How much rope to bring for hanging food?

40 feet, but some advocate bringing a bit more.

I was always worried that 50 ft was too little and wanted to PCT the bag onto a really high branch.. so I carried 60 ft and it was always too much.

Until last time when the cord's end got all entangled in the trees and wouldn't come down anymore. I had to cut off the lower section which turned out to be a good 40 ft.. and proceed to bear bag it on a different tree with the 40 ft.

So there is about 20 ft of string hanging off a tree in the Delaware Water Gap now. Soon after, I noticed similar white string hanging from many many trees in the area..

Dont,
That's kinda funny. Though, lets hope that rope rots off quickly.

Brian, what kind of rope are you using?

Hanging food doesn't work. Have you ever been kept up all night by a bear trying to get your food that's hung over a branch? I have, back in the 80's, and it was no fun. Bear-proof containers are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Use a bear-proof container. If you don't like the weight and bulk of a Garcia, consider a half-size Bearikade or an Ursack. Where are you hiking?

I usually carry 50 feet. 40 would generally suffice but for the two-tree hang or the situation described above when one's lost a portion of theirs (or "borrowed" some for an extra shelter guy) that extra length is nice to have.

YMMV.

Rick

With all due respect, hanging food does work. Is it 100% foolproof? No, but nothing is. A proper bear hang can be remarkably effective.

If you've been kept up all night by a bear trying to get to your food, then the hang is too close to your camp.

Bear canisters are great, but bulky and heavy, and in many places, unneeded. An Ursack, IMO, won't be any different than a bear hang in terms of racket the bear is making trying to get at the food.

50ft

If you are using a counter balance method, you need 40 to 50
feet for the hang and an equal length of a superlight cord
for a retrieval line.

http://owareusa.com/food%20hang.html

I'd want to have the bear scheming for awhile with my hung food, a known distance from my tent, rather than have it play soccer all night long around the entire camp area.

I used a canister for the first time the past 2 nights, in Rocky Mt. Nat'l Park. The 2# 10 oz. large size Bear Vault would only fit in one of my packs–my Aether 60 (actually it was a perfect fit in the accessory Daylite day pack that clips onto the Aether…). So, I had to carry the heavier pack and day pack, instead of just taking my Jam 2 (which doubles as my day pack for hikes from camp). Net weight difference was 5# 9 oz. But since I had so much extra pack room (and so little self-discipline), I decided to take along some other stuff to play with, like a GL poncho tarp and guylines/stakes (15 oz.), extra food, a second stove that I wanted to play with, additional maps, etc. Turned out that I was carrying an extra 6 pounds for a 2-night trip, which bummed me.

I'd much rather just hang my food and therefore go lite. Your bears may vary.

Edit: I use 50' for Yellowstone and Glacier. I've found that trying to skimp in length of cord can come back to bite me (pole too high, or being forced to hang a long ways from the place where I had to tie it off).

In answer to the questions above:

I am going hiking in North Cascades NP.

What I have now is 25' of thin nylon rope from Fred Meyer. I am making a trip to REI tomarrow and because of the suggestions here I think I will pick up 50' of whatever they have that is light.

Specifically a black bear, whats the best course of action, try to scare it off or be quiet and hope it leaves?

Would trying to scare it off at night when they're hunting just draw it towards you? I certainly wouldn't want to keep quiet then surprise it, if it came snooping around camp after giving up on the bag.

50ft uhmwpe (amsteel blue 7/64th).

40ft is too little so many times late at night, and this rope is strong enough to serve most non-bear bagging needs in a pinch.

What David Olsen was referring to is what I've always called the Double Rope Method.

50 feet was always the standard length that parachute cord was sold in, so I generally took two 50-foot lengths. Once in a while you will run into a really high limb, and 60 feet might be necessary because of all of the angles and knots.

Most of the time I now operate in national parks where bear canisters are required. Last September I was on a trip outside the parks, and we did a double rope hang.

–B.G.–

"Specifically a black bear, whats the best course of action, try to scare it off or be quiet and hope it leaves?"

You already know that there is a huge difference between a black bear and a brown bear. Although it is possible to get hurt by a black bear, it is fairly rare. Yosemite black bears have quite a reputation for their intelligence and persistence. They will try all kinds of tricks to try to score the food.

