Old guy tangent: Unless you are completely joking, Michael, you should see a urologist. The LUTS symptoms of BPH are very treatable.
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Food security
- Thread starter Johnny 5
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Old guy tangent: Unless you are completely joking, Michael, you should see a urologist. The LUTS symptoms of BPH are very treatable.
I have a barrel that I keep my food in, that I move to a corner of the site at night, and place cookware on top.
On the Allagash, we jam the coolers under the table.
All that and we work hard to keep the site clean
So far no problems
On the Allagash, we jam the coolers under the table.
All that and we work hard to keep the site clean
So far no problems
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Thanks for your concern and advice, Glenn. I was using hyperbole, for hopefully comedic effect. I do, however, get up once in the middle of the night. This was not the norm in my younger years.
Picking back up on this thread . . .
I hate hanging bear bags. Finding a suitable tree, getting the rock & rope up through the wrong branches and over the right one, then back down again. P-I-T-A. It wastes valuable time I could be gagging lollies and enjoying an evening in the woods. And if the bears or rodents decide they really want my food, they’ll get it.
Hitherto my brother & I typically use & hang a 5-gallon bucket with gamma seal lid for non-perishable foods and a 33-liter IceMule Pro cooler-backpack for the meats & other perishables. One or the other also might have a bag with cleaned pots & dishes in it. When we did the Oswegatchie Traverse we used a mix of bear canisters instead of the 5-gallon bucket.
So I’m hoping to maximize convenience & laziness. For the cooler, I think we’ll want to get a 30-liter Ursack All-mitey which is both rodent & bear resistant (combo of kevlar & spectra cloths).
Do we get a second one for the 5-gallon bucket? Or do I get something like the BV500 to supplement my brother’s CounterAssault Bear Keg (the two would add up to about 6 gallons of volume)? The advantage of the former is that we could probably stash the cleaned dishes in it, too. The disadvantage is that presumably a bear could break the bucket even if it’s in the 5-gallon bucket. Right? (Oh yeah, the bucket’s likely more water-proof than the bear canisters.)
Thoughts? Wisdom?
I hate hanging bear bags. Finding a suitable tree, getting the rock & rope up through the wrong branches and over the right one, then back down again. P-I-T-A. It wastes valuable time I could be gagging lollies and enjoying an evening in the woods. And if the bears or rodents decide they really want my food, they’ll get it.
Hitherto my brother & I typically use & hang a 5-gallon bucket with gamma seal lid for non-perishable foods and a 33-liter IceMule Pro cooler-backpack for the meats & other perishables. One or the other also might have a bag with cleaned pots & dishes in it. When we did the Oswegatchie Traverse we used a mix of bear canisters instead of the 5-gallon bucket.
So I’m hoping to maximize convenience & laziness. For the cooler, I think we’ll want to get a 30-liter Ursack All-mitey which is both rodent & bear resistant (combo of kevlar & spectra cloths).
Do we get a second one for the 5-gallon bucket? Or do I get something like the BV500 to supplement my brother’s CounterAssault Bear Keg (the two would add up to about 6 gallons of volume)? The advantage of the former is that we could probably stash the cleaned dishes in it, too. The disadvantage is that presumably a bear could break the bucket even if it’s in the 5-gallon bucket. Right? (Oh yeah, the bucket’s likely more water-proof than the bear canisters.)
Thoughts? Wisdom?
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I use an Ursack with Opsaks inside. I've never been a user of 5 gallon buckets for canoeing, but I know a lot of people are. I don't see any reason not to put a bucket inside a big Ursack if it fits. To make the big food Ursack more collapsible, you could use a waterproof drybag inside it instead of a bucket. I've never used bear cannisters because I've never camped where they are required and have never worried that much about bears getting my food where I've traveled.
I use an Ursack with Opsaks inside. I've never been a user of 5 gallon buckets for canoeing, but I know a lot of people are. I don't see any reason not to put a bucket inside a big Ursack if it fits. To make the big food Ursack more collapsible, you could use a waterproof drybag inside it instead of a bucket. I've never used bear cannisters because I've never camped where they are required and have never worried that much about bears getting my food where I've traveled.
How does the line go? Long-time reader, first-time poster?
I saw your earlier mention of using Opsaks. It sounds like you have a solution that works well for where you paddle. The knock that I have read about Ursacks is that if a bear does get to one’s sack, they might not get the food but they will pulverize it and soak it in bear spit in the trying.
Usually our IceMule Pro XL cooler carries the meat/seafood, so even were the cooler to get mashed stored in an Ursack, we would still have the carbs, spices, coffee, etc., from the bucket/canister. So, I guess one question is, what happens to a Ursacked bucket when a persistent bear discovers it?
The first thing I do is look for bear tracks on the beach when selecting a campsite and find a place without any. Second is to hang the dry food in a tree. Usually we have a cooler along since we don't portage much. It is problematic and hard to hide. Usually it just stays in the boat. It works okay with canoes, but seems to be good in the aft section of a raft or drift boat. It is best to cover up coolers and make them less noticeable.
Having dogs around makes campsites less appealing to bears. My dogs have chased bears out of camp many times.
Having dogs around makes campsites less appealing to bears. My dogs have chased bears out of camp many times.
This was our last chance beach landing site before suffering a time penalty for paddling beyond the required time to stop at "night" during the Yukon 1000 mile canoe race. A previous good looking flat dry landing site on the other side of the river a half mile prior had three bears in it, watching us divert our course and paddle on by. We had no choice other than to land at this muddy silty landing. We strung bells on a rope fence around tents and kept pepper spray handy through the night. But no visitors came to see us.
Hang em high. The longer the trip, the more I want a fishing rod and a pistol for food security. Then we can always procure more food in a pinch.
I've been teaching BSA trek guide leaders in the Adirondacks for quite a few years. Every student gets to be "leader of the day" and be evaluated for a segment of time. Especially during the first night out, if we do not have approved canisters, we hang the bear bag. For the LOD it can be quite a sterssful ordeal during their leadirship evaluation, but often quite comical, as the college age athletic studs take turns attempting to throw the rope over a suitable tree branch (usuallly starting with an overhand baseball pitch throw - wrong!). Just finding the right tree can be an expediiton in itself leading us far from the campsite. I've seen all manner of throw weights tied onto the rope - sticks, rocks, boots, water bottles, etc. All have been stuck in the crotch of a tree at one time or another resulting in another comic relief event to retrieve.
A fellow instructor thought he had a perfect system using a slingshot, fishing line and a metal washer. He fired the washer with great velocity over a branch, only to find the fishing line was caught short. Zing... the washer returned with equal velocity and struck the guy squarely in the forehead, leaving its definite mark. He was ok, but it certainly was a lasting comic relief during that evening.
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