How to store pack at night?

[Ken Chida]

I tried my best to search, but the effort was fruitless. So….how do you folks store your packs at night? I hang my empty pack on a tree about 5ft off the ground with all compartments open. I sleep in a bivy, so bringing the pack inside is not an option. I'd like to put my pack in a trash bag and hang the whole thing, but that might make it look too much like food. What do you guys do?

[Acronym Esq]

I use my pack as the last 1/3 of my sleeping mat. It provides a little insulation b/t the ground and my legs/feet and elevates my legs/feet slightly. This also keeps it close in case I need anything out of it (rain jacket, knife, first aid kit, etc.)

acronym 9/11/2009 1:54 AM

[Mary D]

My pack is my pillow, which is even handier if I need something during the night (although whatever I want always seems to be at the very bottom of the pack!). Of course food and smellables go into my Ursack before bedtime. My dog's pack (with dog food also transferred to the Ursack) goes into a plastic garbage bag (to keep it dry) and is stored just outside the tent door. The plastic bag is not necessary if the vestibule is closed, but I like to keep it open as much as possible.

[Jason Klass]

I use a 3/4 length pad so I also use my pack as insulation under my legs and feet.

[Mark Verber]

These days my pack is typically the lower 1/4 of my sleeping pad. In the past it has been set up against a a nearby tree once it was emptied of smelly thing (garbage bag covered in the case of rain) or been my bear bag and suspended from a tree. The only time I have had problems with animals bothering the pack was when I accidently left food in the pack (an apple was left in the bottom). This resulted in a night time tug of war between myself and a raccoon who was trying to pull it out of our pyramid tarp which was closed up at the time.

–mark

[Jim MacDiarmid]

I also used my pack as leg insulation, even when I sleep in a bivy. The bivy keeps it from moving around too much. I keep all my clothes, etc in my pack liner, which I suppose I could tie off and hang if I had to.

[Elliott Wolin]

I too use my pack at the bottom of my 3/4 length pad.

But on my last trip my pack got soaked and I didn't want to put my feet and quilt on it. Fortunately we were in an ADK lean-to that night so I put my (still dry) tarp over the pack and under my feet. But had I set up the tarp about all I would have had that was dry were some socks and maybe a thermal shirt. Maybe I should bring a small square of plastic sheeting?

[Terry G]

below my feet, without food, with the exception of a little coffee in a aloksak to get me going in the AM.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

…wadded up and out of the way mostly. If I let my feet near it, I'll end up resetting my watch and getting water all over the place.

[Diplomatic Mike]

My pack is usually empty, apart from food, when i'm sleeping, so there isn't much i can do with it. If there are any food-munchers about, i hang it off the floor someplace.

Not ouside, as it will usually get soaked!

[Thomas Burns]

Most packs make good sleeping-pad extenders. Just shove it to the foot of your bivy.

My go-to pack now is a Fanatic Fringe Alpine Trail, which at only 6 oz doesn't provide a lot of insulation. It's also so slippery that it won't adhere well to the floor of the Tarptent.

Thus, I shove it empty into my sleeping bag stuffsack to perform pillow duty.

Stargazer

[Ken Chida]

Awesome, thanks! We seem to have a strong consensus on this subject. I always worry that my pack would have food residue and/or other misc. odors that attract bears. Inevitably, we all get fragrant things like sunblock on our packs, but I suppose it's not enough to cause concern.

I suppose I'll need to store my cleaned cookware outside of my pack. I figure that my mostly-clean pot may attract animals, but would offer little positive reinforcement for them to forage around human campsites. I'm guessing that we all don't stuff our pots and pans into our tiny bear canisters, right? Even better, I'm sure many of you just boil water in your pots and eat out of a ziploc bag, which easily fits into a canister.

[James Patsalides]

My pack is my pillow, I empty it out every night and roll it up. All smellables (including my stove and kettle) go into an OPSAC up a tree (PCT method or whatever). Only other loose items are mini flashlight (clipped to my sunglasses hanging the peack of my tarp, bear spray (if used) in one of my sneakers next to my bag, and a water bottle… this way I can move in and out from under the tarp if it starts raining or clears up again!

[Jim MacDiarmid]

I suppose I'll need to store my cleaned cookware outside of my pack.

Placed on top of your bear cannister
(which of course would be at it's proper distance from your campsite), empty pots and pans makes a nice alarm system.

I believe it was the estimable Mike C! who said that unless you're using your pack as a cutting board during meal preparation, and as a dish rag/pot scrubber after, food/other scent shouldn't be an issue as far as bears go.

[Denis Hazlewood]

If you carry a LuxuryLight you may keep the cylinders in the tent, or bivy. The frame usuallly stays outside.

LuxuryLight Cylinders in my ID Bivy, with plenty of room left over for me.

[Keith Selbo]

I sleep in a Hennessy Hammocks Hyperlight Backpacker. The pack, which is virtually empty except maybe for my trowel, map and possibly water filter, hangs from one end. It is barely sheltered by the tarp so I wrap my poncho around it if rain is forecast.

[Peter Sustr]

I will also put my vote in to use it as the second 1/2 of your pad for your legs in your bivy. I put mine straps down and opening facing towards me. I put anything extra in my food bag, compass, sparker, etc. and hang that.

[Jared Cook]

If it's cold out I use it under my legs, otherwise it lays under my tarp right next to me. If I'm in a bivy and didn't setup the tarp… Same principle, if it's cool out and I need the insulation it goes under my feet otherwise it lays next to me, a rock or a log.

[josh wagner]

i just simply stand mine up at the base of one of the trees my hammock is attached to. if i think it's going to rain i lay it down underneath the center of my hammock

[Denis Hazlewood]

When placing the pack beneath your hammock, do you orientate the pack with the top toward your head, or feet? And, how do you keep from stepping on the pack when getting in and out of the hammock?

Just curious, I've never known anyone who uses a hammock

[josh wagner]

really on which way it's raining. i'll put it towards the side facing away from the rain. it's not that hard to step around it when getting in and out of my hammock. i try to KISS when i'm hiking

[Lori P]

"When placing the pack beneath your hammock, do you orientate the pack with the top toward your head, or feet? And, how do you keep from stepping on the pack when getting in and out of the hammock?"

I've put the pack under the hammock – there's a lot more room under a hammock than there is in a tent. My larger (10×12, four tie outs per side) tarp staked down to the ground gives me enough room for 4-5 people if they slept on the ground. You don't really step on anything you don't want to step on.

These days, hiking where marmots and mice are invasive, I generally hang the pack from one end or the other of the hammock with the pack cover over it. On the JMT, where the bears know what packs are and drag them off whether they smell like food or not, I slept with it in the hammock – was a little paranoid of having the whole hammock shaking if a bear tried to yank it off the suspension. Especially after finding a tooth mark in my little tackle box – they seem to test everything.

I've camped a lot with folks with tents and bivies. They've evolved – they tend to drape packs over bushes and hang them in trees now, when they don't have room inside for them. One guy managed to carry a mouse in his pack for a few miles before stopping to get water and watching the mouse jump out and run away – he'd stored the empty pack in the vestibule of his tent.

[Justin Chaussee]

I have always just stored my pack in my tent. I sometimes use it as a pillow, but I normally use a wadded up fleese or something like that. My food is stored seperately.

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