Some good advice. I agree with Ben's(smiley face), I mean Scrub Hiker's advice this far. Once you wake up in the morning with mouse feces and urine on your sleeping bag and in your hair or have to contend with mouse eaten holes in your expensive down sleeping bag, backpack, rain jacket, EVent and cuben fiber food sacks and your food is spoiled with mouse feces when the next resupply point is three days away it can change your mind in regard to mice AND rats. The rest of the rodents I don't mind so much because I've been able to successfully foil their advances rather easily. Make sure the mouse trapeeze *has a baffle* or you are not likely to deter a hungry mouse. They can climb walls, trees, strings, cords, wires, do a high wire trapeeze act, and even jump over things or from one tree/branch to another tree/branch. They can easily climb down a cord without a baffle where you've hung a pack or food. I've also seen them squeeze their bodies so flat that they can squeeze their way into astonishingly small crevices and spaces. They are hungry determined amazing circus performers! Watching mice perform their gymastics is as entertaining as watching squirrels finding a way to get at a defended bird feeder.
Absolutely. Some AT shelters are more mouse infested than others. I would venture some shelters have a serious mouse issue while at some shelters, IMHO, no issue exists. I guess it's part of ALWAYS wanting to sleep at AT shelters and quite possibly some well used/trodden camping areas on the AT. One reason why I tend to avoid camping at areas where humans congregate is because human behavior can adversely affect typical wildlife behavior. It's also one reason why we should practice Leave No Trace principles.
Sadly, Cooper Lodge, because of the amount of use, AND ABUSE, it experiences from not only hikers but also from those wandering over to it from the nearby ski resorts is dirty, scarred both inside and outside from burns/fires, is rodent infested and isn't the most pristene ecological environment adjacent to the shelter. The surrounding area has been environmentally abused. Not a place I would normally spend the night. I would also definitely treat my water IF I took drinking water from the area and I treat my water about 10% of the time.
Obviously, it does happen as so many posters have acknowledged.
LOL. Not always so funny when it happens to you though.
Sounds like some helpful advice to me! Thanks. I forgot about that. Sniff. Sniff. Mice will travel though!
Probably right. I like the Ursack idea. You could also hang on a trapeeze, with a baffle, a odor proof WP Opsak with ALL food and scented items including cookware. I sometimes use one in bear country.
Thanks. Good advice. I do something similiar. I spray bug juice in a wide continuous band all around where I sleep. I sleep inside the band(atoll) on the "island". Usually, it's the same bug juice I would apply to my body or clothing. This can work for scorpions, venemous spiders, venemous snakes, cockroaches(the ground can literally come alive in the woods at night with 100's of cockroaches and venemous centipedes in the Hawaiian woods!, it's like an episode of FearFactor), fire ants, mice, etc
Thanks. Good advice!
I do what ChinMusic, Lyle, and others suggest: I hang all my scented and food items, including my cookware, on a trapeeze with a baffle in a Opsak and I hang my opened pack, to let mice rumage around in it without feeling the need to chew holes in it or other gear, on a bear cable or on a hook inside or outside the shelter with my rain cover over it if hung outside. I keep myself clean from food and food odors. I wash my mouth, face, hair, clothing, and anything that might have been contaminated with food and foof scents. I keep a clean camp. I don't drop food. I cook away from where I sleep. I don't normally camp where others tend to congrgeate.
So you are the one! I remember seeing you hike with the duct taped X over the crotch. Funny shart KK!