Chris Townsend

by The Backpacker's Handbook - 3rd Ed

  Emergency Supplies

  Many years ago I carried a foil-wrapped block of compressed emergency rations, called Turblokken, at the bottom of my pack, assuming that it would keep me going if I ran out of food. I finally ate it once when my supplies ran low and I didn’t want to detour to resupply. My journal records that it was “fairly tasteless but kept me going.” In case I ran low again, I then started carrying an extra day’s worth of food. However, it’s many years since I did that. Now I just carry a little extra food, such as an extra Bear Valley bar or two. If you can catch fish or know which insects and plants are edible, you can, of course, try to “live off the land.”

  I’ve only once run out of food in an area so remote that I couldn’t walk out to a supply point in a day or two. My situation was complicated because I was a bit unclear about where I was (notice I didn’t say “lost”). I had to ration my food severely for several days and emerged from the forest extremely hungry, but without having run out of energy. I learned that, if you have to, you can get by on remarkably little food—at least for a short time. I would go to great lengths to avoid another such situation, though. Once is more than enough.

  Packaging

  Plastic bags are ideal for carrying food. I use them for everything that comes in a heavy container I don’t want to carry or that needs extra protection, including coffee, sugar, dried milk, trail mix, muesli, cheese, herbs, spices, and meals such as macaroni and cheese that come in cardboard boxes. If I need the instructions, I tear them off and put them in the bag with the food. The only items I keep in their cardboard containers are crackers, since these break easily. Cardboard gives a surprising amount of protection, but you need to be careful not to crush them. Packages of soup, granola bars, and complete meals in sealed envelopes don’t need repacking, but they can be bagged together so that it’s easy to see what you have. Bagging also serves as extra protection against tears in the envelopes, which can happen. The best bags I’ve found are zippered ones like Ziplocs. I always carry a few spare bags in case one splits.

  Hiking stores carry many plastic food containers, but I don’t use them—they take up as much space empty as they do full and add weight; plastic bags compress to almost nothing and weigh hardly anything. I used to carry herbs and spices in empty plastic film canisters, but now these go in plastic bags too.

  Unless I’m using a bear-resistant container (see pages 258–63), I keep my food together in the pack in nylon stuff sacks. When I’m carrying more than a week’s food, I use two of them. I put day food, which tends to be the bulkiest of my rations, in one bag, and camp food in the other. Two smaller bags are easier to pack than one large one, and it’s easier to find items.

  By not carrying cans and by repackaging food packed in cardboard in plastic bags, I could fit all my trash from a ten-day trip into these two used food packets.

  Resupply

  On trips of up to a week, resupplying isn’t necessary; you can carry all you need unless your route passes through a place where you can buy food. On hikes that last more than a couple of weeks, you have to plan how to resupply. If you’re prepared to live on whatever is available locally, you can shop at stores on or near your route. I did this on the Arizona Trail and it worked quite well, though a few times there wasn’t much choice. Most small stores stock dried soups, crackers, bread, cheese, candy, chocolate bars, coffee, and tea, but dried meals and even breakfast cereals can be hard to find. This can mean carrying more weight and bulk than you’d like and being prepared to adapt to what you can get.

  An alternative is to send supplies to yourself to be collected along the way. This way, you know what’s in each supply box and can plan accurately; items such as maps and camera film can also be included in the same boxes. As well as boxes sent out ahead from home a running supply or bounce box is useful. This is a box you send on to the next post office with stuff you don’t need for the next section of trail. If you can only buy larger amounts of foods than you need, the surplus can go in the running supply box, as can extras of any food you really like that you might not be able to purchase again. The obvious places to send supplies are post offices. Boxes should be addressed to yourself c/o General Delivery (Poste Restante in Europe) in the town scheduled for pickup. They should be marked Hold for Hiker and include the intended collection date and a return address. I also write to the post offices to tell them what I’m doing. It’s a good idea to phone ahead (if you can) to check that the supplies have arrived; during the Canadian Rockies walk, one box went astray, causing me a week’s delay.

