PedalingWalrus

Me too. Usually the food bag is part of my pillow system. :-)

mbusky

Oh, the humble trash panda, kids just love to watch them frolic and play. Ya can't beat them, you could maybe eat them but that is a story for a completely different site. The trash panda will be an issue only to the point where they figure out cell phones when they will use burner phones to deliver pizza to the woods and pay for it with your stolen ATM card. Pssst, they are watching us and they're getting smarter.

Rob_E

A few years ago I pulled into camp too lazy to cook, so I bought a pizza at the convenience store by the camp entrance. I figured it would serve at dinner and tomorrow's breakfast, if I could keep the raccoons away. I hung it from a line strung between two trees, one of which was the tree I hung my hammock tent from. I reasoned that they would not climb the tree I was hanging from to get the food, but I was wrong. I fought with for much of the night, waking up to find a raccoon a foot from my head, on the trunk, reaching out for my pizza. First shining the flashlight would send it running. Then I had to yell at it. Eventually it wouldn't give up unless I actually started to get out of the hammock.

In the middle of the night, I got up and strung the line between to other trees, further apart, and moved my food there. Fortunately in the new location, the raccoons couldn't reach it. Unfortunately flying bugs could. Also my "ingenious" cargo net + bungee cord solution failed to keep the pizza upright. I woke to a pizza that had lost most of its cheese and had several bugs stuck to the remaining cheese. I threw it out.

But the raccoon didn't get it! So I'm calling that a win.

bobwysiwyg

The only racoon I've seen that couldn't climb a tree was a big fat boar that couldn't support his own weight.

I kept finding a racoon peering down at me from the roof edge when using the back door. I had figured he somehow climbed a huge oak that stands 3-4 ft from our house.

Well, I set out to watch him, a her actually, tell you why in a second. The racoon simply climbed our brick chimney easy as you please, all the way to the top.. then disappeared down one of the flues! Turns out it was a female raising a litter?. We left it alone til spring. It carried its young out and we had that flue screen capped as well.

Doug64

This guy sauntered right through our campsite as we were eating breakfast while on his way to the river which was 50' below us.


He did not pay any attention to us or the green food locker about 20' from our tents. When I'm in The PNW, I take bears seriously. There is no way I'm taking my food or toiletries inside my tent!. This was in BC.

Ridefreemc

Plus same experience from hanging the food, but from mice! However never a problem when I wild camp. Only in frequented camp "sites."

skidder

if you don't have a lot of edible stuff, you can use a metal paint can to keep food safe from smaller critters (but not bears!). Squirrels, mice and raccoons can't bite through them, and I've never seen any of them figure out how to take the lid off. You can usually buy 1-gallon and 1-quart empty cans for a few $$$ at hardware or painting-specific stores, and they're small enough to fit in a pannier. Stuff them with food and other kitchen items while riding, then use it for storage at camp.

FWIW: At night I'd toss it on top of a bush so that the larger rodents couldn't climb up and get at it, and so they wouldn't roll it around on the ground during the night. Seriously, raccoons can't climb up dense brush with thin branches without falling off; they're just too heavy!

alan s 

That’s a great idea. I can resupply often, so don’t need a lot of room for storage.

dh024

Another +1 vote for the Ursack (which comes with the odour-resistant opsak bag, too). They don't weigh much, they pack nicely into panniers, they can pack down in size as you consume your food along the trip, and they are pretty much critter proof to everything. Hang em or tie them to a tree trunk, and you can forget about them. So much more convenient than bulky canisters or hanging food bags.

J.Higgins 

Since I'm stove-less now, I've been considering lashing a bear canister on my rear rack. My concern is not the plausibility of critters getting into my food, but the heat from the sun beating up whatever is in the container. I could probably stuff my sleeping bag and the pad in there, as well as a few other things - just to carry - then put food in it at night. To be honest, I've never had a problem on the AT or other trails. I've always hung my food and never had a problem. Mice, rats and snakes, yeah, but not 'coons or bears.

I'm thinking on my Maine trip, I'll test out a Dyneema 200-lb test fishing line for hanging. Its a super-small diameter (not to mention lightweight) braid, much smaller than paracord. It'd cut the paws of a raccoon before they got anywhere.

Ridefreemc

Towards the end of a recent hike in the Rockies I used my bear canister for everything I could fit in it so that I could place the weight low and have nothing on the outside of the pack. Easier for me crossing glaciers and the high passes, as I was a bit scared of those heights and I thought the more compact the pack the better.

They will work with any kind of critter and if you have a rack can simply be placed on top. They of course are a bit slippery by design, but I'm sure you could secure it.

I'd probable just hang the food on the AT as well. The canister was for areas above tree line and to protect against Grizzlies. I usually camp away from others so really no issue with mice, raccoons, rats, etc.

