Originally Posted by
gauvins
One thing, maybe -- bears are most intimidating, but there are numerous critters ranging from squirrels to mice/rats, skunks and racoons that are attracted to trail food. I usually travel with tin cans in which I store GORP and fresh food items. How do you deal with food?
Yes, I have actually seen folks have more issues with raccoon problems on my tours.
How I deal with keeping critters out of my food depends on the locale. On the Pacific coast and in places like Yosemite, Sequoia, King's Canyon, and Yellowstone there are usually boxes in the campgrounds just for that purpose. Elsewhere I sometimes hang my food, but more often don't do anything other than taking the food bag out of the pannier so my panniers don't get ruined if something gets into the food. It depends on how I see the risk. Maybe I have been lucky, but unless there are known issues or at least reason to suspect a problem I don't worry too much.
In my experience critter problems are on tour are almost always in actual campgrounds or busy backpacking areas, so when wild camping most places I am pretty lax. Maybe I have been lucky but I have done a fair number of long tours, a lot of backpacking, and only once lost any food to critters (raccoon). In that case it was my own carelessness since I failed to hang my food on the supplied critter pole.
In deciding to hang or not in a campground, I look at whether the trash receptacles are critter proof. Any place that has serious bear problems will have bear proof lids on the dumpsters. Similarly places with a lot of raccoon problems are likely to latch the lids on trash cans. I typically ask whether there have been critter problems if it isn't obvious.
I have stayed two places where there were recent bear issues and hanging food wasn't an option. Once was a park where they recommended putting all food and toiletries in your vehicle. We made friends with a nice dutch couple who let us put our food in their car. The other was a spot with no place to hang food and a recent griz sighting in the ravine next to camp. In that case we stored our food in the restroom supply cabinet.