  Some mail-order food suppliers may drop-ship food to post offices along your route, a service I used on the Pacific Crest and Continental Divide Trails. In remote areas where there are no post offices, you could contact a park or forest ranger’s office, or the nearest youth hostel, lodge, or motel, to ask if they’ll hold supplies. I’ve done this several times and never yet been refused, though some of the latter places request a small fee (I always offer payment when I contact them). Rangers or outfitters may also be prepared to take food into wilderness cabins or camps if you’re on a long trip. When I walked through the Yukon Territory, I found a commercial tour boat operator who was willing to take supplies down the Yukon River for me, which meant I was able to walk for twenty-three days without having to leave the wilderness to resupply.

  You can cache food in advance if you have the time or have someone who can do it for you, though I’ve never done this. Obviously, cached food has to be stored in an animal-proof container, and you need to be sure you can locate it.

  Another resupply alternative is to have food dropped by helicopter or brought in by bush plane. I considered this for the remote northern section of the Canadian Rockies walk but rejected it, mainly because of the high cost, but also because I wasn’t happy about bringing noisy machines into the wilderness unless it was absolutely necessary. Instead, I tried to carry all my food for this three-hundred-mile section. I took seventeen days’ food but spent twenty-three in the wilderness. Luckily it was hunting season, and the seasonal occupants of several remote outfitters’ camps fed me as I passed through. Without them I couldn’t have completed the walk. Of course, I could and should have contacted them in advance and asked if they’d take supplies in for me, which is what I would do on a similar venture now.

  Food Storage in Camp

  On trips where bears aren’t likely to raid my camp, I prefer to keep my food beside me so I can cook and eat at leisure and can easily protect it against small animals and birds. Leaving food on the ground away from you, even in the pack, is a sure way to feed wildlife. Sharp teeth will quickly make holes in most materials. The Ursack stuff sack (see page 262) is an exception to this. Although bears are the animals people worry about most, smaller animals—mice, marmots, raccoons—probably make off with more food.

  Animals and birds of all sizes like human food.

  The worst problems I’ve had with wildlife occurred on a hike in the Grand Canyon, where deer mice abounded on most sites. One night they kept me awake for hours by running over me and my gear and rustling through the pack, whose pockets and compartments I’d left open so creatures wouldn’t rip their way in. My food—inside plastic bags in a heavy-duty stuff sack and hung from a branch—was untouched, however.

  Although it’s inconvenient for you if animals get your food, for the animals it can be much worse. In the summer of 1995, rangers had to shoot twenty-three mule deer that were starving in the Grand Canyon; autopsies showed their stomachs were clogged with plastic bags, nylon cord, and other indigestible items. On popular back-country sites in the Grand Canyon, posts are provided for hanging food bags and packs, and park regulations stress that all plastic bags and food must be kept packed away. In other parks there may be similar regulations in some places. When you feel like rebelling against the rules, remember those mule deer.

  Hanging your food bags from a low limb may be adequate to keep small animals from getting at them. In areas where animals are likely to
raid campsites, I now use an Ursack.

  Bears

  In bear country you need to take special precautions to keep your food safe, either by hanging it or by using a container bears can’t break into. The traditional approach is to hang your food high in a tree, which isn’t easy to do effectively. It needs to be at least 12 feet above the ground, 10 feet away from the trunk of a tree, and 6 feet below any branch—bears can climb and reach high. There are various ways of doing this, and all require at least 40 feet of nylon line and a tough stuff sack or two. Gregory makes a 1,300-cubic-inch Bear Bag that looks good; it weighs 8 ounces and comes with a sewn-in haul loop and a 40-foot length of parachute cord with an attached sack for a rock.

  Start with two stuff sacks of roughly equal weight. If you don’t have enough food, put stones or gravel in one of the sacks. Tie one end of your line to one of the sacks (1). Put a small rock in another stuff sack and tie the other end of your line to the sack. Throw it over a suitable branch and haul the first stuff sack up until it’s just below the branch (2). Tie the second stuff sack to the other end of the line while holding it as high as you can. Stuff any spare line into the stuff sack and then throw it up so that the two bags are at an equal height (3). When you need the food, use a trekking pole or stick to pull down one of the bags (4).

