Food Storage Devices in Backcountry

[danha1en]

I'm making my first trip to Glacier this September, and I'm looking into food storage in the backcountry. The Glacier Backcountry guide says that there are boxes or hanging devices at each campsite. Is this true?

I'm staying at:
ELF
MOJ
FIF
GRN

I have a "Blast" food bag from Zpacks that is allegedly good with keeping mice out and we were planning on bringing rope as well. Does each person need enough rope to hang their own food? Is a carabiner and bag enough?

Are bear canisters not recommended?

I do apologize for the repeat questions. I did find similar topics on the forum already, but I was still a little fuzzy on whether or not things were different by location or if it was park wide.

Thanks!

[Hockey Ref]

All BC sites have some sort of food storage system, usually either a pole to hang food from or a bear-proof storage box. ELF has a storage box if I recall correctly; FIF and GRN have poles. Not sure about MOJ. If you want to combine all the food from your group in a single bag and hang that, that's fine, so it's not necessary that everyone have enough rope to do it. But you do need to store it in whatever system is provided. It's not the mice you have to worry about!

[danha1en]

Great! My group just wanted to make sure that we didn't need to bring our canisters. That'll help lighten our our pack loads.

Looking back at the mice comment, it was in reference to keeping the bag inside a bear box. It reads kind of silly when it appears I think of bears as an afterthought (when they are far from it...).

Cheers!

[wnysteve]

But you do need to store it in whatever system is provided. It's not the mice you have to worry about!

But...if you let the free end of the rope touch the ground, then you will have to worry about the mice, and the chipmunks. From sad experience!

[Jen]

Not sure about MOJ.

MOJ has a pole. No sign of a locker.

[Jen]

I am headed out to RMNP in 2 weeks and despising the fact that I will have to carry a canister.

[danha1en]

I did a quick overnight at Bryce Canyon NP and had to carry a canister as well.

Good call on the rope not touching the ground wnysteve! Always nice to have reminders for things I'm not doing on a daily basis...

[wnysteve]

I did a quick overnight at Bryce Canyon NP and had to carry a canister as well.

danhaien: I'm going to go off topic for a minute. Your reference to an overnight in Bryce kind of stunned me. For years, I have been under the delusion that I was maybe the only human who had ever backpacked in Bryce.

Years ago, I went to the Visitors Center there to ask when permits for the backcountry sites usually filled. The ranger looked kind of puzzled and said, "I don't know..we've never had a site to fill". I looked at the chalk board which had the number of people permitted for each site for that night and it was absolutely empty! So, I got a permit and hiked into Sheep Canyon and camped there for the night. Nothing was said about wildlife, as I recall, and certainly no canisters. I was the only person in Sheep Canyon that night, of course. As the sun went down, the cooling air caused heavy winds to descend into the canyon. As the night got darker there was a howling in the distance which I took to be mountain lion, though it could have been the screeching winds. Maybe Bryce has changed in recent years, but since my backpack there I have always associated the Bryce backcountry with solitude..in stark contrast to the auto roads and the tourist trails.

[danha1en]

Yep, very few souls have actually slept in the backcountry at Bryce. This May, a few of us did the Under the Rim Trail, which was a great 2 day hike(~23 mi). We hardly saw anyone while we were hiking.

Bryce is one of those weird places where the views/scenery is actually better where all the tourists are--at the top of the rim or on a 3-5 mile dayhike through the Hoodoos. Bryce is known for its amphitheaters, so the backcountry is unnoticed being part wilderness and part desert southwest. You're right though, it was absolutely serene at the backcountry site. The site wasn't anything fancy (one of the worst ones I've stayed at--but I love me some water) but the peacefulness was incredible. I'd recommend the trip for anyone who wants a weekend away.

To bring the conversation back from OT, the backcountry office had a stock of bear vaults that they would loan to people staying in the backcountry. It was mandatory there--where there was hardly any animals (saw a few deer on the road) and yet Glacier is completely different. Its curious how every national park is different (permits, application process, reservations, fees, map structure, backcountry guides)--but that is what spawned my questions/hesitation above.