Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

In two years in AK and 15 in the Sierra I've only had one issue involving bears and food. I'll relate it here because it's a funny one.

Let me get one thing out of the way. I hate bear cans. I don't use them unless someone I'm with is a stickler for the rules. I hang my food. It's quick. It's bomber. It's lighter and it takes up way less space in my pack. OK, back to the story.

A few years ago my buddy Hollywood calls me up to plan our climb for the year. We used to climb a lot together when we where both on the road back in the day. Now we both have jobs, houses, spouses and all the other little bullshit that only let's us do one trip a year together. Since we only get one trip a year we always go big. He picked the prior years trip and we did the Palisade Traverse. That meant it was my turn. I had my sights set on a formation called the Citadel. The plan was simple. Hike the 15 miles in. Climb the classic Edge of Time Arete on the second day. Climb a first ascent on the 3rd day, Hike the 15 miles out and go back to work.

The way in involves parking at the Bishop Pass trailhead(South Lake) them humping up and over Bishop Pass, down through Dusy Basin and finally down to Leconte Canyon. From there you head up the Middle Fork of the Kings to Ladder Creek to the Citadel. It's doesn't get climbed often but it's one of the most striking formations in all the Sierra. It rears up about 2000' from base to summit.

We made really good time on the way in and where dropping our packs at camp by 12pm. We got our bivi sacks set up and ate a quick lunch. We both decided we had plenty of time to go do some climbing. We hung our food and hiked up to the base of the wall. We decided that instead of heading to the north face and the Edge of Time we'd head to the south face and get a head start on our first ascent. There's only 3 routes on the Citadel and they all go up the north face. The south face is just as long, just as steep and nobody had done it. Of course we're going up the south face.

We scout it out and find a great corner/crack system that looks doable. About 6 pitches later it's getting late and we decided to head back to camp. The climbing was much harder then we'd thought and it took longer then we thought. We set a few slings and rapped back to the base. We'd finish it tomorrow. At least that's what the plan was. Bear 27 had other ideas.

When we are getting close to camp I hear Hollywood say "Oh, shit". He says that a lot so I didn't really pay him much attention. Then a few f bombs drop and he's got my attention. He's pointing wide eyed and dropping some language that I was fairly impressed by. Then I see it. His stuff sack, still hanging 14 feet off the ground, is ripped wide open. All his food, and I mean all of it, is laying in a 30 foot radius from under the sack. Everything has been ripped open and eaten. We both took a minute to asses the situation. Raccoon? Bird? WTF?

As I walk over to the tree the stuff sack was hanging from I see something. A giant, still steaming, pile of bear shit. It was directly under the stuff sack. I couldn't stop laughing even though I knew our trip was over. As I'm looking at this steaming pile of shit I also see about ten bear prints dug way deep about 5 feet past the sack. I turn around and see this rock that is about 5 feet tall and about 8 feet from the limb the sacks hanging from. Then it hits me. The bear ran up the backside of the rock, jumped and literally kung fu panda'd the stuff sack. From the paw prints and some math I figure it took him about 5 tries to actually hit it. Now I'm really laughing. That bear had to jump up about 7 feet up and out about 8 feet for this to work. Impressive.

As we're getting the wrappers cleaned up I see some movement about 50 yards out. I stop and tell Hollywood to stay still. A few seconds later I see it. It is bear 27. I know this because the little shit has a 27 tag on his ear. He looked to be about 250 pounds or so. He was also very stubborn. We yelled and he stayed put. I got in my big bear arms raised stance and he stayed put. Finally Hollywood, who used to play a lot of baseball, grabs a small rock and throws it like a pro. He missed the little fucker, on purpose, and that bear stayed put. Hollywood asked me if he should hit him with the next one and I said "Yep. Right in the chest."

He fired a small rock and it hit hard right in the chest. Old 27 finally took off running. So we did the logical thing and took off after him screaming and yelling. He headed over a small crest in a hill and that's the last we saw of bear 27.

We collected the rest of the trash and ate my dinners that night. The next morning we ate my breakfast and hiked out. When I got back into town I called another buddy who used to be the bear ranger in the Valley. I told him what happened and that it was a yellow tag number 27. After he got done laughing he told my that area is where they drop problem bears from the Valley.

