Shoutout to the ranger at Mount Rogers who called out my food hang and made me rethink 8 years of trips

Jason Bennett · 2026-10-01T07:10:02.986328+00:00

I always hung my bear bag about 8 feet up and 4 feet from the trunk, thought that was fine since it worked on maybe 40 trips across Virginia and North Carolina. A ranger walked past my camp near Rhododendron Gap in September, looked up at it, and just said, that is a raccoon piñata. He pulled out a tape and showed me it was only 6 feet off the ground and 2 feet from the trunk. I had been doing the same lazy hang since 2016 and never once measured it. Now I want to hear from people who actually use a canister on the AT instead, is the weight worth it or do you still hang?

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Shoutout to the ranger at Mount Rogers who called out my food hang and made me rethink 8 years of trips | Backpacking Routes - The Community Guide