OPSAK vs. food hanging

Depends on where you are. In areas that require bear canisters I do not believe you could get away with this as it is not an approved method. In areas where you are supposed to hang, I do not believe this would fly either.

When I hang my food, i'm mostly worried about mice. Bear/other predator encounters are fairly rare, but mice are little bastards. Even if it were dangling from a tree right in camp with me, or from my hammocks suspension when hammock camping, I wouldn't leave my food on the ground where a mouse can chance upon it and chew a way into all the food.

I think it depends on where you are and your risk tolerance for losing your food. In some places I have set an Opsack on a branch instead of hanging, but there wasn't much risk (last night, close to trailhead anyway).

I have read of SUL people who just use an opsack, Andrew Skurka did Alaska with an Opsack of food in his tent.

When hanging does anyone put there Opsack of food in one of their stuff sacks (sleeping bag, shelter) or do you use a dedicated bag for hanging?

Just remember this:
You MUST keep the outside of the bag scent free. If you get food scent all over it via your hands and an animal does come the bag is useless. The reason why an Ursack works is it is animal resistant – hence it can be left on the ground tied off.

We will just use the OPSAK inside of a silnylon bag here in the winter when the bears are asleep. Rest of the year they go inside the URSACK and tied off to a tree.

I have had two experiences using OPSAKs where they seem to have worked.

The first was in an area with no bears, I just left my OPSAK lying on the ground and in the morning was talking to the couple that was camped next to me, who said racoons took most of their food that night. My OPSAK wasn't touched. We were maybe 50 yards apart.

The second one I had my food in an OPSAK and hung it in a tree with my hiking partners' sil stuffsack. A squirrel chewed into their sil stuffsack and didn't touch my OPSAK.

I usually hang mine in a stuffsack using the PCT method. Has worked for me so far.

Lately I've been using both. Last summer I had a eureka moment where I realized how great it would be if I kept my breakfast in the shelter with me in an OPSAK. This has been so great on rainy mornings. I no longer have to get all my rain gear on, retrieve the bear bag, get back in the tent and take my rain gear off, and then enjoy breakfast with drips of water all in my tent. Instead I just reach out of my sleeping bag and light my alcohol stove in the vestibule since the food is right there. While the water is reaching a boil I pack up my stuff and then the water is boiling and I have coffee and oatmeal. By this point I'm fed, awake, packed up and ready to face the rain.

Dan, if you are in the Whistler area, aren't there bears around?

I would think that a bear might invite itself into your shelter for a midnight snack.

–B.G.–

I also hang a bag with food/trash in separate opsaks. Does this make me ultra paranoid?

+1 on both. No way I would leave it on the ground— you just packaged it for transport otherwise! Keeping your bear bag odor free is a challenge and an OP sack on the ground is available for inspection by the night crew. If it is up a tree, they have to work to find it and you have minimalized any effect of odors from handling.

If you don't bag/hang the trash, you just have a beacon to your camp and if you don't OP sack it all, you wasted the OP sack for the food. Critters are all nose, especially nocturnal ones.

Think of transferring odors as you might bacteria. You handle the food or trash and then the OP sack, transferring odors. You would need to glove up, handle the food with one hand and the sack with the other, then stash the "dirty" glove with the food/trash. It could be done, but good luck. Your bear bag is in the pack with all your other stuff, picking up body odors, laundry scent, etc, etc. I think you can work on minimalizing odors, but IMHO, completely eliminating them is a laboratory operation. Do the best you can.

I'll bet that habituated animals are as tuned to the smell of our bodies as much as food— they know there is food where there are stinky boots. That's another reason to hang stuff away from camp.

An old-timer's trick was to hang something smelly (like old bacon) a good distance from camp and the opposite direction from your food, keeping the critters busy all night on the bait, not your food and gear. I like the cleverness.

Yup. Both. In bear country especially, I just don't take chances.

"Dan, if you are in the Whistler area, aren't there bears around?

I would think that a bear might invite itself into your shelter for a midnight snack."

Yup there's lot of black bears around. The idea with the breakfast in the OPSAK is that the bear can't smell it and thus won't invite himself in. If that fails…well at least I'm not sleeping with something delicious like bacon. Sleeping with your food worked for Skurka in 4500 miles of grizzly country last summer on his AK loop. He just slept with all his food in an OPSAK. I'm just sleeping with 2 pouches of oatmeal and a starbucks via. The rest of it is hanging.

Sleeping with odorous food on the ground in grizzly country is putting a LOT of faith in a plastic bag. No thanks! What do you do if you're in grizzly country and the seal goes bad or there is food residue on the exterior, if you know it or not?

If a bear wants the food you have it can take it from you by force and some bears know this. By keeping the food with you in camp, you're risking your own safety, the imminent destruction of the tent you're inside of, possibly your sleeping bag, pack, along with the food that will definitely get eaten.

If the food is hanging from a tree somewhere it's possible that you could lose it to an animal but that would be the only item lost vs a bear tearing ass through your campsite!

Hiking for days with no food would suck but is better then hiking for days with no food AND damaged/destroyed gear, or even injuries.

Edit: and also wanted to add that if you're mauled by a bear because it wanted the food you had with you, they will probably kill that bear. So the bears safety is also at risk here.