I was just looking at some of PHAT'a great photos. I notice that his car at the trailhead is protected from porkys by chicken wire.

Phat, and others, what parts of the US require such protection? I've never had a problem and never taken precautions. Forewarned is forarmed.

I can't answer your question, but since the subject line is Porcupines, I thought I would mention that in the PNW the native americans considered it poor form to kill and eat porcupines, because they were such a great source of emergency food for someone who was stranded or starving. They were so easy to kill that hunting them generally could have easily wiped them out in a generation or two.

You can whack them with just about anything heavy, drag them onto a fire to burn off the quills and cook them, and you've got a meal.

Just a thought for those of us who wander around the backwoods.

I haven't seen his photo's, but I had to wrap my car with chicken wire when we climbed in the Bugaboo mts of Canada. It was pretty crazy to see a parking lot full of cars and trucks skurrounded wby wire! There was additional wire hidden for re-use in the trees out of sight. Supposedley they like to chew on the rubber hose of brake lines while you are up in the high country! When in Rome...

The same technique is used at Mineral King in Sequoia National Park against marmots....

And it's a long drive if they eat your wiring or hoses!

I see

You've been looking at my limetone lakes trip last summer:

http://bofh.cns.ualberta.ca/beck/pictures/limestone2009

Here's the picture:


In canada we frequently have salt on the roads, so your car almost always has some on it. In the north and the alpine most rodents are completely salt crazy. they will chew on things with salt on it - especially wire harnesses and coolant hoses.

I have personally driven people out after their vehicle was rendered unusable by marmots.

That particular parking lot *very* remote. You don't want to have your vehicle chewed on