Bear bagging and rain.. (drawcord bags)

I've always used an OPSAK along with my silnylon bear bags. Its one more layer of protection from those nosy bears and from moisture that finds its way into the stuff sack.

First of all, many heavyweight stuff sacks have a webbing strap across the end opposite the opening. If you have one of those, then attach the rope to the strap. That way, the bag hangs with the opening at the bottom.

If your stuff sack has no webbing strap across one end, then consider sewing one on.

Otherwise, assuming that the stuff sack opening is on top, it doesn't take much of a piece of plastic to cover that opening from the outside. A plastic produce bag should do it. Alternatively, you can put it on the inside of the stuff sack.

Besides, don't worry too much about food getting wet. Just think of that as rehydrating it early.

On the other hand, I was on a trip one time when six pounds of oatmeal got rain soaked. By the time it was discovered, it had all turned green and purple.

–B.G.–

I made my own food bag, and I sewed a small grosgrain loop to the bottom seam to hang it by. The bag is silnylon and seam sealed.

You could also put everything in an Opsack, which would be a good idea anyway to keep the food odors from attracting potential raiders.

You could use a liner bag. Either a basic kitchen trashcan liner if nothing has sharp edges or a trash-compactor bag which is much sturdier. Just give it two twists and it will shed the rain. It would have the added advantage of cutting down on food odor from your bag. In campsites with multiple hanging bags, in three instances, I've seen the black bear go for the pack/bag with the salami in it.

My food bag's drawcord is pretty long so I pinch the top of the bag, wrap the drawcord around it several times, and then tuck the drawcord under itself like this:

It's probably not 100% waterproof, but it worked well enough this past weekend during a light overnight rain – I had some napkins in the bottom that remained completely dry.

I'm another that uses an OPSAK inside a stuff sack.

I'm curious why some of your apparently dry food was not packaged into ziplocs.

Here's a related question: what do people do with your soaking wet food bag when you go to pack it up in the morning? On my last trip I ended up putting the food bag at the bottom of my pack and then put in my trash compactor bag with everything else on top. But that made the pack ride funny, with a heavy and lumpy weight on the bottom. Any better ideas?

Well I hike the AT in the east and just sleep with my bag in my tent so I do not have any practice hanging my food but I was wondering why not use a dry bag, maybe one of the cuben dry bags like from ZPacks and others. Water proof and the closure strap would be a great attachment point.

Jason,

I 2nd and use David's idea of an inner plastic bag.

I also use an uncoated nylon hang sack. Water just runs through it and around the inner plastic bag and out the bottom.

I use the same set-up with my backpack, which is made of uncoated fabric.

A waterproof hang sack or pack runs the risk of water finding a way in but not a way out. This leaves the contents sitting in a puddle of water.

Daryl

My old MYOG bear bag was long, and to deal with rain as well as limit smells, I would twist then double over the neck of the bag, and tie it off with the drawstring.
This made a nice loop out of the neck, which is where I tied off the hanging cord. Rain never entered the bag with this setup.

Sorry no pics from those old days, but it was very close to John's photo above.

> Here's a related question: what do people do with your soaking wet food bag when you go to pack it up in the morning?

Scott, just throw it in your pack like you always do. What does it matter if some of your stuff gets damp? The stuff that needs to stay dry should be in a liner. No different than if you get rained on – some water will get in your pack eventually.

First, everything in my food bag either comes in a waterproof wrapper (granola bars, whatever) or is in a ziplock, so if the bag gets a little water in it, no big deal. Second, I cinch the cinch cord around the neck of the bag like John H above. The bag may get wet, but water doesn't get "in" the bag.

Over the years I have used quite a variety of food hang set-ups. I am happy with the Sea2Summit Ultra-Sil Dry Bags that I now use. My food, cook kit & anything else I hang always stay dry. These bags are fairly light, durable, come in many sizes & colors, the side release buckle closure allows for easy attachment/detachment to the hang cord, & if the outside gets wet, empty it, give it a few shakes & it is dry enough to pack.

I did use a silnylon top closure stuff sack and stuff sometimes got damp. I much prefer the cuben dry sac that i use now – always dry and easier to attach to the bear bag line quickly.

cuben is light so thats good

But if the top isnt waterproof, the bottom shouldnt be either.

I know this may be blasphemy but I've just adopted carrying a canister full-time.

I used to carry just a bear bag, with an inner garbage bag to protect it froms smells/water. Unless a camp site has cables for bear hanging it is always a PIA to hunt around for suitbable trees. If you are at altitude it is often impossilbe to find good trees around here. The Olympic National Park HIGHLY encourages their use and I've just come to accept it. Even when I journey somewhere where they are not needed I find myself in the habit.

It is my camp stool, gives much quicker access to my food when I want it, allows me to have more flexibility in choosing a camp site and overall just simplifies my life at a time of the day when all I want is food, coffee and rest. It is rodent proof, water proof and bear proof. Worth the weight.

Taking a canister is not so bad. An Ursack is a good compromise where allowed, no ropes involved for hanging. Just tie it off and you are done.

I'm picking up a Bearikade this year.

If you are going to hang I would +1 on the Sea 2 Summit sil dry bags. Easy and light.

Raccoons here are worse than the bears. And the deer…don't get me started.

To avoid the rain / material wear/stretch issues, a long time ago I started using a sort of webbing made out of nylon cord, 4 horizontal cords and 2 vertical, knotted together, to form a cylinder with a cord lock on top and a knot connecting all the horizontal cords that you use to hang it from.

Stick the bear bag in that upside down, cynch down on the cord lock to get rid of loose material, no stretch on the seams to leak since the bag itself holds no weight, no hole on the top to leak.

I used regular flat nylon cord on mine, nothing light, and it still only weighed 1/2 oz, if I remade it with zpacks or lawson dyneema core cord, it would only weigh a few grams. Using a bottom grossgrain strap seems like it would create stretch in the seam holes, that was my thinking anyway which is why I decided to avoid that method and just take all the stress off the bag.

This also lets you make a superlight food bag, even cuben, since the bag itself doesn't have to deal with any hanging stresses, all it has to do is hold the food in your backpack and inside the cord net.

I also like the ideas of a longer stuff sack and tying the cord around the neck to seal it, that's pretty clean too.

Harald, can you post a pic? That sounds like a really clever solution.