Cooking Safety ... Newb Question

[DPhillips]

Got a question -

The "cook away from your sleeping area" rule.
Not like I've never camped before, just never in BB.
Planning a trip in July 2008, 3 / 4 days in the mountians.

So, is cooking in camp an issue?

Common sense, to me at least, says:

use the locker provided
eat all your meal and lick the bowl, plate whatever
dispose of dish water well away from campsite

Does the smell of cooking food attract uninvited dinner guests? Never had a bad experience in the hill country around Austin, but the critters there are somewhat smaller.

Curious -

David

[SHANEA]

I believe most of the critters can smell food/people from so far away that I wouldn't think it would be an issue, but obviously it wouldn't hurt.  I mean, unless you are a messy eater and most of your food winds up on the ground, then yes you would be inviting uninvited guest into camp.  We always just store everything and I mean everything including toothpaste, etc. in the bear box.  If you spilled food on your clothes, then I'd put those in the bear box too. 

[STARLITDARKNESS3]

I've only seen an issue in the Basin.  If you stay up late into the night, which I recommend for great views of the skies, you might see the 'clean up crew' come through the campground.  Their approach sometimes appears systematic, methodical, as they start at one campsite and work their way through the whole area.  Skunks and Javalinas, sometimes together, pick up every last crumb out there.  They don't even mind that you are there.  I used the word 'issue' at the beginning of the post, but I don't think it is a problem.  Keep a clean campsite and they will just go on by to the neighbors.  In the backcountry, I have not seen any critters pick up after us.  Maybe they know we are supposed to pack out what we pack in.   

[dkerr24]

I've always prepared and ate meals right in my campsite.  All I'm doing is boiling water with my MSR propane stove, so there isn't much to attract a animal. 

[JimNewOrleans]

Right, a litle common sense is all that is needed - everything in the box, clean site, which we all do anyway, and there's no issue.  The only thing that is to be considered is that, unlike yellowstone or other REALLY beary places where the food storage is hung 1/4 mi or more from your tent, in the chisos, the bear box is only a few feet at most from your tent... so although creature visitors won't GET your food, they may still come into camp to investigate.

Starlitdarkness is correct, the clean up crew will come out just to make sure.... once at Grapevine hills (primative, not backpacking on that trip)  I turned my head for just a minute while fiddling with a lantern, and when I turned around a skunk was hurrying off with my pepperoni stick.  There's something about a man and his pepperoni/bourbon ritual at night, and I swear, for a split second , I actually thought about going after it.

[RichardM]

once at Grapevine hills (primative, not backpacking on that trip)  I turned my head for just a minute while fiddling with a lantern, and when I turned around a skunk was hurrying off with my pepperoni stick.  There's something about a man and his pepperoni/bourbon ritual at night, and I swear, for a split second , I actually thought about going after it.

I bet you would've gone after him if he'd grabbed the bourbon...

I have a friend who reached in to his backpack while cooking and grabbed a handful of skunk.  He never did get all of the smell out of that pack.  That was at the beginning of a multi-day trip.  His buddies made him hike downwind for the rest of the trip....way downwind.

[presidio]

I have a friend who reached in to his backpack while cooking and grabbed a handful of skunk.  He never did get all of the smell out of that pack.  That was at the beginning of a multi-day trip.  His buddies made him hike downwind for the rest of the trip....way downwind.

I've dealt with skunked dogs, but I am having a hard time comprehending just how disgusting that must have been....for days.

What is baffling is how no one noticed the skunk approaching or getting in the pack. It almost sounds like a variation of the old 'rock in a pack' trick foisted on the unsuspecting. They must have been totally zoned out to miss the little stinker until it was too late.

[SHANEA]

It almost sounds like a variation of the old 'rock in a pack' trick foisted on the unsuspecting. They must have been totally zoned out to miss the little stinker until it was too late.

Ah, reminds me of Goldratt and the Goal when the hiker with the boy scouts learned to understand production bottle necks... the cast iron skillet as I recall...

[jim2]

in big bend dish water and cooking water are supposed to be packed out . jim2

[presidio]

in big bend dish water and cooking water are supposed to be packed out . jim2

How unreal can an agency get? Apparently over the top.

[chisos_muse]

in big bend dish water and cooking water are supposed to be packed out . jim2

Yeah what presidio said cause I've never heard of this, but being as I'm not the Highlander and don't know every friggin thing there is to know, perhaps you can post the link to this particular restriction/rule/what have you?

[Burn Ban]

in big bend dish water and cooking water are supposed to be packed out . jim2

How unreal can an agency get? Apparently over the top.

lord almighty.  if this is true i may have to set my hair on fire. 

[badknees]

in big bend dish water and cooking water are supposed to be packed out . jim2

Don't think so.

Quote from BIBE Web Page
" Keep your camp clean of food scraps, grease, etc. Cook away from your sleeping area. Dispose of cooking water in the camper sinks in the Chisos Basin campground or well away from camp in the backcountry. Strain the water to insure that you are not dumping food scraps on the ground."

[badknees]

in big bend dish water and cooking water are supposed to be packed out . jim2

Don't think so.

Quote from BIBE Web Page
" Keep your camp clean of food scraps, grease, etc. Cook away from your sleeping area. Dispose of cooking water in the camper sinks in the Chisos Basin campground or well away from camp in the backcountry. Strain the water to insure that you are not dumping food scraps on the ground."

OK, now I know what I will do with my REI bucks, get me a new water strainer to get the chunks out of my dish water. 

Is the general camping public so utterly stupid that they have to be told not to dump dish water where someone else will be sleeping in a few hours/days?

Probably

[aggiehiker]

I'm studying up on bears for a hiking trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone. The books say don't sleep in your cooking clothes because the smell is there. Always change and store your cooking clothes with your food. Don't know if it's that bad in the Basin, but a bear is a bear, so I wouldn't take any chances.