Cooking under tarp/near hammock

**BigB** · 01-05-2010, 03:25

I dont have any experience dealing with bears but I hate raccoons. You'll learn to never keep food in your backpack near the ground at night

. I just never thought about stuff like that when I was younger. I try to keep the smell of food off about any fabric piece of equipment I have, so no cooking near the hammock for me.

**MacEntyre** · 01-05-2010, 06:38

Originally Posted by swoosh

...total suckage that would be a rattlesnake bite...

Yes, that could be very bad.

At Hot Springs, Thing1 nearly stepped on two mating copperheads on the trail. I would worry far less about them. In eastern NC, the rattlers and cottonmouths are large and dangerous, but generally dwell where we don't.

- MacEntyre

**oldgringo** · 01-05-2010, 06:54

I don't normally run to paranoia, but I'm about there with the idea of rolling out of my hammock, and stepping on a serpent. That, and discovering a guest in my moccasin.

It's time for me to come up with a system for getting my shoes off of the ground, methinks.

**MacEntyre** · 01-05-2010, 07:00

Originally Posted by oldgringo

...a system for getting my shoes off of the ground, methinks.

I've been noodling on that and one for getting the pack off the ground in a way that it can be packed.

Two weeks ago while deer hunting, a fellow loaned me his full length gaiters so I could bushwack. They had been hanging in the shed for months. I shoved one leg in and found they were kinda tight. Looked beside my foot and saw a huge spider, groggy with cold, which I had pushed out!

**Cannibal** · 01-05-2010, 10:11

Originally Posted by MacEntyre

They had been hanging in the shed for months. I shoved one leg in and found they were kinda tight. Looked beside my foot and saw a huge spider, groggy with cold, which I had pushed out!

La la la la la I'm not reading this la la la la la la....

**neo** · 01-05-2010, 10:50

Originally Posted by ryan112ryan

I have seen lots of folks on here talk about cooking from their hammock or making coffee/tea/coco etc. Outside of the obvious danger of catching you hammock or tarp on fire. This seems to me to be a really bad idea.

I don't live in bear country (some black bears here), but I still always cook away from where I camp for fear of bears or other animals. I have spent allot of time in the woods and from everyone I have ever talked to this practice is a very big deal, namely you just don't do it.

Just curious why it seems like I have seen so many who, what I feel are, outdoor savvy folks doing this?

not a bad deal at all if you use a jet boil like we do.

neo

here is a pic of my youngest son making dinner from his hammock with a jetboil
http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery...r&imageuser=11

**Hawk-eye** · 01-05-2010, 11:06

Originally Posted by neo

not a bad deal at all if you use a jet boil like we do.

neo

Jetboil/canister or alky ... not a problem ... wood burner ... now that's a different story!

**Wags** · 01-05-2010, 11:13

Originally Posted by MacEntyre

I've been noodling on that and one for getting the pack off the ground in a way that it can be packed.

i tie a knot in the laces and throw them over the ridgeline, like when gangsters throw a pair of sneakers over a telephone wire to signify someone got shot on that block

**Wags** · 01-05-2010, 11:19

Originally Posted by MacEntyre

At Hot Springs, Thing1 nearly stepped on two mating copperheads on the trail. I would worry far less about them. In eastern NC, the rattlers and cottonmouths are large and dangerous, but generally dwell where we don't.

i've walked right by them. man is it a scary feeling to take a quick look behind and see one of them just chilling a foot off the trail

**Dead Reckon** · 01-05-2010, 14:12

As an avid hunter and fisherman I use cover scents and an array of products specifically designed to rid clothing, gear, fire arms and human bodies of food, chemical and human scent. when in the field I brush my teeth with baking powder to reduce chemical odor. Boots, belts, clothing and gear can all be sprayed down with a product like Scent Away Spray to temporarily rid them of these odors. Clothing is laundered in a product like Scent Away odorless laundry soap. To rid them of human and human induced scents. I also use hand and body soaps of this type for human and human induced odor control. Some of the products I use leave a cover scent of leaves and fresh earth. Also I use an old de-scented washer and line dry my gear as the family laundry machines are polluted with scented laundry products. On my fire arms I use a product marketed as Invisible Gun, to clean and lubricate, that leaves less residual odor than water. I have taken several deer as close as ten feet without the use of a ground blind. This leads me to believe these products work. But this does not mean they would be suitable to launder down, hammocks or tarps. be aware that most laundry products leave a sweet aroma of some type. This is to suggest freshness, to create product appeal to the humans using them. To a bear this type of aroma smells maybe even better than a T-bone steak. Bears readily devour hand soap, deodorant, tooth paste, skin lotion sun blocker. chap stick etc. This leads me to believe if you launder your hammock tarp and quilts in a scented product and set it up in the bear country. One might as well ring the proverbial Dinner Bell! With this in mind. Please help out a fellow hammock user that occasionally haunts bear country! What are some odorless, down friendly, hammock and tarp suitable laundry products one might use to deodorize, not simply clean their gear? Also deer do not perceive the same spectrum of light humans do. Hunter orange to them appears as a shade of gray. Is this also true of bears? If so would color control help reduce curiosity?