[pct-l] hanging food

[Jim & Jane Moody]

The crumbs-in-tent possibility brings up an alternate strategy that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread, i.e., stop earlier, cook supper, eat, clean up, pack back up, and walk till you're ready to camp for the night. Besides minimizing food odors and crumbs around your tent, it also make walking till dark easier. You can set up camp much quicker when you've already eaten. If you stop to cook & eat at a water source, you can carry only the water you'll need that night and for breakfast next morning, saving a couple of lbs of weight. This approach wasn't real common on the PCT, but it seems to be done a lot on the CDT. 

Mango 


----- Original Message -----

From: "Town Food" <pctl at marcusschwartz.com> 
To: "Pct-L" <pct-l at backcountry.net> 
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2017 3:37:50 PM 
Subject: Re: [pct-l] hanging food 

For what it's worth, on my 2016 thru-hike, I saw literally zero proper 
bear hangs. A few people tried, but seeing a PCT hiker doing a bear 
hang of any kind was a rare occurrence. I saw a couple of determined 
hikers do a counterbalance hang just north of Sierra City that was 
almost right, but too close to the trunk (the branch wasn't long 
enough), and too close to the campsite (about 50 feet). That was by far 
the best one I saw. So bear bagging is not a common practice on the 
PCT, so far as I can tell. 

The vast majority of hangs I did see were from weekenders at 
heavily-used campsites, with hangs much too low, and tied to the trunk. 
I saw one hang that was a plastic shopping bag, tied to a branch by its 
handles, about 6 feet off the ground. 

I started my hike with the intention of getting some practice with the 
Skilman hang, and I carried gear for it the whole way. But it seems 
that the areas with bears are also areas with no trees suitable for 
hanging. For example, in sugar pine forests, with only short, 
downward-sloped branches, starting 50 feet off the ground. 

I ended up keeping my food in an Opsak, which itself was inside a trash 
compactor bag, inside my backpack, in my vestibule. I was careful to 
not drop crumbs, and I had no animal problems throughout the hike. 

My sister took the same approach, but was not so careful about dropping 
food, and a mouse burrowed into her tent to retrieve some stray 
sunflower seeds in northern Washington. So, I'm guessing that making 
sure to not drop food is much more important than hanging your food. 
Which makes sense -- it would be easier for an animal to smell food 
that's loose on the ground than in an Opsak. 

Now, I'm sure my Opsak was not perfectly scentproof -- after any kind of 
use, they develop tiny holes. But, my way of thinking is, while it may 
be possible for animals to smell the food inside, it reduces the risk a 
whole lot. 

-=Marcus