Ridefreemc

Wouldn't mind trying one as well.

jonc123

Camp many miles away from campgrounds. Why earplugs?

ricrunner

I saw a video of a raccoon undoing the zip of a tent and then going thru the back pack, it took the dry bag and ran off. Leaving in a tent isn't an option. they will even steal the bear box or tin.

Happy Feet

I use a waterproof drybag for my food and hang/lock it away from my tent. If it keeps out water well it will also limit giving off odors.

Most raccoons (and bears) will not seek out humans if they can help it but will seek out food if they smell it. The question is not whether they may randomly wander into your campsite but how long they will linger or persist in penetrating barriers to get to a food source that they smell. I would rather that be a bag in a tree than my tent where I'm sleeping.

Another consideration besides soaps and toothpaste smells is scented deodorant. I have an unscented travel size one I take on trips through bear country.

J.Higgins 

This is why I'm considering different methods of securing my bear canister.

Tourist in MSN

With all the comments here about Ursack, I am considering buying one. I want to thank all that recommended it for making me aware of it.

I have never had a problem with hanging food in bear country. Once had to get up at 2am to throw rocks at the noisy bear climbing the tree, but if it came back later, it did not get to the pack. Thus, I had not thought about other options.

But you can never be too careful, especially if you sometimes are four or more days away from a place to get more food. And there have been some campsites where the tree situation was really poor for hanging the food pack very well.

alan s 

I like the amenities available in a campground (electricity, water, showers, etc.). Not sure whether there are good camping options in the area outside of established sites. Critters tend to congregate in the same areas for the food sources, so you take the good with the bad. Earplugs allow me to get a great night’s sleep. Better than at home. Without earplugs, I wake up all night.

Carbonfiberboy 

One of the interesting things about a bear canister is that the authorities don't recommend trying to secure it in place in any fashion. Just set it upright some distance from your camp. Thus there are no attachment thingies on a bear canister. They are completely smooth on the outside. The idea is that the bear will bat it around for a while and eventually get tired of it. You hope you'll find it later. If you put a line on it, the bear will just use that line to carry it off and it'll be gone. The authorities don't care all that much about whether you recover the canister or not, but they know that's more likely if there's no line on it. The outcome is focused on the bear: that the bear not get mad, not get a food reward, just get bored and wander off. The bear canister idea is that the individual camper who will only be there for a short while doesn't matter as long as they aren't hurt by the bear. It's the bear who matters because they'll be there through the visits by many, many campers.

FBOATSB

This/\ Any bear or raccoon family that lives around campers is going to learn through repetition. This is why my joy of camping dryed up a few decades ago. For me, I have found the most effective deterrent is to camp where we are the most important occupants. Behind a locked hotel room door.

Tourist in MSN

Several years ago I was at an REI scratch and dent sale, they had a bear cannister there that was a bit beat up and the reason listed for return was that the bear openned it. I decided that maybe that was not the right cannister for me.

Your discussion of the issues make a lot of sense.

I wonder if putting a loud but light weight alarm clock in it would help you find it if it was ... moved overnight? Or, if the sound would be too muted inside the canister to be effective?

Happy Feet

Excellent understanding of the issue. I have lived and camped/worked in bear and racoon country all of my life with little to no close contact beyond a sighting now and then. Bears want little to no contact with humans themselves - we are a confusing co predator to them. They just want contact with whatever smells like food. Whether they come into contact with us to get that food depends on how hungry or habituated they are. I just keep it simple by putting distance between myself and that smell.

I've never had a raccoon or a bear just walk up to me in the wild for no reason.

Carbonfiberboy 

An amusing sidenote: There is/was a bear on the Appalachian Trail who learned how to open the screw-top canisters where you have to push down a tab to unscrew the lid. He/she then taught the method to friends. Then there was a whole colony of bears who could all open these canisters. I don't remember the brand, but this only happened on one location on the AT. Bears are pretty smart.

I remember a story of a climbing expedition in Alaska which had stashed a case of condensed milk on a previous trip. They returned to find that each can had a carefully punched hole in the top and was empty. That would have been fun to watch.

FBinNY 

Raccoons are very efficient scavengers. They don't waste their time wandering around without a decent chance of a payoff. There's no way to prevent the odor of food from attracting them. But once they get there and determine that it's out of reach, they'll move on to better prospects.

If you're concerned with them being close to where you're sleeping, hang your food at some remove so they have no reason to hang around.

alan s 

Stopped by REI today and picked up two Opsak odor proof bags. The guy at the store recommended hanging them in a dry bag. They are 12” x 20”, which should be plenty of room for food and toiletries. They also sell some kind of metal mesh bag that is supposed to be critter proof, but I hope the Opsak bags will be sufficient. We’ll see how it works out.