How to Hang a Bear Bag???

[Thomas M]

I'd like to hear some ideas of how you all hang your food if bears or other critters are an issue. What method? Any innovative solutions? What sort of gear components, bags, line, caribiners, etc. Sometimes it's difficult to find a decent tree with extended branches. What is your idea of the minimum amount of line? Any references to other web sites would be good too.

[skimanjohn]

Just google it and you will find more info than you can imagine.Also go to Olympic National park and see what they prefer you do,lots of bears up there.My self i think i will just get a bear proof container because it is a lot easier than messing with all the lines.

[retired jerry]

25 feet of line. Tie one end to a rock. Throw it over a branch 15 feet high. Tie to your food bag. Haul it up. Tie off line on another branch. This works around here, but you have to be more careful for Yosemite bears.

Like skimanjohn says, google it for a better description.

In the Olympics, they require canisters, but they weigh like 2 pounds which I hate to carry.

[Grannyhiker]

Well, I'm one of those people who can't throw and, if I try, can't hit anything I'm throwing at, so bear bagging is impossible for me. I've also been in too many places where no tree meeting the specifications for hanging can be found. That's why I use an Ursack http://www.ursack.com/.

However, there are places where bears are so habituated to human sources of food, regarding any bag as a pinata, that neither hanging nor Ursacks are allowed, with good reason. In those places you must use an approved bear canister. These include a large area of the Sierra, including all of Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, as well as some of the surrounding area. http://www.sierrawildbear.gov/foodstora ... agemap.htm (At Yosemite, you can't even leave food in your car--the bears have learned to break in with ease.) It also includes part of the Adirondacks if you're hiking back east. In Olympic National Park, you must hang food even if you use an Ursack, and bear canisters are required above timberline and on the coast (the last because of raccoons rather than bears). However, in ONP you are allowed to use any hard-sided container (people have made their own out of PVC pipe). Grand Teton National Park just began requiring canisters because too many people don't hang their food properly and the bears have gotten their food.

As far as the Northwest is concerned, see above for Olympic NP. North Cascades NP wants you to hang and provides wires to do so at designated campsites. Mt. Rainier NP provides poles to hang your food at all designated campsites (the only places you're allowed to camp). In the Northwest's national forests, there are no restrictions and an Ursack (or proper hanging) will work just fine. Just be sure to use either technique according to directions. Unlike a more fragile stuffsack, the Ursack will also keep out burglarious rodents and birds.

There are more requirements if you're going to be in grizzly bear country, which includes not cooking in your campsite and not wearing to bed or even leaving in the tent the clothes you cook and eat in.

Remember that these restrictions are as much for the sake of the bears as for your own safety. Once a bear has gotten hold of human food, even though it may be given a second chance (usually by being transported to the back country so it can prey on hikers instead of car campers), it usually ends up having to be shot.

[sarbar]

+1 for what Granny said.

I use Ursacks except for the few places where I have to use a canister. (The Olympic Coast for example). Even at Rainier I still use my Ursack bag on the bear poles - keeps the freaky Ravens out!

[Charley]

This is the way I've figured out:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin ... nique.html

I have trouble hitting the tree on the first time (I've got an awful throw), and sometimes I think it'd be a funny Youtube video- Charley throwing wild and having to retrieve his bad throws.
Charley

[Grannyhiker]

ROTFL!!! Thanks for the link, Charley; I laughed so hard I cried!

There is still the same problem with the "PCT method," including finding appropriate trees with appropriate branches. The only difference is that at least the mis-thrown rock doesn't end up in the next county. If I start up my shoulder arthritis from trying to throw, I would end up having to call for Search and Rescue. I'll stick with the few extra ounces for the Ursack, thank you!

My last experience with bear-bag hanging was 20 years ago. Our group spotted two different bears as we were backpacking in, which the trip leader insisted was the same bear following us (since he brought up the rear and didn't see either bear, I have no idea how he knew this). So out came a rope, and everyone's food bag was tied to it. The "conventional" method was successful on the fifth throw (not by me) and two strong men started hauling the bags up to the branch. The food was almost all the way up when the rope broke, and the descending bags barely missed the two strong men. The impact split a number of plastic and foil bags inside several people's food sacks, resulting in some interesting menus. Most of us were unwilling to trust to hanging after that! Fortunately, no bears showed up during the two nights we were there.

[Charley]

One time, I was hanging up the bag on a dead limb of a Doug Fir. I like to get the rock throwing part done before dinner, while there's still some light, because there's nothing more frustrating than trying find an appropriate limb, then trying to hit it in the dark. So I got my rock sack and loaded it up, and finally managed to get the bugger over the limb. I left it up there and had dinner and finished chores.

When I came back to the rope and started pulling up the food sack, the rope got stuck on the limb. It was jammed up there real good. So I kept yanking- I mean, all my food was stuck up there, and it was not moving up or down! I yanked and yanked, and finally heard a "CRACK", then heard a whooshing noise right behind me head. That old dead limb came right down and nearly knocked me on the noggin. . . and I'm bald, so it would have looked real funny to show up at work with a big lump (or cut) on my head.

Then, of course, it was dark as a coal mine out there, and I had to use my puny little flashlight to find another limb. . . it took 15 minutes to get it all done. It was real funny. After the fact.

Oh, and I should note that I've stopped using the rock sack- I've always been able to find a short, heavy stick and hitch the cord onto that for the throwing.
Charley