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Sleeping with your food

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    • when I was on the bmt and picked up my drop at jacks river country store, the guy that gave me a ride back asked if I carried bear spray. I asked him if there were grizzlies around. he said no, but those bears up there will be after your food.i told him they've been after my food for over 30 yrs and still haven't gotten it.
      anyway, that night when I camped, for the first time in years, I thought that maybe hanging my food wouldn't be such a bad idea. I was a bit spooked so I looked for a branch to hang it, and finally found a decent enough tree with a branch the size of my arm to hang. tossed a line over, started pulling the bag up, and the branch snapped right off. dead and dry. found another tree, tossed the line, pulled and got the same result. I laughed, shrugged and said, guess I'm sleeping with my food.
      its all good

    • I voted "hang." Old school. Bear boxes and cables are the norm on parts of the AT. In the DAKs and certain places out west (eg. JMT), canisters are required. I'm not sure in this case how either choice could be validated scientifically, it really comes down to habit and personal preference.

      Bears are excellent tree climbers, so if you hang, you have to do it right. In particular if the bag is hanging less than a few feet from the trunk of the tree, it's probably well within reach of a hungry bear.

    • WanderingStovie wrote:

      I mostly hang my food. Recently I have been hanging food between two trees. A few times I have kept food in the vestibule, but never inside where an animal would have to destroy my tent to get at it.

      I mostly sleep with mine and the few times I don't are on the Florida Trail in known coon problem areas, because they will tear your tent apart to get to food. The way I cured the problem there was I use an Ursack tied to a tree close by. Close enough to where when I hear them getting after it I can run them off. They can yank on that thing all they want and it ain't goin' nowhere.
      Changes Daily→ ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫ ♪♫♪♫♪♫ ← Don't blame me. It's That Lonesome Guitar.

    • I put a muffin in my day pack, hiked out to the rocks in Lienster Bay, St,John. Put my hat on top of my zipped up pack and headed out for an hour snorkle. I came back, saw my hat knocked over and the zipper open..... :huh: .....I was hungry, i looked in my pack for that muffin.....'shite, did I forget that thing back at the hotel?........ ?( ......all of a sudden I hear this commotion up the bank....I peer thru the brush and see 3 mongoose fighting over something =O .....it was my muffin!!!!!!!!!! The little bastards had moved my hat, UNZIPPED my pack and taken the muffin.
      The next day I was telling this story to a taxi driver in Tortola....he almost drove us of the side of the mountain road, he was laughing so hard!
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup:

    • LIhikers wrote:

      If I slept with food in our tent I'd be more afraid that our dog would want a mid-night snack than a bear coming after it.


      I've made that mistake before, didn't end well...

      Warning, link to photo on TOS:
      whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showi…id=member&imageuser=26465
      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    • max.patch wrote:

      i learned that the coons in florida have learned how to open a coleman cooler.

      You heard right. We were car camping in the county park one time and left for the day. We came back and was supposed to have hotdogs. I looked inside the cooler and no hotdogs. Blew it off as forgetting them at home. Went and got more along with some bologna for the next day. Same thing next day. Left and came back. No bologna. Knew it was in there. Now I'm starting to look at the neighbors suspiciously. Took a few more times to figure out it was the coons. Caught the little bastards one day after a shower opening the cooler. Cured that problem by wrapping bungee cords all the way around the cooler and the picnic table seat. That lasted a good few years till the learned how to chew through the cords. Went to swing set chain after that. That still works today.
      Changes Daily→ ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫ ♪♫♪♫♪♫ ← Don't blame me. It's That Lonesome Guitar.

    • About a year ago I searched Google Scholar and found a few names of wildlife biologists at universities who have published a lot of bear research. I sent some e-mails and got one to reply (don't recall his name, would have to go through my old e-mails). Anyway, I explained this FAQ, pointing out that the "conventional wisdom" is to hang food, but then pointed out that quite a few people don't hang food and gave hime all the explanations as to why this system should work (despite dire warnings from those who have been taught the conventional wisdom). I made it clear we were ONLY talking about eastern US Black Bears. The bottom line was that he agreed that the sleep with your food reasoning was sound, based on all we (i.e. wildlife biologists) know about Black Bears and that choosing to sleep with your food was a reasonable decision. However he also said that hanging food is also a good option and that he personally would choose to hang food. So for me it becomes a HYOH/personal choice issue (like gaiters, water treatment and trekking pole choices). The one difference is that it is easy to sleep with your food correctly. It is more difficult to hang food correctly and doing it incorrectly negatively impacts the bears and other hikers (no one was ever injured by my choice not to wear gaitors).

