If I'm camping in an area where there aren't any bears, is it necessary to hang my bag of food for the night?

I'm also wondering about how to prevent rodents like mice and raccoons from getting into my food. What should I do if there isn't a good place to hang my food?

where?

Are you saying that bears are more common in Texas than I think?

I've never seen one.

Would I have to worry about them while camping at Enchanted Rock?

You pretty much answered your own question...bears aren't the only reason to hang your food. REI and other outdoor stores sell bear-proof containers for storage. If you're car camping, an old cooler will work, so long as you use a couple of ratchet straps to secure the lid (experience talking). Raccoons are very adept at opening things and stealing an entire weekend's food supply in one night...very quietly, I might add.

isn't that what a yeti is for?

I won't be car camping, so I'm wondering what the best method for animal-proofing my food is if I can't find a suitable place to hang it.

Not bad, only 4 posts.

Of course if he is packing a yeti, he's probably got a car as well to keep everything in.

Rei sells the small blue bear canister you can fit in a pack.

If you are in Austin I'd loan you mine (the bear canister...not my yeti!)...it doesn't get a lot of use in my garage currently.

[This message has been edited by javajaws (edited 5/13/2014 7:22p).]

I once had a coonhound get in my cooler.

Never really had a problem with critters getting in my food. Not approved in a lot of bear country, but the Ursasac works pretty decent for assorted critters.

Not likely in a drought year, but we've had sub-adult males getting close to Enchanted Rock country.

if you're talking about backpacking, I've never really hung my food anywhere in Texas. I have hung it a couple feet off the ground, if I leave camp all day, to keep mice away. but I always just put all my food down in my back and keep the pack in the vestibule of my tent at night. never had a problem. if something was to try to get in, I'd hear them and run 'em off. as long as you aren't leaving your crap spread out all over camp unattended, you'll be fine. if you are really that concerned, get a bear bin or an ursack.

Keep it off the ground.

If I'm only worried about rodents, I'll use a dry bag (in lieu of an ursack) with a coffee can lid on the cord above the bag. Saw this in a Backpacker Magazine article...

I can recall very vividly peering through my dads legs as he unzipped the tent fly in Yellowstone in the mid 1960's. A big black bear grunted and wheezed loud enough to wake everyone as he sauntered beside the tent. He adeptly opened our metal Coleman cooler that sat atop the picnic table 25 feet away and quickly scarfed down our days catch of cutthroats. He then turned his attention to the bag of canned food beside the cooler. He picked up a can of peaches and bit into it. I will never forget how the peach syrup dripping off of his chin glistened in the light of my dads flashlight. He spent a few minutes chewing and sucking on the can then got bored and made his way off. We spent the next night in a different campground.

quote:

---

Keep it off the ground.

If I'm only worried about rodents, I'll use a dry bag (in lieu of an ursack) with a coffee can lid on the cord above the bag. Saw this in a Backpacker Magazine article...

---

I was thinking about using a dry bag to hang my food in a tree. I'm not sure I understand what the coffee can lid would do.

[This message has been edited by SUPAGGIE (edited 5/14/2014 8:50a).]

Whatever you do... do NOT entertain ursusguy if he offers to show you the "ursusack".

Watch out for mice. We had mice eat through a tent and backpack one night on Mt. Adams in Washington. Nothing like waking up to your tentmate attacking something with an snow shovel.

If there are 2 trees, string a rope between them and hang your food from it. The coffee can lid on rope above the hanging bag is supposed to keep tight rope walking rodents from getting to your stash.

Oh, I did screw that up pretty good. Been a while since I looked at how it is spelled.

Ursus? As in sub-adult bears? And by close to ER, what do you mean?

quote:

---

bears aren't the only reason to hang your food.

use a couple of ratchet straps to secure the lid (experience talking). Raccoons are very adept at opening things and stealing an entire weekend's food supply in one night...very quietly, I might add.

