water containers

[vivian]

I've got a question for all the experts that use open boats and canoes. Have you ever had rats chew through those blue hard sided water carriers?

This is my second year using these in my canoe on the outside islands. Last season the rats were on most of the gulf islands. So far the racoons have not done any damage to them.

[Keith W]

I use the soft plastic collapsible Coleman 2.5 gal containers and one of these was chewed through. They would have to be some really bad**s rats to get through the hard plastic kind.

[Terry]

Cheap as I am I've always just used old Gatorade or Milk jugs or for that matter the gallon jugs water
comes in. I carry a small 2 pound anchor, at ground and chickee sites I put all my liquids and food
chest in the canoe and anchor it out away from land where it has to be pulled in to get in. I usually
anchor it digonally to the structure so I can walk it from one side or the other to get in it or suspend it.
Obviously, with the food in the canoe floating on water I've never had a problem.
I also carry a nylon mesh bag for beach sites, I just put all my liquids in the bag and hang it from
trees. My food chest is just the standard Igloo ice chest with an extra strap around it to keep
them from getting in after popping the snap. Once on Pavilion Key there were so many raccoons
trying to get into my food chest that the noise kept me awake. The next morning the canoe was
full of sand and the food chest snap popped open but they didn't get in with the strap.
The only problem I ever had with the bandits was on Cape Sable back in the 1970's, a coon came
up in the seconds I leaned forward to stir the fire and snatched my whole loaf of bread. I chased him
with a paddle and since he couldn't run through the under brush with a loaf of bread he dropped it.
Fortunately I got my bread back for the rest of the trip.

[vivian]

Thank you guys, I am glad to hear they are also rat proof. But hopefully the rats won't be so bad this coming season on those outside islands. I hate them!

[Terry]

All this talk of rats, I didn't see any on my last year's through trip although I only stayed on one
beach site, Picnic Key. Didn't see any at Pavillion, Highlands, Graveyard, Cape Sable earlier
this century either.
As a matter of fact, the last time I saw any rats was on Wedge Point in the mid-1970's.
But ya'll say they're there, hmmm, that's not a good sign. That's usually a sign of too much
human influence.

[vivian]

Yep here is a picture of one at Pavillion. Maybe they should just take some radio collared pythons and put them on the islands with the rat infestations. After they eat all the rats, they can be picked up and moved out.

[Keith W]

I camped at Pavilion last December and didn't set the fly on my tent, and I watched a rat crawl up the netting on the outside. I gave it a flying lesson with the back of my hand. On my first visit to Camp Lonesome years ago I made the mistake of putting a plastic bag of food trash on the tent floor near the door, and one ate a hole through the tent floor and got into the bag while we were asleep. These are the only two spots I've ever seen rats or was aware of their presence.

What surprised me the most about Pavilion last year wasn't the rats, but the complete absence of racoons, which were always a big problem there in the past. It made me wonder if the Park was coming in during the off-season and thinning them out. I also wonder if the increase in the rat population has anything to do with a lack of competition from racoons.

The python idea might not be a bad one except they would also eat everything else on the island, including the 'good' wildlife. Then they would come looking for your kids...

[Keith W]

Sheesh! I'm looking at that last line and that sounds pretty dire. Probably should have put a smiley on that one!
:-p

[Miami101]

Well you could always take water, and use the Rats for food.
Nice grilled Rat might not be to bad................

[Bob Quirk]

Viv. this is a good question. I don't think the rats would tackle one of these but one of Chekika's trip reports last year talked about Rat's chewing through a fiberglass kayak bulkhead and also through his tent. Keith hates rats and would be a good one to ask about the subject. I use mostly liter water bottles stored frozen in a cooler and then I seal the cooler with shock cords. Any leftovers are either inside the Kayak, not an option in your case or hung in a net bag from a tree. I use a coleman I beleive 32 qt cooler purchased at BPS, on the back of my Adventure Island. It will fit nicely in a canoe and if you freeze the water will provide cold storage for 5 days. I like Terry's solution of anchoring out but some of the beach sites are way to roough for that.

[vivian]

Bob, I have and do bring the 32qt cooler but the problem is when my trips are longer than 5 days. The blue containers don't take up as much space as a cooler. As the water weight goes down I have to shift gear around to get the canoe trim right. With the cooler you are stuck with that space wasted the whole trip. For a 3 night trip that is what I do but have to figure out another solution for my once a year 9-10 day trips in a skinny solo canoe.

The kayak solved alot of the problems associated with keeping water/food safe from the critters. The canoe requires other solutions I am still trying to figure out.

[Keith W]

Take your food and water into your tent and keep it away from the walls, and keep it contained. Don't leave any food out where it becomes an attractant. The only problem I ever had with rats was because I tossed a plastic bag with food trash into a corner of the tent against the wall. I've been using the frozen-water-in-the-cooler trick for years and it's a good one. Half my water for a 10 day trip will go into the cooler. The rest of the water is in collapsible 2-1/2 gal plastic jugs and these go into the tent at night. I have NEVER had a problem with coons or rats when I follow this regimen. As the cooler empties it becomes a repository for the empty water jugs, trash, and whatever else can be stowed there, freeing up space in the rest of the canoe.

Instead of using shock cords I fitted my cooler with a galvanized steel lock hasp and I secure this with a carabiner. Much easier to open and close and coons aren't quite dexterous enough to figure out carabiners (yet!).

[vivian]

Keith next time you load that canoe for a trip can you take a picture of your set up and how you fitted the cooler with the lock hasp? I think that's a great idea! You are in a solo canoe or tandem?