I know that you are supposed to hang your food off of a tree branch but what is a good thing to put the food in? Do they make waterproof bags for food to hang in the tree? Or is there a good way to improvise a waterproof food holding sack?

I use a heavy weight / rubberized roll top water proof bag for our food items. Can not give you a size but that of course depends on your group size. Bought it at Wal- Mart for $10 - $15. I feel the biggest thing is to keep the oders down and clean camp. Helps keep food dry even if we were to capsize. I put this bag in a Sea bag for portaging. Todd

Just use a good grade trash bag or better yet trash compactor bags to line your pack. The compactor bags are tough. You use the duluth pack to hang the food, or backpack if you use them, lined.

Bearskibob -

There are quite a few ways to safely carry your food. Cliff Jacobsen suggests distribution of the food equally to everyone's pack, an idea I'm not too keen on, since doing this makes every pack smell like food.

The newest way is to pack the food into a plastic barrel, which eliminates the need to hang it at all. Common practice is to place this barrel away from the camp in the woods, locked to a tree..

My traditional method has been to use a cardboard banana box, with a contractor grade plastic bag liner, placed into a 3.5 duluth style pack - usually with a piece of closed cell foam riding against your back. This rig is then hung from an accomodating tree. (BTW, it's surprising how few such trees there are sometimes.) This pack is probably 6-8' off the ground at the water's edge, and well away from any trees. I use the two pulley bear confounder hanging rig.

If all your food is freeze-dried you have nothing to worry about!

Same or similar to the others. Our food (and garbage) gets sealed in ziplocks, then organized into bigger ziplocks. Then split up among the group members, and put into the rolltop drybags. At camp, the drybags come out of the packs and get hauled up into the trees (more to keep it away from the mini-bears than anything else).

That way we're protected as much as possible from scent, loss due to capsize, accident, etc.

There are a lot of right ways. If you are going to hang your pack be sure to not only hang it high enough but also far enough away from the trunk of the tree and low enough from the branch. Bears will climb and stretch for it. I think 6 feet away from the tree and below the branch is recommended.

Any pack will work for you. As mentioned, you should use a pack liner. Two contractor garbage bags doubled up is good. Roll it shut. Additionally use ziplock bags for the food unless it is the freeze dried stuff that is already in waterproof packaging.

As of yet I have never hung my pack in any serious way. On solo trips I will clip my roll top food bag to a tree branch, but never anything elaborate.

I will say that I am religious about a clean camp and making sure that all food is double sealed both when it is eaten and for the grabage that gets put in the main garbage bag. I know this wouldn't discourage a bear, but I have never traveled in areas where there were regular bear sightings.

In the next couple of years we plan on heading out to some new areas of the BWCA and when I do that I will most likely go to a bear vault system. I think they make more sense for the pesky black bears in the BWCA.

I still say the best thing you can do for yourself is to keep a very clean camp, even if it means you clean up after others.

I am old school. I use canvas Duluth bags, and they can be a pain to rummage through if not lined with a box. So, I line the Duluth bag with a heavy duty plastic "contractors clean-up bag". Inside the plastic bag I use a cardboard box to help hold the shape of the Duluth bag.

Often the hard part is finding a suitable tree. Camps with cedar provide no solid "bear branches", so I use the suspension rig described by Beemer. Sites with mature white pines (or are they red?) have ideal bear branches, and there a single line heaved way up does the trick (as long as you also pull the pack away from the trunk with a second line)

I took the picture below at Sawbill Outfitters last July. It was right outside their store so must be used for demonstrative purposes.

We put trash in ziplock bags, those in garbage bags, and then all sealed in a Seal Line drybags. Those Drybags are great for food; airtight, waterproof, and resistant to heat. And easy to hang, especially with a carabiner.

I take my food in Bear Vaults and just set them in the woods. They are rain proof (I've verified that many times). They are not immersion proof so I line the pack I carry them in (a GG Quetico) with a 6mil plastic liner.

merganser-i too use a bear vault. i'm sure your system works well. what i have done is buy "large" oversized Ziploc bags. they fit in the bear vault perfectly! zip em shut and i think it helps cut down on odors and makes them immersion proof. and when, not if, something spills in the bag the mess is contained.

tg

Sounds like a good idea. I might have to give this a try. I don't worry about that much about odors because almost all my food is dry (I vacuum seal most of it myself) and I trust the BV to protect it. That said there are aways a few item's that don't fit that criteria.

The mess containment feature is undeniable. I had a peanut butter tube with a loose cap one time and the oil separated and leaked all over. What a mess. I pack those in separate bags after that.

I use Claymore's. One does have to be careful around camp though... no stumbling around in the dark!

foolproof until the batteries die

I vacuum pack most of my meals. I put them in a mesh bag and sink them. Never had a problem.

Throw your food in a bear vault, fling it in the woods, your done.

Bearikade, Ursack, and rest in dry bag hung from tree. Everything sorted in gallon resealable bags with a few days food each.

Do otters eat human food? I'd hate to sink food and find out those fish stealing buggers ate me out of house and home.

Kanoes, that tactic is likely to backfire on a midnight trip to the latrine. YYYEEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!

Looked at the price of those "Bearikades" on the other thread and IMHO that price is rediculous! If I was camping in Grizzly country I might "Spring" for it, but I've always just hung my pack (usually a #4 Duluth Pack with a Rubbermade box inside). Then, I throw an old nylon backpack cover over it. WW