Are Bear Hangs Obsolete?

A recent blog post by noted outdoorsman and backpacker Andrew Skurka has the online ultralight hiking community rustled. It’s a great read, and I largely agree with it, so check it out HERE.

I had personally already bailed on the whole hanging of a bear bag thing. I had watched videos on how to do the PCT method hang and practiced it in the woods, and even employed it on trips a couple of times. I found it really frustrating.

It takes time and energy, which are two things I don’t have a willingness to part with after a long day of hiking in the mountains. I want to set up camp, get water, cook food, eat and go to bed, which is enough work in itself. I did NOT enjoy spending time to find an appropriate tree limb- often surprisingly difficult- a throw rock and an appropriate stick. I also did not enjoy having my shoulder with the re-torn rotator cuff have to toss the rockbag over said limb. And I did not like returning to the bag several times to get something out that I’d forgotten, or to return something like garbage to it. Futz city.

For the last couple of years, depending upon local conditions, I either sleep with my food, do a rodent hang, or carry a bear canister. Or even better, I use bearproof storage containers at campsites if they are available.

Skurka appears to feel pretty much the same way, but he arrives to this conclusion differently- his beef is that almost everyone does an inadequate bear hang. And from what I’ve seen out there, he’s right. And a bad bear hang is almost an invitation to an enterprising bear. Imagine, a bag full of food 15 or so feet up in the air with its aromas wafting all through the woods. That’s pretty similar to how hunters employ bear bait.

In frequently trafficked areas, sooner or later one or more local bears is going to make the connection that this campsite often has food. And once they’re familiar with that fact AND not afraid of the people near the food, they will find a way.

I often do section hikes on the AT and typically stay in shelters. As most of us know, the shelters are the domain of minibears- mice. They are a bigger threat to your food than a bear. And that’s why you often see rodent hangs in shelters. I typically do this as well, unless I have beta that there is problem bear activity on the stretch I’m hiking. If that’s the case, I suck it up and use a bear canister.

I have a Wild Ideas Blazer, which is pretty big and designed to hold at least a week’s worth of food. I’ve used it on the AT and on the Florida Trail, and on the latter hike a bear moved it on two different nights but was unable to access my food.

If I’m backpacking somewhere without problem bears or any thieving vermin like Mus musculus, I keep my food in something like an HMG pod or SWD Lunch Box and sleep with it. This keeps it safe from any random rodents, raccoons and the like. If I’m somewhere without problem bears but minibears are a known problem (i.e. known to chew through tents to get to food) I use an Ursack Minor, which weighs less than 5 oz.

Long ago I had a mouse get into some of my food. It ate maybe an ounce of the food but then shat a thousand mouse pellets all over the rest, thus ruining everything.

So anyway, I’m done with bear hangs, and Skurka’s article provides a great case for all of us doing likewise. Perhaps this will catalyze the implementation of bearproof food storage at busy campsites and shelters everywhere. It can be done, as my recent Pictured Hikes hike proved (props to the National Parks Service for that btw). Certainly I think they could be provided at all AT shelters. It’s not only good for us, but it’s good for the bears, because once a bear gets its grubby paws of some people food, it’s probably going to end up a dead bear because it’s behavior is going to get worse and worse.

I certainly don’t want to have to chase a bear away from my food. After my one sphincter-puckering encounter with a bluff-charging bear on the FT, LOL nope to that.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents. It’s worth….about 2 cents. But read the Skurka article and see what you think. Remember, he does most of his hiking in bear country.