Looks like I'm the posting queen tonight!

After discussing with SEVERAL friends.... I've come to realize my husband and I really hike our food into the wilderness away from camp more so than other people I know.

My theory - is... how close do I want critters to me?

We often pack our food 1/4 mile away from our tent/fire ring etc.

Lots of friends have told me they hang their food within 10-50 feet of their tent!!!! Really?

What do most people do?

Food Pack!

When I hang, I look for closest suitable tree.

When I first was hanging food my theory was hang-em high, I'm talking at least 20 feet up. Kind of hard to find the right trees in camp so I would have to travel back up a ways. It was always a pain every time up and down, a real time waster.
For the last 10 trips I store my food in 5 gallon pails with gamma seal lids on the ground right in camp. I put a few pans or coffee pot on top. If by chance a bear would come into camp we would hear the bear and hopefully have time to get our food back.
My theory is protect your bait and you will never run out of food because that is what catches fish.

Haven't hung a pack in several (10+) years. Switched to barrels. If we had to - closest good tree.

Used to look for the best trees close to camp. Of course, sometimes I went quite a ways back out of necessity. Now, I no longer hang. I use a blue barrel and hide it a little ways from tents, but close enough we should hear if a bear discovers it.

We're Ursack users and just go a bit out of camp. Certainly not a quarter mile. Maybe a 100 feet.

Lots of people hang packs right in camp. Helps the bears because the bears know those trees. We once followed a bear that was going from campsite to campsite along the shore. At each campsite it checked the fire grate and looked up the most likely hanging tree. If he had gone and checked the toilet, I would have thought he was trying to pick a campsite for the night. Fortunately, all the camp sites were empty and he didn't get anyone's food.

Probably hanging a bit outside of camp helps cut down on bears finding your food.

We started using the blue barrels after tripping to Knife where there are lots of bears and few trees in places. I leave the barrels tied to something in or very near camp and leave some dinnerware on top of them to wake me if something is disturbing them.

quote DeanL: "We started using the blue barrels after tripping to Knife where there are lots of bears and few trees in places. I leave the barrels tied to something in or very near camp and leave some dinnerware on top of them to wake me if something is disturbing them."

We do the same but will go away from camp 50 to 75 feet.

Right above the tent. That way we know when's critter gets it.

Of coarse when we go with a group the weight of the bag would kill us. So we actual hang it outside of camp maybe 100-150 ft. , preferably not on a trail. It doesn't always get hung as high as we would like it, or as far from as a tree as we'd like. But it keeps the small critters out and so far the bears. All the food is kept in ziplock bags. On the last trip I bought some op sacks for the fresh food and any strong smells like gorp.

Way back when I hung my food pack, I didn't have a distance just when I found suitable location.

T

I use bear barrels, and generally 50 feet away is where they get placed. I soon discovered on my first trip how difficult it was to find the right tree. Seems like a 1/4 mile is a bit much...however if bears are accustomed to looking in all the usual spots..!!

I do not hang, haven't for years. Stash food pack by the water maybe 50 yards away max.

The only time I separate widely is in the Arctic where its recommended your camp be 1/4 mile from cooking area and both 1/4 mile from food storage. Griz country.

Otherwise.. wherever. And I haven't hung in years.

The principle of hanging is not that bears cannot get to it ( they can negotiate a clothes line in New Jersey) but that you are separated from your food in case a bear wants it and ergo less likely to be injured

It still makes no sense to store in tent.. I saw a bear go into a tent ( occupied) and leave through a self clawed hole with Dorito bag in mouth. This was in a Yosemite campground though.

I use blue barrels, fully aware that they are not bear proof. But they are rodent proof. I have always found those pests the most annoying.

My Ursack is usually hung withing a stone's throw of camp. Usually right on the edge of camp and definitely within a hundred yards of tent. I want to hear if some bear is nosing around in my food so that I can scare it away. If I day trip or go out exploring in the canoe then I take it with me. Back when I used to hang my food pack, I would also hang it within the camp boundaries or within 100 yards. This is debated almost as much as the innie vs outie. You'll get lots of varying opinions.

On the rare chance that we do hang, it would be a suitable tree on the campsite periphery, usually no more than 25 yards from tent/campfire. More concerned with critters than bear.

If in Griz country they reccommend hanging your food and cooking 100 yards from your tent and also if you been fishing change clothes before going to bed and not have the fish clothes nearby.

I haven't hung in years and it doesn't go very far from the site. I use Ursacks/bear canisters and OPSacks. I use mostly dehydrated foods and don't cook, so there aren't a lot of food odors and I'm usually alone or maybe one other.

Haven't hung in years either. I use a bear vault, 450 or 500 depending on length of my trip.
But I'm pretty sure I am going to OP Sacks for backpacking in the future. Trying to cut down on the weight, and the Bear Vaults are a little heavy and kinda bulky.
I stash my food a few hundred feet away from camp if I can, and away from the water. I don't want a bear knocking my BearVault into the drink. Remember to mark where it is. I've found it hard to find, in the Black Spruce Jungle of AK the next morning.