---

I remember when I was younger we were camping in Florida. I heard some noise outside the tent. I shined my flashlight towards the noise and saw about 10 raccoons pushing our cooler out of the campsite with another dozen or so standing around trying to figure out how to help.

After chasing them off we set a picnic table onto the ice chest. It was low enough for the bench to rest on the lid and heavy enough for them to not be able to push it away or get inside.

Damn coons...

quote:

---

quote:

---

Keep it off the ground.

If I'm only worried about rodents, I'll use a dry bag (in lieu of an ursack) with a coffee can lid on the cord above the bag. Saw this in a Backpacker Magazine article...

---

I was thinking about using a dry bag to hang my food in a tree. I'm not sure I understand what the coffee can lid would do.

---

Keeps out the coons or small critters who can get to the hanging bag via the cord...in theory...

[This message has been edited by Pierce County Ag (edited 5/14/2014 12:57p).]

reagan1k--A sub-adult bear is one that has been kicked off mama, but less than 4 years old. These particular bears are rarely, if ever, a true safety concern. But, they account for the vast majority of nuisance issues (general mischief around campsites).

By close, since 2011, there have been random sightings in Kerr (bear actually killed), Kimble and Menard counties. These are still isolated enough events that I wouldn't particularly think about them. On their own (due to the way they disperse from their mother), it will be a long time before we see many bears outside of the Big Bend area (actual breeding population). The bears in NE Texas are almost always lone, sub-adult males. Or we could follow the Arkansas model (cluster of ~3 sows scattered 25-50 miles apart), and we could have bears out the ying yang in about 5-10 years. Politically, in Texas, that isn't going to happen. Granted, there are folk in Red River County that will tell you that TPWD is flying in bears at night with black helicopters (not kidding). If we are, it is the worst reintroduction effort known to man,

For some reason the visual in my mind of Tagguy's raccoon story makes me laugh.

Now with the modern day twist of a bear resistant Yeti.

I promise whatever you are picturing is probably what it looked like. Seriously I've never seen those guys work together like that. No clue where they thought they were going with it but it was damn funny. We had to watch for a minute just out of shock. They froze when we shined a light on them but got right back to work after a few seconds. This was clearly not their first time. Oh and the best part was one that had climbed onto the lid and was trying to pull it open.

That's a crazy raccoon story.

I definitely need to do everything I can to prevent rodents from eating through my tent and backpack. Those things weren't cheap.

Ursus....
Thanks. Was just curious as I can see ER from our place.

Laird's BBQ used to have a picture on their wall of a bear photographed (alive) somewhere in the county but this was years ago and I never got the real story.

Was probably just a back panther they mis-identified anyway b/c it wasn't a close-up shot.

OK thanks Tag... That's the best laugh I've had since yesterday. Nothing against your story but what I heard yesterday was almost drawing attention from others in the office.

It's quite possible. Black bears were pretty well wiped out in Texas by the 1950's. The Hill Country/Western Edwards Plateau is often quoted as being one of the last bastions for bear, until about the mid-80's. Other sourced indicate bears were "scarce" in the Hill Country by 1900.

This I found interesting.

"Plateau's Beryl Armstrong shares the story of John Leakey founding a sawmill in Rio Frio in the late 1870s. Leakey hired a local hunter to provide meat for the workers until they could get a livestock operation established. During the course of a year, the hunter brought in 51 bears, after which bears were never again seen in abundance in the area. A 1945 report from the Texas Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission (precursor to Texas Parks and Wildlife) illustrates the yearly tradition of the Womble Family. From 1850-1860, Mr. Womble engaged in a yearly bear hunt in the Devil's Pocket area of southeastern Wharton County. Over a couple of days, Mr. Womble would hunt and kill enough bears to fill a wagon."

Odd twist---At one time, the riparian areas between Plano and Sherman, was considered one fo the best bear hunting areas in Texas.