He called me back a few hours later with 27's history. 27 is a third year male. He was first tagged in the Valley 2 years ago. He was breaking into Curry Village cabins, as a cub. They tranqued him and tagged him. The next year he decided to raise a little hell at Camp 4. He was chased out numerous times before he was trapped and tranqued. Then he was given an helicopter ride to Leconte Canyon where he was released to live a more natural life. I guess that little shit learned a few tricks in his 2 years in the Valley because there is no way a bear that had never interacted with people could have done what he managed to do with that stuff sack. lol

 

Black bears are starting to make unprovoked attacks here in WNC. One guy working on his car, a bear at the end of the driveway charges him, and attacks. His wife got a shotgun to get it to go away.
https://www.foxcarolina.com/news/wa...cle_814b0f62-e2db-11e8-8b0d-9b870019a428.html

A few like this have been reported here in WNC lately. We get bears in the trail cam, mostly mothers with 2-3 cubs.
Oh, I live on the edge of GSMNP.

 

Just as a heads up for people who don’t read details well enough (like me), the Big Agnes “insulated” air core sleeping mats are really not insulated. They are rated to “above freezing” while the non-insulated air core mats are rated to 32°. I bought mine sometime ago and assumed it was actually insulated and paid the price a couple weeks ago. I camped up at 10k’ in the snow and had my Mystic UL15 bag and assumed I’d be nice and cozy for the night. It ended up being pretty miserable with temps around 10-15° and the cold just leaching up through the supposedly insulated mat.

 

If he did all that to get to the food. Let him have it. He deserves it.

 

man. I fell for this one. I ended up getting one of those cheap foam accordion pad to throw underneath. What are they? - Zpads?

 

You really cannot clean it all up. I just grab the griddle, utensils and windscreen and move it away from camp. When backpacking I play it much safer.

 

Was this from the Bald Mountain run this past weekend?

If so, I wish I would've checked your set up out. With a new dog, the lady friend will be in the tent and there's not enough room for the three of us. I've been contemplating hammock camping but the cold weather makes me a little hesitant.

 

Yes that was me. First time using a hammock set up and I gotta say I was definitely a lot warmer and comfortable than my ground tent set up. I’m in American Canyon, not too far from you. You can definitely check it out and test it before you buy one if you’d like.

 

Sucks to be you guys, but that's damn funny.

 

Hammock camping requires a bit of knowledge to be warm. Personally, I use a down underquilt along with a winter cover in place of the bug net and find that the microclimate I can create is very comfy. Being a little on the Nerdy side, I have monitored inside and outside temps and can easily create a 10-15 degree delta even in freezing temps. I have also found that getting the underquilt set right is the most important part. As was mentioned earlier in the thread, I also change into a dry base layer right at bed time and that makes a GIANT difference in comfort.

 

Mine has clips that hooks onto the hammock. I’m still a noob at this. How can you set the underquilt right vs wrong?

 

So this is what I plan on doing, let me know if it sounds crazy or not...

I have an ENO hammock, Nemo Kayu down feather sleeping bag rated at 15 degrees, and an insulated extra long extra wide Nemo vector sleeping pad.

I was going to get some sort of light weight wind screen and set up the sleeping pad under me with very little air in it. I was thinking the insulation from the sleeping pad would keep me warm underneath and I would set the wind screen up close to the top of the hammock in hopes to keep the heat I generate in. For those nights in the 20s and 30s, do you think this will do or would you still recommend a down under quilt in lieu of the sleeping pad?

 

I definitely want to get back into backpacking. I've been out of it for a very long time since gaining tons of weight on medications that weren't worth the hassle ((finally stabilized on a good one), combined with serious mental illness) and being incredibly inactive causing my leg muscles to tighten to hell.
At least I have my youth on my side and a decent stash of gear still. Klymit Static V Luxe insulated, Mountain Hardwear Hyper Lamina Spark (sweet centre zip), various camp cooking equipment. Just need a tent.

 

My son uses a pad and it works for him, I wiggle too much.

 

Pads in a hammock can be sweaty.

 

This is bad ass!!

 

44 magnum, i flip burgers with my 44 magnum

 

Free but pay for shipping.
https://offer.klymit.com/v-seat-cushion/

 

Good deal.

Try out using a cut up Zlite Sol. 2 sections - sufficient seat. 3 sections - great butt coverage. 4 sections - you can sit cross legged. You can get 2-4 butt pads out of one $30 Zlite pad depending on how many sections you use. Cost per seat is less, and no worries about putting holes in it and losing air. Deploys and puts away in 3 seconds from an outer pack strap or small bungie. Or for those frameless packs, makes a great back support and pad and then a butt pad for those pack breaks.

Makes a great doormat and/or kneeling pad to get in and out of smaller/shorter tents. Not a recommended tactic with an inflatable.