Should I be worried about bears when sleeping in a hammock?
I'm going on a multi day backpacking trip and I am planning on taking only a backpacking hammock instead of a tent. When I mentioned this to a friend of mine he jokingly referred to me as a bear taco.
Do I need to worry about bears more since I am in a hammock?
(Food will be stored safely and well away from camp)
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One of the best things about hammocks is that you can elevate them as high as anchor points allow. That means you can sleep with the woodpeckers and squirrels up high. It's actually a lot of fun to do, but it isn't for the faint of heart, or those who sleepwalk. Getting up high among the branches lets you hang all sorts of stuff and have an arboreal campsite, it's especially good to use where you have concerns about the ground...swampy areas, gators, snakes, rabid coyotes, meth addicts stumbling around in the woods.
If you hang your gear away from your hammock and haven't cooked and eaten right underneath, you should be fine. And yes, bears can climb trees. They aren't ninjas though, and if you aren't awakened by the sound of them clawing their way up a tree a few feet away, you might as well sleep on the ground and not worry anyway. If one does go through the trouble of climbing a tree after you wake up and start yelling at it and shine a light on it, you still have recourse to a sidearm or using a pre-placed bailout rope to swing away like Tarzan. Makes for awesome selfies too.
I usually prefer tarp/fly shelters and sleeping on the ground, and have done plenty of that while hunting in bear country. In bear country just try to give yourself a protected space...like setting up in blowdowns with trees/logs piled on three sides. And then you have built in alert/protection (noise to climb over, barrier) in three directions and one approach to worry about. Pile brush to narrow it, and build your fire there. People have used that technique for millennia.
Really, don't worry. Just sleep with your pistol and knife. All smart bear tacos are armed tacos.
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Being in a hammock shouldn't change anything. A tent is not any safer, and may be more dangerous, since you don't have visibility of the area around you. Buy or borrow a copy of Trail Life, there's a good discussion of the issues with using a tent. A tarp is my preference over a hammock or a tent, because they make for a dryer and more comfortable night's sleep for me.
The prime rule is to not cook near where you're stopping for the night. Cook and eat your evening meal a few miles before you make camp, and the bears will be drawn there instead of to your campsite.
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I've been using a bear fence lately:
Best sleep in bear country. Look it up on Internet. Does add about 3-4lbs to your kit, so get lighter somewhere else.
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