by Jaclynn Davis

Created on: January 22, 2011

The fastest path to a shortened backcountry adventure is a food raid by the critters and creatures sharing your wilderness escape.  Proper food storage and basic backpacking ethics will secure your food for the duration of the trip, while also preserving the survival instincts of wild animals in that ecosystem. 

Know your habitat.  The most essential determinant in your food storage strategy is whether or not you are in bear country.  This is the difference between protecting just your food, or protecting your food and your personal safety. 

If you are not in bear country, your food competitors are likely small rodents with deceivingly efficient teeth for chewing through even the toughest of backpack fabrics.  Use lightweight sacks and sturdy rope to hang your food and any scented products from a tree branch.  You can tie off one end of rope to a lower, accessible branch, or for greater security, employ the counterbalance hanging method. 

If you are traveling in bear country, a heightened sense of food storage safety and backpacking etiquette becomes especially important to your trip’s fulfillment as well as your personal safety.  In many backcountry regions, the counterbalance method of hanging food still reigns.  This strategy requires careful balance in all aspects.  You must find a high branch (though not too high that you cannot access it) and a sturdy branch (though not too sturdy that a bear could walk out onto it), and through dividing your food in equal weights on two sides of rope, you must ensure that you hang those bags high enough off the ground, low enough from the tree’s top, and still within your own access.

Strategies for hanging food, from the simple to the complex, are detailed here.

A more effective, quick, and easy method has emerged in the form of bear resistant containers, also called canisters or caches. In highly traversed wilderness areas like Yosemite National Park,  bears have steadily gained comfort with human presence as quickly as they’ve learned the secrets of the counterbalance method.  In these areas, bear resistant containers are the only approved food storage strategy for backcountry travel.  These cylindrical capsules reduce odors and are impossible for bears to open.  Though effective, they are also heavy, expensive, and bulky to pack, with limited capacity. 

In addition to specialized equipment, basic backpacking etiquette will help secure your food and your safety, and keep bears wild and hunting their own food. 

-Cook your food and clean your dishes at least 200 feet from your campsite, preferably downwind.

-Store your bear resistant container at least 100 feet from your campsite, in a different direction than the area you used for cooking and cleaning. 

-Keep your food stored securely at all times, not just overnight.

-Brush your teeth and wash your body and clothes at a good distance from your campsite.

-Store scented materials and hygiene products, like toothpaste and deodorant, as you would food.

-Garbage emits a strong scent and should also be stored in the canister.  This includes used toilet paper and feminine hygiene products, which should be stored in Ziploc bags after use. 

Ultimately, by adhering to backcountry regulations, backpacking ethics, and common sense, you can preserve your food supply while also protecting the wild nature of the incredible animals whose home you are sharing, if only for a few nights. 

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