stash

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keb

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Rockland County
Going to be doing a week on the Long Trail. While we are planning to be pretty self sufficient for the week, we do have a couple of road crossings and are considering stashing some stuff in the woods at the crossing to pick up when we cross. Partly to lighten our load, but also figured it would be a good mental objective/reward to keep us motivated.

So, in discussing that, we are wondering what we can/can't/shouldn't leave in the woods for 3-4 days. For example, do you think critters will be able to smell a dehydrated unopened meal in the original package? What about trail mix, or trail mix bars unopened? Do you think that hanging a bag is best? Or since we will be driving to the location on the way up, and passing again on the way back, we were considering putting the stash in a plastic box that we could then weight down with some rocks or something to keep small animals out. We would then pick it back up on our return. Once we considered that, we figured we might even leave a set of clean underwear, sox and or tshirt and be able to drop dirty stuff and garbage there and pick back up on our way home.

I know that laundry drier sheets are good for keeping mice out of trunks and things like that, think they would be beneficial for something like this?

Nothing here is critical, we don't plan to leave any necessities, but might be a nice bonus if we can make it work. Any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated.
 
A bear vault would be the safest method of stashing things. They can be rented for a reasonable fee.

I think it's technically illegal to leave yourself caches, but I'm not sure.
 
When we cached food for a hike through the 100-mile Wilderness, we used bear canisters, which worked great. We placed them just off the trail, where they couldn't be seen, behind a tree and covered up a bit with brush (just to be sure no one would take them.) I left a note inside mine indicating we were coming back to pick them up too... just in case someone happened upon them and thought they were left behind.

I would think you could use one of those big multi-gallon buckets with a lid (or the plastic box you describe) for the same purpose.

- Ivy
 
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