backpacking / food storage

[kcscout]

Was thinking about this the other day of how you always want to keep food away from the tent and store elsewhere, but in a backpacking situation you need to carry all of your food and gear in a backpack ... what do people do for setting up their food or storing over night? Do you have to tie a rope around a tree and hang your backpack and everything included from a tree or are critters typically less likely to try to go after the dehydrated foods, or could the backpack go in the vestibule of the tent? Or do you need to get a separate storage container for any food and keep the backpack with you and store the food elsewhere away from the camp site.

My other thought is that if I spend $300 or more for a backpack that the last thing I want to happen is for a raccoon or other critter to claw its way through the backpack or try to get in the tent.

[Mike]

Re: backpacking / food storage

Was thinking about this the other day of how you always want to keep food away from the tent and store elsewhere, but in a backpacking situation you need to carry all of your food and gear in a backpack ... what do people do for setting up their food or storing over night? Do you have to tie a rope around a tree and hang your backpack and everything included from a tree or are critters typically less likely to try to go after the dehydrated foods, or could the backpack go in the vestibule of the tent? Or do you need to get a separate storage container for any food and keep the backpack with you and store the food elsewhere away from the camp site.

My other thought is that if I spend $300 or more for a backpack that the last thing I want to happen is for a raccoon or other critter to claw its way through the backpack or try to get in the tent.

For canoeing, folks are bringing bear barrels, but if the biggest concern is smaller critters like raccoons or coyotes, a plastic food grade pail with a tight fitting lid works fine.

For backpacking you hang your food from a tree. That is a good technique if you have trees with horizontal limbs. I am not sure what backpackers do in areas without trees

[05Kingquad700]

Re: backpacking / food storage

Do a YouTube search with keywords "pct method bear bag" for some good info.

[terasec]

Re: backpacking / food storage

I hang my pack with food and cooking utensils
Not just for the big critters but also away from little critters than can chew their way through stuff
If you want to keep your pack close as may be full of supplies you may want can try bringing an additional sack like your sleeping bag cinch sack and hang your food in that
Such a sack can also be used to keep your dirty clothes seperate from your clean clothes

[JLister]

Re: backpacking / food storage

my plan for my first trip is to pack a couple extra odor-less trash bags. before heading to bed ill pack the trash and food into separate bags, tie a rope around the handles and hang it over a tree about 50-100 feet away, 15-20 feet up. im in northern new hampshire so im mostly worried about bears and coyotes coming to our spot and just hoping the small critters dont climb onto the trash bags and chew into it.