[pct-l] Re: canisters in tent

[spiritbear2k@hotmail.com (Ginny & Jim Owen)]

Dusy wrote:
>Other than the obvious violation of some wilderness or national park
>regulation,
>why does it not make good sense to keep food inside your tent when you only
>have properly stored dry, dehydrated, nonperishable edibles cleanly within
>almost airtight containers ( like the better grades of zip-locks )?


Some time ago I carried cocoa mix double bagged in heavy duty ziplocs.  One 
night I very carefully hung the food bag (a 'waterproof' stuff sack) about 
15' off the ground and 30 yards from the tent and then went to sleep.  About 
0100 the smell of CHOCOLATE woke me up.  It was my carefully double bagged 
cocoa mix/bear bait that I was smelling.  And it was strong.

Point 1 - ziplocs are porous.  They're water resistant not necessarily water 
proof.  They're certainly not smell-proof.  Test it yourself - put a bar of 
soap in a ziploc and see how long before you can smell the soap.  Thats why 
you don't generally put soap (or laundry detergent) in maildrops without 
taking extraordinary precautions.

Point 2 - if I could smell the chocolate, how many bears do you think could 
smell it?  --- from how far away?  A bears sense of smell is several 
thousand times better than a yours - or mine.  They can smell carrion 10 to 
20 miles from the source.  They can also smell chocolate that far away.  :-)

You are, of course, welcome to experiment.  Please let me know when and 
where so I can be someplace else.  :-)

Walk softly,
Jim


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com