I am wondering whether or not it is advisable to hang socks to air from a tarp's ridgline. Would the sweaty aroma atract chipmuncks/sqruirrls/racoons?

I know that's a complete n00b question but I am wondering because I'm getting tired of wearing the same dirty socks for days in the summer just so I don't have to carry any on my back. I'm ditching that practice, lol.

thx

Be wary in areas with deer, mt. goats and marmots to name a few. What they want is your salt. Which your socks will be full of ;-)

One reason I keep my pack in my shelter at night....

yeah, deer, etc. is also what I'm worried about, but not my pack since I'll proboly bear-bag that

Carry two pairs, wash one pair every two days, hang out to dry.
Works for us.

Cheers

That's the way I do it. I don't think that hanging socks on your tarp line will attract animals any more than if they were next to your sleeping bag. I agree that if anything animals would be attracted to the salt so hanging them might keep them out of the way. Unless it's really breezy and dry I find that my socks don't dry much at night. (I usually hike fairly long days.) Hanging on the back of my pack they have plenty time to dry in decent weather.

The way I used to do it inside a tent was to air the day's used socks inside the tent all night (wit the windows opened of course, lol) and sleep in the fresh pair. Before taking the tent down I would put the aired socks inside my pack and replace the ones I had been wearing all night either in the afternoon or in the evening.

Then I stopped carrying extra socks altogether in the summer, and I'm getting tired of doing that. So methinks as long as it's ok under a tarp, I will go back to that.

thanks for the responses :)

I try to rinse my dirty socks each evening (I take a 2-gallon ziplock bag as a "washing machine"). The nice thing about having big mesh pockets on the outside of my pack is that it's easy to dry the socks the next day without having them flapping around or risking losing them. When you stop, they make nice decorations for young evergreen trees along with your sleeping bag. They feel even nicer when you change into them!

I do worse

when really damp, like our 24/24 7/7 rain in Scotland for our last hike, i put my damp socks over my shoulders , next to my skin ie under my baselayer from morning to the end of the day, if its still a bit damp then i sleep with them on my torso next to skin during the night.

they are some hike you expect to be wet, and in that case i really care only about :
1- keeping my down bag as dry as possible
2- drying 1 of my 2 pairs of socks


a distant 3 : keeping my cocoon hoodie or vest as dry as possible, but i dont care as much as the first 2 by far.

Colin Fletcher was fond of taking a five minute break every hour so that he could change socks, air out his boots, and give his dogs a rest. The damp socks were attached to his pack and would be dry by the next rest stop. This was his approach to avoiding blisters since he was traveling all day in dry socks. I do a similar thing during the summer but I'm not quite so punctual. It is a wonderful feeling though to slip on dry socks when your feet are just cooking!

"Carry two pairs, wash one pair every two days, hang out to dry.
Works for us."

+ 1

I tied a shoelace along the ridgeline inside my tent. That's where I hang my socks each night. They are usually dry by morning unless I've camped in a wet place. I don't find animals to be much attracted to anything I own anywhere I've been. I must repel them.

When I really want my socks dry and sterlized, I let my socks dry in the back pocket of my pack. I know this works because I hiked behind a guy for a few days this summer and his socks were so rank I had to walk 20 feet behind him and I still wanted to retch. After his socks spent a few days in the sun, I could walk within 8 or 10 feet of him and breathe easy.

I carry two pairs- one worn, one spare.

Wash one, hang it on the pack while walking; usually dry by evening for sleep. Wash the other pair that night, usually ready by midday the next.

For those of you who wash your socks, what do you wash them with? Sounds like a stupid question, but I've used Dr. Bronners and Campsuds in the past, and when the socks were dried they smelled just about as bad as before washing. And crunchier than expected from air-drying. This was when I actually carried a collapsible nylon bowl for washing, and I did rinse thoroughly. Do I just get particularly rancid feet? What's the secret?

Water!