Camp Food Storage

Here are a few camp food storage tips to help you avoid losing your food to little (and big) critters and animals:

1. Never leave food or other smellies (i.e.- deodorant, tooth paste, shampoo, etc.) in your tent (especially in bear country). Animals are attracted to the scent of all of these items.

2. Never leave food and smellies in a zipped pack, jacket, duffel bag, etc. Hungry animals will literally chew holes in your nice equipment to get to the food. If you have to (or choose to) leave food in your backpack or whatever, then at least leave the zippers open. You might lose some food, but at least you won't have to shell out more money to replace the damaged gear.

3. Cook at least 200 feet from your sleeping area if possible. This is only a necessity in bear country. However, unless you enjoy waking from your slumber to hear weird noises in the middle of the night you may want to practice this all of the time.

4. Hang your food and smellies bag away from your tent. In bear country, you must either do this or carry a bear canister, but this trick also works for most smaller animals.

   How to hang a Bear Bag:
   First take an extra sock and put a rock or two in the bottom. Tie a long piece of rope to the end of the sock (This is a lot easier than tying the rope directly to the rock). Hurl it over a limb that is at least 15' off of the ground and 8' - 10' from the trunk of the tree. Jiggle the rope to lower the end down. Untie the sock, tie the rope to your food bag, and hoist it up. Tie the rope off to the trunk of the tree. The bag should hang about 5' down from the branch, 10' - 12' form the ground, and 8' - 10' from the trunk.

5. If you are near water, you can put food and smellies in dry bags (waterproof bags) and sink them. Make sure you tie the bags off to a stake that is very secure.

On your next camping trip, be sure to use these camp food storage tips to keep your food (and yourselves) safe from animals.