[pct-l] hanging food

[Marcus Schwartz]

I tried this a few times.  It made dinner more pleasant, since it was
warmer and more scenic.  But, it cut down on my distance.  The reason
being, I can do my eating after dark if I do it in camp, whereas dinner
before camp means using daylight hours to eat.

By the end, I was having trail mix for most dinners anyway, so I just
stuck my lips around the opening in the trail mix package, forming a
crumb-proof seal.

 -=Marcus

On 01/28/2017 03:19 PM, Jim & Jane Moody wrote:
> 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
> 
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