I used to hang because it was the officially right way to do it, but lost faith finding suitable trees, didn't want to hang 2 or three times a day. Used opsacks for one year and kept my fingers crossed (stashed about 200 yards from camp). For the last 4 years I have been using the BearVaults, size 500 for my food and 450 for my dogs kibbles. They hold 7 days worth of food for each of us. All my food is dehydrated and I never cook anything more pungent than water. And I keep a very clean camp. All the trash goes back in the vault in a gallon size ziplock bag. Now I stash in odd places around 200 feet from camp at night, usually under a blowdown or log or close to shore. And I do try to go to remoter locations. I saw my first BW bear in recent years while portaging into French Lake this May. I am willing to pass up seeing bears in the BW, there are plenty around my living radius in northern NJ and southern NY--had one do my bird feeder last week.

quote DeanL: "We started using the blue barrels after tripping to Knife where there are lots of bears and few trees in places. I leave the barrels tied to something in or very near camp and leave some dinnerware on top of them to wake me if something is disturbing them."

Same hear,

Hanging is a pain. Never find the Ideal trees. The only good ones seem to be right above a tent pad.

Can't understand why my tripping partner wouldn't let me use that one above his pad......

Rather than deal with a barrel and the prospect of bears in camp, we always hang our food pack in a tree. We hang 10 feet high and no less than 6 feet between trees. Parachute cord and a pulley is the way to go. It is the 2nd thing we do while setting up camp. I'd rather discourage the bears than deal with one already in camp.

Don't Hang.

Use the barrels and / or the bear vaults. Just stash them near camp in the bushes or under a tree.

I just keep my food in a dry bag and lug it maybe 30 yards from my tent. I've spent a couple years aggregate in the wilderness and have never had a bear in my campsite.

"According to the number of scent receptors, the bear has the best sense of smell of all terrestrial mammals. Black bears have been observed to travel 18 miles in a straight line to a food source, while grizzlies can find an elk carcass when it's underwater and polar bears can smell a seal through 3 feet of ice."

No matter how careful we are, we still carry food scents on our clothing, in our hair, on our cooking equipment, etc.

I've had many bear in my camp with my bear vaults. They never even looked at them. How do I know I had bear? The wonderful presents they have left behind. Haha. Several right by my tent. Clean site no problem. When hanging you need to hang high enough and out far enough. I've seen so many hangs where you mine as well served the food on a plate.

Ben, were did you find that bear scat? Was it Woodland Caribou, a more used park like the BWWCA, or both?

I have always hung food packs, usually nearest acceptable tree. Here are the four sites we stayed at last week, in order, Ensign, Birch, Ashigan, and Disappointment. I believe in all cases it meets the 10' and 5' rule, but in the end, it has worked for me. And the sport of hanging never tires for anyone in the groups I've been with. That was true at Philmont too.

And, FWIW, this, one if a couple on portage from Boot to Ensign (and not far from our Ensign site - no. 1227 - just west of portage landing).

I don't hang anymore....i use hear vault and I stash them on the edge of camp....or in my vestibule... :)

quote MNLindsey80: "Looks like I'm the posting queen tonight!

After discussing with SEVERAL friends.... I've come to realize my husband and I really hike our food into the wilderness away from camp more so than other people I know.

My theory - is... how close do I want critters to me?

We often pack our food 1/4 mile away from our tent/fire ring etc.


Lots of friends have told me they hang their food within 10-50 feet of their tent!!!! Really?

What do most people do?

Food Pack! "

1/4 mile away is overkill...IMO

Have always hung it in nearest tree that was not right in the middle of camp. Just ordered an Ursack so this fall I'll probably just carry it 50 feet out of camp in a place I can remember.

Use to hang, now I stash. We go away from any trails, maybe 50-100 yards from camp.

quote missmolly: "Ben, were did you find that bear scat? Was it Woodland Caribou, a more used park like the BWWCA, or both? "

Usually BWCA, I've seen plenty in WCPP but they are more skiddish. When I had Bernie I'd know when they were out there cause she had that certain growl. And that's when we'd see our present. Haha. Border lakes like Iron and between prairie portage and knife lake. Pawness used to produce a few bears too. Never lost anything to one and only a couple times had to really make a stand. They can look pretty tough when they bluff charge. Haha. At home we see them around too. I just fixed my screen door last year and next day a bear put his paw through it. He tried again and I scared him off to st Louis County. Thought he came back but it was a raccoon. The funniest bear scat was 2012 on Iron Lake in May, we woke up to it between the tent and the path to the biffy.

we stash about 100 ft away from camp.

quote Frenchy19: "I do not hang, haven't for years. Stash food pack by the water maybe 50 yards away max. "

This is what I do. There's always a rocky place to hide it by the water. Even better when you have to hop into the canoe to stash or retrieve it.

Closest suitable tree gets the food pack.

The only time we've had a problem was when the food pack wasn't hung up and our food pack was sitting next to us at the fire ring.

Used to hang. Now we use a combination of blue barrels and/or olive barrels depending on group size. Last time I hung was in 2011 before I got my first barrels.

Stash right in camp, usually under cover of some tree nearish to the fire grate.

No hanging. No barrels, vaults or anything else.
Leave the food pack on the ground within 40 feet or so of the tent on a granite slab and with aluminum pots on top.
But on solos do use a vault.