I know this really isn't a gear question per se, but I am wondering what people have found works best for them in regards to hanging their food packs. I have only taken 4 trips into the BWCA, and the chore of hanging the pack is always a frustrating task. From locating the appropriate trees,to throwing the rope over the branches...there has got to be a better way than what I am currently doing. Any suggestions to making this process more painless? Thanks!

Here is what I do.

For my trips I take a bear barrel lined with plastic and just hide it in the woods under a fallen tree, inside of a pile of rocks etc. At the beginning of the trip I sometimes have some food that will not fit in the barrel so it gets hung. What gets hung then is the packages of food (freeze dried, vac packed etc.) that have little odor to them. This make or a very light pack to hang and is easy to find a branch for. It does require you to purchase a bear barrel (I use a Garcia Bear barrel) but it works for me.

I also see people using pulleys-I have not tried this, but I have seen people do this and it makes hanging the pack very easy-once you find the tree. Finding the tree should always be done early in the day when you have light and energy. I do not always follow my own advice btw. The trip I just got back from we found the tree to hang the excess food that did not fit in the barrel in the dark. A tough job made tougher.

What I did last year was to take two ropes throw each over a tree limb twenty to thirty feet high with the trees being twenty to thirty feet apart, Connect the two rope with a carabiner and run another rope through the carabiner. Stretch the two ropes (it helps if the two main ropes do not stretch much) as tight as possible and tie them off. Before you stretch them run another rope through the carabiner... Then you can lift your food pack as high as you want minimum around 10 ft. and it be at least 10 ft. from the nearest tree. Worked well... This year however, I am taking a barrel, first year I went the guys I went in with... never hung anything... just closed up the packs and left them siting in camp, and we never had any problems... so you never know!! But it is better to be safe than sorry... and hungry!!
Bruce

The method of choice for us has been two ropes and a couple of light weight aluminum pulleys (got mine at REI) that weigh just a couple of ounces. We use climbing rope because of its low stretch, the larger diameter is easier on the hands when lifting heavy two week food packs. Of course the down side is the extra weight you carry,but the system works very well.We throw the main rope up between two trees and attach a pulley and the pull rope before pulling the main line taught. Another pulley is attached to the base of a tree with a short piece of rope to further decrease the pull effort. One guy can easily pull up a 80 pound pack as high as you can throw the main line. The other bonus in my mind is that we do not leave rope burns on the trees. Those that just throw a single rope over a branch and pull are working way harder than needed as well as creating friction wear / burns to the branch they are pulling the rope over.
Then there are those nights when fatigue or laziness find us just closing up the packs, placeing them under the canoe and listening for noise. Fortunately we have never had bear issues. It is my belief that keeping a clean camp goes a very long way towards keeping critters out of your stuff.

We also use a pully system similar to the one mentioned above. They really help.... In fact I'm under the belief that if we could incorporate a few more pullies, the bag could pull itself up.

Hex

To be honest, I have been going to the BWCA for the last 10 or so years and have never hung the food pack. I have been in very far, away from commonly traveled lakes and haven't had any problems. I would reccommend hanging the pack for sure. But we use some good packs that have plastic seals on them to keep the smell in from unwanted guests.

I have taken trips with others and have seen them hanging their food packs. From what I have seen, the pully system seams to work pretty well. Someone has already described the system pretty well, so no need to do it over again. I do agree with keeping a clean camp will keep most unwanted guests away. Just making sure that after cleaning the fish the scraps and fish remains are tossed on a rock away from camp for the gulls. Making sure there is no open food packages or anything the will attract guests are shut.

Well, I guess that putting fish remains on a rock for the gulls is no longer the way to do it up there.

After reading some new rules and polocies, you are supposed to dig a small hole, put the remains of the fish in the hole and burry it about 150 ft away from the camp site.

I didn't know this was added or changed, sorry for saying to put the remains on a rock for the gulls. Ooops.

Have fun and be safe!

As my dad would put it, "I aint paddling you outa here unless you are missing a limb!"

"Shut up and paddle!" We have all said this at one time or another.

I believe the reason they no longer advocate putting the fish remains on the rocks is that the gulls that come down to get them are also attacking and killing baby loons.

Heres what I do and I learned this trick from an old timer and sounds crazy but it's sure easier than hanging a heavy food pack.

What this old timer would do is stick all the food stuff in a canoe and anchor it off the shore about 100 feet or so. When he was in a camping party with more than one canoe that is.

What I do when by myself is anchor my dry bag, sealed up tight, but only do this if your sure it won't leak. It's crazy and maybe not such a great idea in stormy weather but it works great.

It's worth a try, I trust it.

JON

In the last 20 years of going to Quetico and BWCA we have never hung our food pack. To us that seemed like sending a smoke signal through the air having the pack up in the breeze. We have always rolled the food pack up tight in a tarp and wedged it between rocks or trees. We have never had a problem doing this. The only problem I ever had was the first time I went to Quetico the group I went with hung the packs and mice went across the ropes and went into the packs.

I agree with not hanging the pack. Of course to be 100% safe you'd want to do it. But sealing the food air tight in the bag would do just fine. I used two big thick trash bags and tied them real tight last week and that worked fine. I was planning on haning the pack but there are just some campsites that don't have good trees. The trick is to put it in a spot away from camp that is not obvious to the bears such as a low area or in some rocks as already mentioned. Bears aren't stupid. They know where heavily used campsites are and where the bags are hung from. So try and pick sites that aren't used as much and just make sure it is smell proof and away from the obvious spot.

We use a pulley on the anchored rope as well. The only wrinkle I wanted to add was that we usually wrap the pull rope (attached to the food bag through the pulley) around a largish tree branch. That way it is way easier on the hands and it also makes it easier for two people to pull the rope at the same time.

The only thing to remember is to put the loop you are going to tie off with between the stick and the pulley. Otherwise letting go of the stick gets a bit dicey.

Don't know if you've seen this or not but this has worked for me and many others at QJ: http://www.quietjourney.com/trip2_quetico/hang00819-.html

I used to always carry a pulley & rope to hang the food pack. Last year I purchased a blue food barrel. I have used it on 3 of my trips so far this year & love it. Keeps food clean, dry, odorless & organized. I also keep my water filter, stove & cook set in the barrel, this protects them from any damage that may occur if a pack is dropped. At night I just place the barrel some place that it can not be rolled into the water.

WW

Do you have suggestions on dealers for the blue barrels? Google is failing me.

Has anybody actually rated/tested the barrels? I've been looking at gear like the bear vault and it's a fair bit of money for not a lot of space compared to the big blues...makes me wonder about durability.

Piragis is one place to get the blue barrels. I'm sure some other outfitters have them for sale as well.

The blue barrels are only bear RESISTANT. The smaller ones like the bear vault and the Garcia barrel are bear PROOF. I think it's the bear vault website that actually shows test data for their barrels.

Try U.S. Plastics. Way cheaper than any other place. Sometimes 20-50 dollars cheaper. Just google their website.