of mothballs.
>
>From: Tortoise <tortoise73 at charter.net>
>To: PCT-list <pct-l at backcountry.net>
>Sent: Friday, July 8, 2011 8:14 AM
>Subject: Re: [pct-l] Grizzly
>
>
>What do you store them on the trail / in your pack?
>
>Tortoise 
>
>via my iPod Touchy.
>
>On Jul 7, 2011, at 21:07, Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Tobacco sacks - where to buy them?  I tried three tobacco stores in Santa Clarita near where I now live in Agua Dulce. They did not have them - one, who answered the phone claimed he never heard of them.  You can find them at fishing tackle stores if they are near the beach.  The surf fishermen use them as weights because they are cheaper than lead weights - you just fill them with sand.  I buy mine from Rite Aid in Fort Bragg, California.  But the Rite Aid in Santa Clarita did not have them. And the Home Depot in Santa Clarita did not sell moth balls. The hardware store in Agua Dulce has them.
>>  
>> MendoRider/Ed Anderson
>> 
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