  At times hanging food can take a long time. I’ve spent hours trying and wasted a lot of energy on curses as rocks whirled off into space or spun around branches, leaving a tangle of line to unwind. But whenever I’ve felt like giving up, I’ve thought about losing my food to a bear and have gone on until my food was secure. Bearbagging isn’t just about protecting food, anyway, it’s about protecting bears too, which is more important. A bear that finds food at a campsite may lose its fear of humans and start to raid sites regularly, becoming such a danger that it has to be killed. These are called “problem” bears. Really, though, we create the problem by taking food into the bear’s territory and not protecting it adequately.

  Having to hang food complicates camping, and there is a tendency to forgo it at the end of a long, hard day or in bad weather. Certainly, when making camp after dark I’ve sometimes suspended my food in a way I wouldn’t be happy with in daylight. I’ve always hung it though (nowadays I use a canister or an Ursack, which makes life much easier).

  In many areas food must be secured from bears.

  The simplest bearbagging method is to tie a rock to the end of the line, throw it over a branch at least 20 feet above the ground, haul up the food until the bottom of the bag is at least 12 feet up, then tie off the line around the trunk of the tree. Even this is not that easy, since the line can become tangled around the branch. On popular sites in many areas you can see rotting strands of cord dangling from branches. Putting the rock in a small bag and tying that to the end of the line stops the rock from coming untied and shooting off into the distance, as can happen.

  Put a small rock in a stuff sack. Tie the end of your line to the sack and throw it over a branch about 20 feet high. Don’t let go of the other end of the rope! If you can’t reach the rock, shake the line in a whipping motion to jerk the line over the branch and slowly lower the rock (1). Grab the end of the line and remove the rock (2). Attach your food stuff sack and haul it up (3). Wrap the end of the rope around the tree trunk and tie it off (4).

  Up near timberline trees are usually smaller, with shorter branches. Here it’s probably best to suspend food bags between two trees about 25 feet apart, which involves throwing one end of the weighted line over a branch, tying it off, and then repeating the process with the second tree. Keep the line between the two trees within reach so you can tie the food bag to it. Then haul the bag up until it’s halfway between the trees and 12 feet off the ground.

  In the High Sierra, bears have learned that breaking a line rewards them with a bag of food, so standard hanging techniques don’t work. Instead, you should use the counterbalance system, which involves throwing the line over a branch, tying a food bag to the end of the line, and hauling it right up to the branch; you then tie a second food bag (or bag of rocks) to the other end of the line, push any extra line into the bag, and throw the second bag up so that both bags end up at least 12 feet above the ground and away from the tree trunk. If you leave a loop of line at the top of one of the bags, you can hook it with a stick or your staff to pull the bags down the next morning. Counterbalancing is difficult to do correctly, and bears too often get improperly hung food.

  A decreasing number of national parks provide high wires between trees or poles with pulleys for hanging food at some campsites. These make the procedure easier, though it can still be difficult if you’re alone and have a heavy food bag. Bearproof boxes are provided in some areas too, such as many popular sites in the High Sierra. Always use these if you camp nearby.

  When camping above timberline or where there are no large trees, as in the Far North, I used to store food well away from camp in airtight plastic bags. Now I use bear-resistant canisters or Ursack stuff sacks.

  In an increasing number of areas, such as Denali and Glacier Bay National Parks in Alaska and many parts of the High Sierra where bears regularly get hung food, bear canisters are mandatory. They can usually be rented from park offices. It’s wise to check the regulations as to which canisters are approved and where you need one before visiting a park, since they do change.

  Packing a bear-resistant container. The plastic liner helps reduce food smells.

  Closing a bear-resistant container using a quarter as a screwdriver.