    • milkman wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      i learned that the coons in florida have learned how to open a coleman cooler.

      You heard right. We were car camping in the county park one time and left for the day. We came back and was supposed to have hotdogs. I looked inside the cooler and no hotdogs. Blew it off as forgetting them at home. Went and got more along with some bologna for the next day. Same thing next day. Left and came back. No bologna. Knew it was in there. Now I'm starting to look at the neighbors suspiciously. Took a few more times to figure out it was the coons. Caught the little bastards one day after a shower opening the cooler. Cured that problem by wrapping bungee cords all the way around the cooler and the picnic table seat. That lasted a good few years till the learned how to chew through the cords. Went to swing set chain after that. That still works today.



      Them coons! We have a row of three trashcans behind the house next to the woodline, all have locking handles on each side of the can. The coons learned to unlock each side then flip the top off... needless to say, we had to trap and relocate.

    • max.patch wrote:

      i learned that the coons in florida have learned how to open a coleman cooler.


      after they opened the cooler they moved the stuff on the very top out of the way so that they could get to the steaks. they also would carry eggs over to a rock and drop them to be able to eat them easily. we wrapped the coolers with bungee cords the next night and that worked.
      2,000 miler

    • odd man out wrote:

      About a year ago I searched Google Scholar and found a few names of wildlife biologists at universities who have published a lot of bear research. I sent some e-mails and got one to reply (don't recall his name, would have to go through my old e-mails). Anyway, I explained this FAQ, pointing out that the "conventional wisdom" is to hang food, but then pointed out that quite a few people don't hang food and gave hime all the explanations as to why this system should work (despite dire warnings from those who have been taught the conventional wisdom). I made it clear we were ONLY talking about eastern US Black Bears. The bottom line was that he agreed that the sleep with your food reasoning was sound, based on all we (i.e. wildlife biologists) know about Black Bears and that choosing to sleep with your food was a reasonable decision. However he also said that hanging food is also a good option and that he personally would choose to hang food. So for me it becomes a HYOH/personal choice issue (like gaiters, water treatment and trekking pole choices). The one difference is that it is easy to sleep with your food correctly. It is more difficult to hang food correctly and doing it incorrectly negatively impacts the bears and other hikers (no one was ever injured by my choice not to wear gaitors).


      I slept with my food wrong once.
      Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
      Dr. Seuss Cof123

    • Rasty wrote:

      odd man out wrote:

      About a year ago I searched Google Scholar and found a few names of wildlife biologists at universities who have published a lot of bear research. I sent some e-mails and got one to reply (don't recall his name, would have to go through my old e-mails). Anyway, I explained this FAQ, pointing out that the "conventional wisdom" is to hang food, but then pointed out that quite a few people don't hang food and gave hime all the explanations as to why this system should work (despite dire warnings from those who have been taught the conventional wisdom). I made it clear we were ONLY talking about eastern US Black Bears. The bottom line was that he agreed that the sleep with your food reasoning was sound, based on all we (i.e. wildlife biologists) know about Black Bears and that choosing to sleep with your food was a reasonable decision. However he also said that hanging food is also a good option and that he personally would choose to hang food. So for me it becomes a HYOH/personal choice issue (like gaiters, water treatment and trekking pole choices). The one difference is that it is easy to sleep with your food correctly. It is more difficult to hang food correctly and doing it incorrectly negatively impacts the bears and other hikers (no one was ever injured by my choice not to wear gaitors).


      I slept with my food wrong once.
      Ewwww <X
      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    • Now that I'm tenting and not sleeping in shelters, I sleep with my food. Last night on Mt. Sterling, I hung it because everyone else did. I decided if a bear got curious, I would be the target and I didn't want to end up as someone's blog subject.

      I met a couple from Chicago yesterday. The night before, he hung his food and his bag was chewed up by chipmunks.
      Lost in the right direction.

    • TrafficJam wrote:

      Now that I'm tenting and not sleeping in shelters, I sleep with my food. Last night on Mt. Sterling, I hung it because everyone else did. I decided if a bear got curious, I would be the target and I didn't want to end up as someone's blog subject.

      I met a couple from Chicago yesterday. The night before, he hung his food and his bag was chewed up by chipmunks.


      I would think that when there are food bags hanging from trees the bears will almost certainly go for those first.

