From: p2ranger@anvilgear.com
Date: Mon Dec 16 2002 - 18:09:01 CST
> Of course, duct tape always works :-) but making it a smellable w/ the
> tape doesn't work... :-(
>
>
A bit off topic but here goes.
I had a talk with Mark last year about being more practical with our
smellable policy. One of the things I discussed with both him and Bob
Rickliffs was duct tape. Duct tape IS a smellable but not a rewardable.
Just like batteries are a smellable but Powerbars are rewardables. See the
difference?
What we finally decided to do last summer (amongst a lot of confusion) was
to not have to put duct tape up in the bear bag if you had it on
something. If you had a role of it then put it up. So what to do with
waterbottles with duct tape? Keep the water bottles in the bearmuda
triangle. This includes putting them in your pack (which should never
leave the triangle), putting them behind your pack out of site, and
putting them in the fire ring. Our main concern was keeping all bottles
out of site because some bears had learned the shape of bottles from
someone who left down their smellable bottle.
In all my time at Philmont I never put up duct tape bottles, except in
2001 when we had the strict policies from the bear incident at Old Camp. I
have never had a bear check out my water only water bottle with duct tape
on it. The bear reasearchers have a roll of duct tape that a bear had
chewed on once. I doubt he ever went after another roll as there is not
dietary substanance to duct tape (that I am aware of) he was just curious
of the smell of the adhesive.
So why the descrepency in putting rolls up but not if it is on something?
Well the quantity of smell on a roll is more than what is around a bottle
for one thing. The main thing is weight. If you have 10 bottles with duct
tape full of water, that's about 20 lbs extra you have in the bear bag. A
commmon problem we found was too much weight being placed on bear cables.
That and some crews would get lazy with heavy bags and not properly hang
the bags. So we hoped to aleviate this. Keeping your items with duct tape
on them down is no big hazzard to you or the bear. The bear will not have
a positive experience with it. This still means that a bear can come after
it, which is why we want it in the triangle.
Please don't take this to think that the triangle is a magical place you
can leave smellables just because you forgot to put them up. You'd be
surprised how many stupid crews out there that do that. The ONLY magical
place that is safe from a bear is in a propperly hung bear bag.
Now of course, this is all subject to change as rules and policies do
every year at Philmont. Now that I am out of the loop, it may have changed
and I don't know about it. So listen to your Ranger (and don't agure
PLEASE!!). Feel free to bring up the topic at the Advisor's meeting you go
to.
Jason
><>
Retired Ranger
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