RE: [Philmont]: Smellable? What was that?

> From: Pete Swiggum
> I'd be interested in knowing what caused you to have the
> opinion that the
> bear bags are "junk".
> >
We are not used to rain on backpacks (when we go to the Sierras for a week,
it never rains on us). So, maybe that colored our judgment (and our way of
doing things). We found, when it rained all night on our third night on the
trail that the stuff in the Philbags was soaked, unless it was ziplocked.
The Philfood does not come ziplocked, the bags have airholes, so the cracker
boxes were falling apart from being wet. Personal smellables that didn't
fit well in ziplocs (particularly camp shoes and long pants) also got
soaked. Even some of the zip locs leaked. If the stuff was in a drybag, it
stayed dry and we had less weight to carry and less stuff to dry out. After
raining all night, it rained all day, stopped for the evening and then
rained all night again (not the usual pattern of raining for a short time
and stopping) then half the next day. The stuff that went up in the dry
bags stayed dry, the stuff that went in the philbags got wet.

The other problem is that when we got a four day pickup, the philbags did
not easily hang outside our packs, and we smashed some food getting them
into the packs (particularly poptarts). The drybags hang outside the pack
easily without needing to be tied. I suppose it comes down to personal
preference. We're used to the drybags.

Regards
Don Roberts

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Received on Mon Aug 22 21:28:46 2005