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I stopped hanging my food bag from a branch after a bear in Shenandoah showed me why
Everyone in my hiking group swears by the classic bear bag hang, and I did it that way for 4 seasons, until a trip in Shenandoah last October changed my mind. I spent 20 minutes finding the perfect branch, got my line over it on the 3rd throw, hoisted my food 12 feet up and 6 feet out, and felt great about it. At 2am a black bear walked right under that branch, stood up, swatted my bag down like a piñata, and dragged it into the brush about 30 yards from camp. Turns out my "perfect" branch was a dead one, and the limb snapped the second he put weight on it. The whole camp lost about $140 worth of food and one guy's brand new pack because we all trusted the same method. I switched to a hard-sided canister after that trip, and I know some people say they're heavy and bulky, but I'll take 2.5 pounds over another 2am bear visit. Has anyone else had a hang fail on them, or am I the only one who had to learn this the loud way?
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price.gavin29d ago
My bear bag setup is so bad that a squirrel once chewed through my line and I had to watch my dinner fall in slow motion, so I feel your pain. The dead branch thing gets people every time because it looks solid from the ground and you can't tell until something heavy puts weight on it. A canister is boring and heavy but boring is kind of the point when you're trying to sleep at 2am.
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