Cozie Hat Myth?

[David Walters]

I was browsing through the book Travel Light Eat Heavy and found a surprising commentary on never using the hat you insulate your dinner in as your night cap. The following is from the book page 29. Please clarify, I have always used just one hat.

“A word of caution: Declare your cooking hat a kitchen item only. Food will drip on it, and odors will permeate it, which are excellent attractants for fur-bearing quadrupeds.

If you need further encouragement, think about how difficult it would be to sleep while a bear chews on a hat that contains your head. To a somewhat lesser degree, inviting shelter mice, skunks, and racoons to snack on your hair at 3:00 am is equally entertaining for your shelter mates.

Keep your cooking hat with your food;don’t ever wear it; hang food bag at least 15′ off the ground – every night.”

Is this true or simply a disclaimer to keep them from being responsible from any such rare encounters?

[Anonymous]

Try it and let us know!

[John S.]

A cozy whether it be a hat or reflectix is a cooking item that will have food spilled/dropped on it. It would be dangerous to sleep with a food cozy on your head in bear country.

[Bob Gabbart]

What about putting the freezer bag with the water in an OP Sac before putting it in the Hat. That should take care of the smell/drip issue.

[Mike Storesund]

While the OP Sack is very good at keeping odor in place, it is not effective once contents ”contaminate” the outside. You can boil it clean again if needed. If eating out of the freezer bag, which can be messy, and you spill some on the outside of the OP Sack, you then defeat the purpose of the OP Sack.
As stated earlier, a cozy is a food / kitchen item and should be treated as such.

[David Walters]

Thanks everyone, I’ve decided to sew a small primaloft pouch to fit my freezer bag in. This should weigh in at less then 1 oz, insulate my food while it cooks, and prevent those crunchy noodles I dread.

[Author]

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