Here is a story that I witnessed one time in Little Yosemite Valley. We were camped in the open not too far from a three-person team in a dome tent. They had no bear canister, and they had not bothered to hang their food, and the food bag was in their tent. The bear showed up right around dark, and it was sniffing around the tent fly. The three people were scared to death when they sensed the bear. They zipped open the door and ran outside to scare the bear off, yelling and screaming. The bear ran off, and the three people gave chase. When they were just slightly out of sight of the tent, bear number two showed up out of nowhere, ducked into the tent, and scored the food bag. The first bear was just the diversion, and (maybe) the two bears had planned it. I don't know. My buddy and I sat there watching the whole thing unfold in the dim light, and we were laughing when the threesome returned to their tent and found the food gone.

In general, black bears will know where you are before you know where it is. So, you can make noises all you want, but that will just help confirm to the bear that he has some live actors on his hands. If you throw enough rocks at a bear, he will sort of get the message, and then he will search nearby for easier pickings. If the bear is really hungry and if there is nobody else around, the persistent bear will keep bothering you all night long or until he scores the food, whichever comes first.

–B.G.–

I bring 60' of 4mm cord. Thinner cord is lighter and usually enough, but can slice into softer trees like fir and aspen.

Hanging food works. If it didn't, you did it wrong. And I echo Travis' comment about distance from your camp. IMO bear canisters are a crutch used by management to deal with the uninitiated, lazy, and idiotic. Not that I blame them (the NPS and NFS).

Consult the excellent article by Doc Sawchuck on this site. I've found his technique of using a small carabiner to pull the bag away from the tree and out into space invaluable when dealing with droopy, soft-limbed alpine spruce and the like.

40 feet has been about right for me.

I usually bring 50 to allow for greater flexibility when hanging or if I need a little rope to do/fix something.

acronym 6/11/2010 2:11 AM

How far away do you guys hang your food from your camp?

Ankar wrote: "Specifically a black bear, whats the best course of action, try to scare it off or be quiet and hope it leaves?"

If it's not habituated to people, and it hasn't already got some of your food, then yelling and banging on pots and pans may scare it off. If you encounter a bear, the chances are very high that it *is* habituated to people, and therefore it will probably not be easily scared off. My experience is that once a bear has gotten access to some portion of your food, nothing will deter it from finishing its meal.

Being quiet isn't going to help. The bear's senses of smell and hearing are very good. It knows you're there, and it probably knows where your food is, too, unless it's sealed in a really good odorproof sack.

I've only done a few nights in high black bear activity areas (NJ AT and Shenandoah, VA) but I've always religiously put everything into a large OPSACK (or OPSAK?) bag with the outside kept completely clean, closed the seal on the bag and put the bag in a stuff sack I carry and bear-bag that stuff sack.

I bear-bag it at about a 2 – 3 minute hike from my tent. So far, so good.. no evidence of a bear having tried to get my bag. I hope it's because I sealed in the vapors so good with the OPSAK.

+2 on the OPSAK. Yeah, they have some long-term durability issues, but for the added protection, it's worth it.

I try to bag my food at least several hundred yards away from camp. Basically I want it far enough away that if a bear wanders into the area and senses my food, I'm far enough away where he's not going to make the correlation that I put it there! I have no clue if that's even a scientifically sound reason, but hey, why not?

The conventional wisdom is different between brown bears and black bears. For a brownie, you want to hang your food away from camp. You figure that the bear will find the food by smell, but you don't want it to find you from there. For a blackie, you do want to hang your food close to your tent. Small black bears can climb trees very well, so when they get on the tree, it is only a matter of time before they have chewed or clawed the rope. So, you want to be able to hear the claws on tree bark and be able to get up and defend the food by throwing rocks at the bear. If you throw enough, the bear will give up and run. If the tree is far enough away that the bear can work on the tree and you don't hear it, the bear is likely to score the food.

–B.G.–

I'd like to know if any of you have had a bear get into one of those steel mesh rodent-proof bags (with maybe the food in an OP Sack, and hung up high). Any experiences of security breach? I'm wondering if a bear's teeth are too dull to actually bite through the mesh. I was one of the testers for Outsak last fall, and the bag was secure, though somewhat mangled, for critters like raccoons, skunks, and birds. But what about a bear?

I would bet on the bear.

–B.G.–

Please elaborate, Bob.