Backpack hunt food storage

[Ron.C]

I still go with a dry sack thrown over the best branch I can find. Failing to find a suitable tree I just simply get it away from camp and store it anyway I can in the dry sack.

I figure IF my food is attracting predators I would rather them be attracted somewhere other than my tent. In reality dehydrated food probably doesn't even attract anything but the confidence that it's a safe distance away helps me sleep better.

Chris

Same as we do

[grantk]

Good info guys, thanks! I think I'm with wos on this one... my sleeping bag, shelter, and un-mauled legs to get off the mountain are my lifeline. There's probably a good chance of nothing ever happening sleeping with my food, but I'd personally just rather not take the risk.

[eatram]

I usually keep all of the food in a garbage bag outside of my tent, on my partner's side...

[HarryToolips]

I keep my food away from camp, helps me sleep a bit better....

[RiverOtter]

Interesting. I honestly thought there'd be more guys guarding their food a bit closer. Especially considering that backpack hunts, at least to me, mean freeze dried and packaged foods, which means greatly reduced scent.

Being that the OP stated interior alpine hunts, I'm going to assume we're talking 2-4 nights, as opposed to a 12-14 day sheep hunt where losing your food after getting dropped off is a pretty big deal.

At any rate, it don't much matter to me how other folks go about looking after their grub, just find the different approaches interesting.

[mountain_hunter]

I usually end up working with one of the following four scenarios:
1) I use my paracord to hang my food in one bag on the tallest branch I can find.
2) With elevation trees can still be tall but the branches get shorter (i.e closer to the trunk where a climbing critter could still my food), so I use one side of my paracord between two tree trunk. I then use the other side of the cord to hang the food off the tensioned cord.
3) At the alpine tree line the trees will bend too much and are getting short. To get as much height off the ground as possible I use one side of my paracord to connect multiple tree tops together for better support. Again I use the other side of the cord to hang the food off the tensioned cord. I also look for depression in the topography between the two tree bunch to get higher vertical clearance from the ground.
4) Above tree line I split my food supply in 2 or 3 bags and hide them each in opposite direction from my camp. If a critter get to my food I will hopefully have 1/2 or 2/3 of my food left.

Each scenarios keeps the food (bear attractant) at least 100 m away from me when i am vulnerably sleeping and away form my tent when I am away. I also bring a pack perimeter alarm to notify me of anything within my safety perimeter while sleeping. I have my rifle on one side and bear spray on the other side. I also sleep with my headlamp ready to blind a bear and shoot. I have done many solo remote backpack trips and never has issues with my food.