  Bear-resistant canisters are wide and have a smooth surface so bears can’t clamp their jaws around one or get their teeth or claws into it. Most have a round lid with recessed catches that can be opened with a quarter or a screwdriver. Canisters are great in camp but a pain on the trail; they’re awkward to fit into a pack because of their hard cylindrical shape. I find the best way to pack one is to stand it up in the center of the pack with the sleeping bag below it and stuff soft gear around it. The smallest canisters will hold six days’ food for one person, as long as you select low-bulk food and cram it in. Canisters are heavy, too. The original model and the one rented out by national parks is the Garcia Machine Backpackers’ Cache. This weighs 2 pounds, 12 ounces (3 pounds in the first version) and has a capacity of 730 cubic inches. It’s made of ABS polymer (plastic). Lighter but vastly more expensive is the Wild Ideas Bearikade, made from composite carbon fiber and aluminum alloy. The Bearikade Weekender weighs 1 pound, 15 ounces and holds 650 cubic inches; the Expedition weighs 2 pounds, 5 ounces and holds 900 cubic inches. Purple Mountain Engineering’s aluminum Tahoe Bear Canister is between the Bearikade and Backpackers’ Cache in weight and size at 2 pounds, 6 ounces and 8 by 12 inches, which is slightly smaller than the Backpackers’ Cache at 8.8 by 12 inches. Perhaps the most interesting canister is the Bear Vault, which is made from transparent polycarbonate and looks like a giant Nalgene bottle. It has a screw-top lid so no tools are needed to open it. The opening is much bigger than on canisters with recessed lids, which should make packing easier, and you can see what food you have left too. It’s 8.7 by 12.4 inches and weighs 2 pounds, 6 ounces. Despite the extra weight and the difficulty with packing, I like canisters. It’s wonderful not to have to hang food and great to have easy access to it all the time. You don’t have to check that there are suitable trees around before you camp, either, or sleep with half an eye open in case a bear tries to get your food and you have to leap up and try to scare it away (without getting too close, and only try this with black bears, not grizzlies!). Canisters make good camp stools and tables, but don’t use them for stoves or hot pots unless you put something heat resistant, such as foil, on them first. At night it’s best to put the canister a short distance away from camp, in the middle of a flat area so a bear can’t roll it down a slope.

  An Ursack bear-resistant stuff sack.

  I used a Backpackers’ Cache, rented from Yosemite National Park, on a five-week hike in the High Sierra during wh
ich I met a few hikers who’d lost hung food to bears. At one of the rare popular sites I used I woke in the morning to see a bear walk past about forty feet from my camp without even pausing. A few minutes later I heard some pans clattering loudly and then some outraged and urgent yelling. Climbing onto a rock, I looked across a meadow with a small tent in the center to see a bear racing up the mountainside with something in its jaws, pursued by two half-naked campers. I presume they had hung their food with pans attached to act as a warning, but the bear had still gotten it. I’d heard people yelling and banging pots the night before too. My canister sat undisturbed twenty feet from camp.

  An alternative that is lighter and easier to pack than canisters would be welcome, though, which is where the Ursack comes in. This is a supertough stuff sack designed to keep animals out, especially bears. The latest model, the TKO, is made from Spectra cloth, measures 8 by 13 inches, holds 650 cubic inches, and weighs just 8.2 ounces. That’s almost the same capacity as the Backpackers’ Cache canister, which weighs over five times as much. The Ursack can be squashed down when partly full like any other stuff sack, too. Does it work? Evidence from the makers and users suggests it does, though your food may get pulverized if a bear batters it around. Plastic bags inside can burst, so it’s best not to pack anything liquid or sticky. It must be used properly to be effective. The mouth must be closed fully so no food is visible, and the bag then tied to a tree trunk or strong branch with a figure eight knot (so it’s easy to untie). On a nine-day hike in the High Sierra I used an Ursack and a canister (I was going into an area where canisters were a requirement). I used the Ursack for over three days, after which all my food fit in the canister. As far as I know, nothing even touched it. I now use the Ursack anywhere that animals might try and eat my food, carrying a canister only in areas where they’re required. I’ve had rodents chew through an ordinary stuff sack and into bags of food but fail to make any impression on the Ursack sitting next to it, so it certainly works for small animals.