Camping Ettiquette

[FrontRangeDweller]

Hi everyone. Please provide some insight for this noob camper/hiker so as not to offend the more initiated campers/hikers/climbers that grace our beautiful mountains. Thank you in advance. Background info: I have only three 14ers under my belt, Handies Peak, Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point. I tried Quandary with my daughter but she pooped out at around 12800. That was my fault because I left our breakfast on the table at home and trail mix wasn't getting it done for her. I have camped less than ten times in my entire life and only packed in once, to Lake Como. So I am the noobiest of noobs when it comes to camping /hiking, hence my screen name. (Short story: In college a guy called me a front range dweller quite derisively due to never being in the mountains up to that time. Me, feeling brave and being four or five shots in to a tequila bottle took offense and proceeded to go to blows with him over it. I haven't touched tequila since nor fought a cowboy cause this is what happened to me ) OK. Back to business. My goal is to summit a 14er in every range this summer or early fall without pissing anyone off from this point on. So anyway, my partner and i hiked up the lesser two of the Blanca Group (he hiked Little Bear the day before) and we prepared for the brutal trek down Lake Como Road. As we started to pack up the tent, we discovered a nicely rolled up foil bag with a good amount of stop-sign shaped crackers in it, protected by the vestibule, right next to the door of the tent. My partner and I dd not bring crackers to dine on for this trip so we were certain the snack was placed there on purpose, but for what reason we do not know. The nearest campsite was about 50 yards away next to the stream similar to our site. Could we have been too loud when we woke up and got dressed? It was 3 am after all. Were our headlamps so bright as to disturb a peaceful sleep? Did we make too much noise hanging the bag in the tree? I can't say as the perpetrator did not use his words to tell us what we did to annoy him so much. My partner has many years of camping experience and 41 14er summits. He can't think of any transgressions by us period and certainly none that would make a guy want to bait critters into our site and ruin expensive equipment. Is this a thing people do when they get mad at fellow campers? Is there some code i may have broken that would warrant baiting a critter to come and chew up our equipment? I welcome any comments or critiques.

[painless4u2]

Weird. Never heard of such a thing. My guess: either they were pissed off at you and wanted to attract a bear to trash your tent, or they were being generous with their food stock and maybe didn't want to pack them out. And alpine starts are normal in that area. Keep on climbing!

[Eli Boardman]

My guess is that some unknown, ignorant person had some extra food and thought, "hey, these campers could probably use it," so they left it by your tent, ignorant of the possibility of attracting wildlife.

[Ptglhs]

Maybe they just came across a package of food that wasn't theirs and they assumed it was yours and left it by your tent? I've had people leave food by my tent a couple of times actually. It's just been little hiking snacks that weren't mine. I assume they either found it near my tent and thought it was mine, or they just didn't want to carry it themselves and figured I could use the snack.

I seriously doubt anyone is trying to bait an animal over to your tent by leaving food out for it.

[illusion7il]

There is only one possible explanation for this... CookieHiker

[pvnisher]

I haven't considered baiting an animal to a tent, but I'll keep it in mind...
I have, however, replaced insect repellent with sugar water. And also planted an open can of tuna up above ceiling tiles over School holiday break...
So I'm always open to learn more food based pranks.

[Wentzl]

I think the nicely rolled up foil suggests something other than intent to bait animals to your gear. I would have crumbled them and scattered them about if that were my intent. Or toss a hot dog inside. But like others, never heard a similar story. Gotta hope it was just some dope trying to be generous. Thanks for sharing.

[Tnesper]

I haven't considered baiting an animal to a tent, but I'll keep it in mind...
I have, however, replaced insect repellent with sugar water. And also planted an open can of tuna up above ceiling tiles over School holiday break...
So I'm always open to learn more food based pranks.

You pull that insect repellent trick to someone on a hike? I love a good prank, but not as much as I hate mosquitos. I might bury you alive in the woods for that one.

To the OP, I would give the benefit of the doubt that it was a... how about... unthoughtful gesture. They thought it was yours, or heard you in your sleep talking about crackers, but didn't think about the animal implications.

[pvnisher]

Rocks in the pack, zip ties on tent zippers, reflective tape circles set out to look like animal eyes, sugar water insect repellent... Your never too old to act childish.

[Cookiehiker]

There is only one possible explanation for this... CookieHiker

Now, now...you know I only hand out cookies on the summit!