Storing Food for Large Groups was mentioned in a recent mailing. I don’t see an associated article or discussion about it.
I found the decision to use 18 Ursacks curious.
Assuming these were all UrSack Major’s because you were in bear country:
18 UrSack Majors weighs 8.55 pounds and would cost $640.00.
For large groups, I’ve seen NOLS groups use a portable electrified fence. They put their food in a pile, and put the fence around it, and leave it for the night. I don’t know what make or model of electrified fence they use. A company called UDAP.com sells several models. This appears to be the lower end version, which creates a fence 25 feet on each side and runs on 2 D-cell batteries for 5 weeks. It cost 3.7 pounds with batteries and cost $270.00
Compared to the electric fence, it would seem to me that the UrSack option scales poorly to large groups. This does not address smaller critters. I don’t know what NOLS does to protect their food from those when using the electric fence.
