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Critter Proofing
Experience From - Mike Franusich , Ray Zirblis , Blake Wood , Robert Thomas , Simon Shadowlight ,
Mike Franusich
Assuming there are none of those Sierra Nevada bears that rip open car doors to eat the leather seats...
I've had good luck with caching food/water by burying the stash bag under a pile of rocks. I also make sure I can triangulate to the cache from easily recognized landmarks, even in the dark.
For shorter term stashing, I like to put my water in a big ziplock bag, then I can just fold up the bag and take it with me. A little duct tape over the seal helps keep it closed and also can give some indication that the bag hasn't been tampered with by some joker.
Make sure to hide it well, or else some well-intentioned hiker is liable to clean up your "litter".
You can also mark the cache area with the universal animal "this is mine" scent (pee on it).
Ray Zirblis
Depends on the critter and terrain. Hanging by throwing a nylon cord over a tree branch is good against most any animal if done carefully, in my experience. (Any animal except man.) A basic outdoor book will show you how. In coniferous forest or upper elevations with stunted growth, a cord between two trees can work as your 'branch.'
People-proofing requires the extra step of choosing a tree off-trail and a container or stuff sack of a dull color. Map the location, or mark the spot where you need to step off trail with a cairn.
If you are just going to hide food in reused plastic containers, try rinsing them out with bleach solution first. At higher elevations, caching in snow is OK as long as you bury your food pretty deep--at least a couple of feet. Ravens will dig through a foot of snow. Cairns can work above treeline.
Do map and mark as necessary. In my experience, memory can't necessarily be trusted to remember caches. Identifying features may change quickly--leaves may sprout or fall, snow may arrive or melt away. Ten paces east of "the large boulder" may fail you in a boulder field full of them.
In bear country, I've also cached plastic bags of food by weighting with rocks in a stream at times, but I can't say if I've just had luck or if this is a good approach. Hope this gives you
