This is probably as good a place to ask this as anywhere. How 'bout a list/pics of what you plan to carry on this little jaunt???

Two years ago I was on a remote muzzleloader moose hunting trip with 4 other fellows. We lounged, cooked, ate and slept in a 14 x 16 canvas wall tent heated with a small wood stove.

The problem was not bears it was SKUNKS! Late one night we were all sleeping on cots in the tent when a large skunk entered under the wall. One of the fellows woke-up and quietly alerted the rest of us. The skunk stayed under the kitchen table while we all just watched it. We decided that if we killed it, or even moved out of our sleeping bags that the skunk would spray and all of our stuff would be ruined. So after a little while the skunk went back out the spot he had come it and we sealed the tent edge down.

The next night the skunk showed-up outside the tent earlier in the evening and a quick solution was found to the problem.

Mike

Haha, sounds like a pretty suspenseful situation! Well I'm not so sure I'm going to be using a tent, though considering it... Thing is, I can't stand not being able to see what's around me. And not to mention(lol, always seems to come back to these guys!), what if a bear decides he likes the way I smell? All I'll know is that something BIG is trying to open my tent like a can of sardines, and where can I go? Walls going crazy around me would be a terrible disorientation. All in all, I like being in open-air. Been camping a good bit, but I've used a tent only a few times, mainly going camping with my family when I was quite young. Since then, I prefer being under the stars.... In this time of year I don't think it would be as much of an issue unless it rains- But the winter is a different story, I'd assume....

i did not read ALL those replys to your post,but in canoe
country where bears are known pack thiefs there are two
methods---one is to "tree" the pack and the other is to
leave it off in the woods or along the shore where a bear
searching a campsite will not find it..stashed packs should
be sealed up to keep food smells in..both groups think the
other is nuts..good hanging trees are hard to find and the
bears know where to look for the ones campers always use
on the other side,leaving a pack on the ground is making it
easy to take as you can never get all the food smell off it..
it he old days campers would just leave the pack tied to a
tree at ground level and put the cook gear on top as an alarm
and hope they got out of tent fast enought to chase the bear off--

We used to try submersing the food in problem bear areas
when canoeing, till we saw one sniffing over the water
where our food was stashed. We managed to throw rocks
to get him to leave, but we hung our food from then on.

Hmm... All good advice- and I don't think I'll be tying my stuff to a tree as a bear-lure... I'm trying to avoid a knife-fight with a bear at all costs, lol... Decided I'm not gonna bring the rocket launcher, so it might get pretty tricky!

"...winter is a different story, I'd assume..."

That statement leaves the impression that you have little or no experience with cold/wet weather "camping." If you don't want a tent, how are you going to protect yourself from the weather? Tarp, bivy, or something else???

I've gone camping in wet weather a good bit, had no issues- I bring a tarp, set up a couple poles for a lean-to style, and angle it downhill. Far as cold weather goes, how much insulation does a tent actually provide? In snow it's obvious, but is the dead-air bonus something that I wouldn't be able to compensate for somehow?

this is, of course, a canoe trippers way of getting the food
out of reach and keep the critters out of the biscuit mix
and peanut butter..a line is tossed over a branch and the
bag pulled up..there are several ways of doing this involving
pullys and several ropes..



but as this is a survival site the question really is--
how to keep your hard earned chow away from the racoons
and mice when you have not much more gear than fits in a
candy tin--eat everthing as soon as you get it?? sleep on
top of it and fend off the varmints at all costs??..use a
plastic bag and fishing line to hang the last bit of rat
meat up a tree???--

Water doesn't mask scent...it just causes it to 'pool' on top off the water, concentrating it. Ask anybody who runs a scent dog in the bush. The best thing a person can do for the dog is run through water.