[pct-l] Bear bagging

[Sean Nordeen]

Most hikers sleep with their food outside of the Sierras.  However, some still hang it most nights where its allowed.

My own experience with cowboy camping for 99% of the trail was as follows.  I slept with my food in its stuff sack inside my pack everynight.  I slept with my pack near my head with all the gear I didn't need to sleep inside of it so my food was burried deeply in the pack.  I avoided meadows and places where I noticed holes in the ground figuring I'd be asking for trouble sleeping where something was obviously burrowing.  In the Sierras, I kept my overflow food that wouldn't fit in my bear can in one of those odor proof sacks.  I figured my bearcan with its obvious odors 25ft away would lure a bear away from me and the odor proof sack would work well enough that I wouldn't be bothered.  Most bears, as soon as they see the bearcan move on looking for easier prey as they've learned that they can't get in them.  As I entered the Sierras latter then most, I figured bears would be more active then for most thru-hikers, but I never saw one.  This was the first time in the High Siera that I never saw one in 20 years of backpacking there.  Wierd.  I have to admit to this being the first time in bear country that I didn't hang my food that didn't fit in a bear can.  I attribute this act to laziness gained from hiking through SoCal where I didn't hang.

Unlike some, I hiked with some people who had mice trouble and experienced it first hand.  One chewed through Monologue's tent mesh and got inside her tent and it took her a long time to chase it out.  O'Dark was cowboy camping and was awakened in the middle of the night with one playing with his pack so he set up his tent and slept inside it without anymore trouble.  However, I think some of their problem was poor campsite selection as O'Dark was camped in a meadow.  If you camp in meadows, you often will have field mice.

I also experienced mice trouble at least twice on the trail.  Once in Northern Oregon off the side of Mt. Hood while camped next to Romona Falls.  Two tried to tag team me after it got dark, and after chasing them off for the 3rd time, I gave up and backtracked 1/4mile on the trail and slept fine.  Another time in Central Washington, we were camped next to Pear lake and 3 mice appeared from a pile of logs next to me.  They were so use to humans that one just stood there while O'Dark held his hiking pole 3inches above it and then stabbed it to death; After my experience at Romona falls, I chose instead to move 200 yards back up to the trail rather then staying and hanging my food.  Which worked, though apparently Shadow camped neark O'Dark had one of them bother him during the night and he killed it.  That was it with perhaps one more exception.  Sometime in Northern California, something caused a hole in the bottom of one of my hipbelt pockets that I assume was a mouse chewing through it.  I didn't notice it for days though.  I had made the mistake of allowing granola crumbs to accumulate inside the pocket and that likely attracted something.  I never did hear it during the night despite my pack being by my head so it might have been windy whenever it happened.

I'd hike the PCT again doing the same thing I did this year without giving it any thought.  However, this is nothing compared to stories I've heard about mice the AT.  

-Sean "Miner" Nordeen