    • I sleep with my food.

      Related to the coon stories .... my son, seven at the time ... and I had spent a few days hiking up Mt Washington and we were back at the Dry River Campground enjoying our meal and getting ready to roast the marshmallows. A big coon jumped on the picinic table and looked at both of us, grabbed the bag of marshmallows and took off. We must have chased him thru the bushes for 30 minutes. We ended up getting a Japanese family who didn't understand english to give us some marshmallows. They were very nice. Domo arigato!

    • grayblazer wrote:

      I sleep with my food.

      Related to the coon stories .... my son, seven at the time ... and I had spent a few days hiking up Mt Washington and we were back at the Dry River Campground enjoying our meal and getting ready to roast the marshmallows. A big coon jumped on the picinic table and looked at both of us, grabbed the bag of marshmallows and took off. We must have chased him thru the bushes for 30 minutes. We ended up getting a Japanese family who didn't understand english to give us some marshmallows. They were very nice. Domo arigato!


      The little bandits did the same for me with a loaf of bread, you gotta love the little rascals even though they're a pain in the butt, caught a young one once and took him home, he was domesticated within 24 hours and would climb all over me, really neat animals, turned him loose in the woods behind the house because I knew the doberman would get him sooner or later...I could see it in his eyes...just wait till the masters not home and I'll have my way with that coon.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • M

      Drybones wrote:

      grayblazer wrote:

      I sleep with my food.

      Related to the coon stories .... my son, seven at the time ... and I had spent a few days hiking up Mt Washington and we were back at the Dry River Campground enjoying our meal and getting ready to roast the marshmallows. A big coon jumped on the picinic table and looked at both of us, grabbed the bag of marshmallows and took off. We must have chased him thru the bushes for 30 minutes. We ended up getting a Japanese family who didn't understand english to give us some marshmallows. They were very nice. Domo arigato!


      The little bandits did the same for me with a loaf of bread, you gotta love the little rascals even though they're a pain in the butt, caught a young one once and took him home, he was domesticated within 24 hours and would climb all over me, really neat animals, turned him loose in the woods behind the house because I knew the doberman would get him sooner or later...I could see it in his eyes...just wait till the masters not home and I'll have my way with that coon.

      Maybe if the little guy offered him a drink! :rolleyes:
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup:

    • Am I missing something here? From local black bear attacks in Pennsylvania on boys in state parks almost all of the incidents end up in the drive by news with little detail. On further investigation, when an attack happens it's not about "food" its the overweight kid who's hiding the Snickers, Skittles and Cheetos in the bottom of his sleeping bag - What bear couldn't resist that? So the first instinct is drag the bag to a better hiding spot and a foot & tootsies get in the way.... no surprise there. Just gets tougher to hike out in the morning with a gash and puncture wound and a huge loss of pride. But the kid has a ranking story for a lifetime.... "Uh so what.... I was mauled by a bear!" "Want to see the stitches?" :D

      Its very rare that a baby or child gets killed by a bear - it does happen - But I wonder about the parent's thinking prior to the attack & responsibility. How young is too young to expose kids to the great outdoors? Leave it to me to think outside the box. Who want's Coffee?
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

    • If Im in my tent I always hang. I don't want mice or other critters chewing a hole in my tent. If im under one of my tarps I hang or sleep with my food.

      Last spring three of us hiked the FHT. The last night at Sassafrass we didn't hang. In the morning mumbles had a hole in his tent and his food bag. Underoo had a hole in his tent. I had a tarp, so no hole. But I did hear them scurrying by me all night.

      If you ever go to Cumberland Island, be prepared to fight off the armadillos. Back country on the island I hang. If at Sea camp the picnic table goes on top of the cooler.

    • I consider hanging the same way as pooping. Different procedure for different areas. I had a friend a day ahead of me on PCT have his tent ripped open in the middle of the night going for his "pillow". I hang when I feel it is neccisary for the conditions. A bad hang is worse than sleeping with it. When bears get used to free food they will return. Bears are learning. Many of the lod standards don't work. In the Sierra I met a hiker that did it all right. Cooked away from where he stopped, camped in a unused site & hung his food properly. Woke up middle of the night to hear wood breaking. The bear learned they would be rewared for the fall by free food. We joked that in the future bears would learn to sharpen their claws to get into bear cannisters. I don't think it got that fr but there was a bear in the dacks that learned to open them.

      I try to stay aware of my surroundings & take the best precautions I can.