robmcl

I am not talking about bears, which has been discussed in other threads, but other smaller and more common animals like raccoons, skunks, weasels, coyotes, stray dogs,etc. The standard technique seems to be hanging the pannier from a tree but that may not always be possible or allowed. My main concern apart from losing breakfast is having one of my bags chewed up and destroyed. Even though this is highly not recommend in bear country, which I will not be in, I am considering bringing the panniers in the tent with me. I figure with me being so close by most animals will not approach or will be scared away after they wake me up.

I am interested in other peoples experience with handling this.

valygrl

I bring mine in the tent when not in bear country - probably not the greatest idea, but that's what I do. I've had a squirrel eat a hole in a pannier, and once I woke up in the middle of the night and looked outside, and there was a raccoon dumpster-diving in my handlebar bag, with his buddies checking out the rest of the bags.

mandovoodoo

Certainly avoid blocking the path to the food - the varmits will simply eat through your stuff! I use a big stuff sack, put all the food in it, hang it up. Nothing else seems to work. In the tent eventually brings the varmits into the tent with you, which has certain disadvantages.

arctos

I have been using an URSACK bag made of kevlar for the last ten years to keep all critters large and small out of my food supply.When there are no trees for hanging I just leave it on the ground attached to an extra tent peg I carry to keep it from being dragged away. It worked well on the Divide Ride.
https://www.ursack.com/index.html

jwa

So do I, at night &/or when I'm in the tent. In much of Michigan, the biggest threat is chipmunks - on S. Manitou Island, park rangers greet arriving backpackers warning them about "microbears". Them being the backpackers, not the chipmunks.

When I'm away from the campsite I hang such items from a clothesline. Looks kinda silly, & other campers laugh at what they perceive as an inept attempt to keep bears away with stuff dangling a few feet off the ground, but it works.

Another thing to remember is that it's not just food they're after. One of my son's boy scout buddies had his backpack seriously "ventilated" by some small mammal which for a week or so had the brightest teeth in the woods after lunching on his Crest (With Super-Whitening Power!)

JohnyW

Hi

I had only once problems with monkeys but they just pull out the food of the panniers. In general I have the panniers in the tent. In bear country I put my panniers 50 - 100 m away from the tent and opened them the animals get the food easily. But nothing happened at all. So I missed some nice pictures

I also had some vaccum packed food in the tent (for emergency)

Thomas

ShortCircuit

I have been using a "rat sack" for a few years now and sleep soundly at night knowing I will have food and intact panniers in the morning. It's a wire mesh bag with a big velcro closure; it comes in sm, med, and lg sizes. Critters just can't gnaw through it at all...larger critters might try to tote off the bag and all though, so I do try to either hang it or stash it where it can't be gotten to easily. You can get them online at https://www.armoredoutdoorgear.com/
Cheryl

robmcl

This looks interesting and it is not overly expensive. Looks like it can be rolled up nice and neat.