[pct-l] Fw: Where do you put it?

[Edward Anderson]

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com>
To: Timothy Nye <timpnye at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 6:51 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Where do you put it?


Hi Timothy,
I think that you have been lucky so far - sleeping that close to your food. If you are in bear country there is risk of a visit  I would only consider doing that if the food was in a OpSak.  There were a few times, when it was rainy, when did just that.- cooked breakfast with my Jetboil canister stove inside the vestibule of my tent.  But the food was always stored in an OpSak.  My first real problem with rodents was when they got into my food cache about one-half mile north of Beldon Town.  I had driven ahead and cached under about a foot of leaves in a gully more than a week before.  When I arrived I discovered that ALL 30+ pounds of processed horse feed was gone. It had been stored in Food Saver bags. I had stored my resupply food in OpSaks right next to the horse feed.  My food was still there, including two cans of V8 juice. The Ranger there that I talked to said that it was the work of rodents. After that lesson I also stored the horse
 feed in OpSaks and had no problems - all the way to Monument 78.
 
You mentioned Swiss Miss.  My favorite hot drink on the PCT was a two packets of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate Sensation with lots of Nido powdered whole milk added.  That drink is over 350 calories. 
MendoRider

From: Timothy Nye <timpnye at gmail.com>
To: Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com>
Cc: "jape1 at cox.net" <jape1 at cox.net>; "pct-l at backcountry.net" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Where do you put it?


I place my food bag just outside my tent, either under the vestibule or by the mosquito netting and about 4" of space.  Half the time I have my coffee rig set up independent of the bag; this consists of a liter bottle of water, 2 servings of Swiss Miss, 1 cups worth of instant milk and either 2-3 packets of Starbuck's instant coffee or a small mesh bag full of Peet's coffee.  This allows me to roll over and get coffee going without getting out of my bag.  I can then follow that with 2 packets of oatmeal. Newly energized I can then break camp and hit the trail.

The worse thing that happened to me was in 2009, when a mouse hit the food bag in the boulder field just before Chihuahua Valley road in the only flat spot for about 5 miles.  The mouse clearly had his opportunites dialed in.

When cowboy camping (condensation issues and bad weather chances minimal) the pack goes under your feet, assuming that you have a short sleeping pad.  My NeoAir was punctured by an overlooked pinecone in SoCal this year and my wife was upsold a 6 1/2' one at REI, 7 more ounces than the 10 for the short one, but once I slept on it I was a convert. The pack went to one side.

I should point out, however, that my base pack weight went from 10 1/2 pounds to 14 1/2 pounds by the time I settled on my ideal rig.