[philmont] Bear Ropes

Larry,

I don't recall much about the 1965 system except that the idea was to get
the food and other potential smellables up high. The "system" probably
varied somewhat depending on how closely the rangers instruction was adhered
to.

As to tents we drew standard Philmont issue for that time. The name of the
particular tent doesn't come to mind.
Those were the days when people sometimes went without frames. I remember
very well carrying a B.S.A. Yucca pack, which seemed huge compared to the
B.S.A. backpack I used back home. I also used a frame of early design but it
did little more than keep the Yucca extended and didn't assist much in
carrying the pack. It was necessary throughout the trek to "pull" on the
straps to keep the load as high as possible in order to have the weight
"sit" on my back rather than have the straps pull me backwards. I remember
many short rest stops where we would lean forward to ease the shoulder
muscles.

A nice tribute to Dick Kelty, famous for inventing the Kelty backpack, and a
description of the Yucca pack will be found at:

http://www.aldha.org/kelty.htm

Joe
*

JAJansenJr@gmail.com <mailto:JAJansenJr@gmail.com>*

Philmont 1965 (the year of the great flood); 1978

On 1/19/07, Larry Sims <larry_sims_t1288@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Joe,
>
> I went in '65 as well and being a typical kid I have no memory of bear
> bags. What do you remember about the '65 system.
>
> I have printed a copy of the '65 Guidebook to Adventure and notice that it
> hardly mentions bears at all.
>
> We encountered bears on the trail in '65.
>
> What were the names of the 2-man tents we used? I remember lifting my
> pancho (ground cloth) one storming night and watching the water run by. I
> stayed dry though.
>
>
> Larry Sims
>
> Crew 444 - Philmont Expedition Coordinator, Katy, TX
>
> 615-D1 and 615-D2 2007
>
> Troop 1288 Katy, TX 610-C4 2004 Trek #24 (75+ miles)
>
> Troop 1288 Katy, TX 609-A3 2002 Trek #5FM (Fire modified trek)
>
> South Plains Council Contingent 718-G1 1965 (The Monsoons of '65)
>
> BTPin2007!
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Joseph Jansen <jajansenjr@gmail.com>
> To: philmont List Member <philmont@troop47.com>
> Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 6:30:22 PM
> Subject: [philmont] Bear Ropes
>
> They are there all right. If you haven't seen them, give yourself a pat
> on the back, as your attention to miinimising smellables, more than any
> other single factor, probably led the bears to conclude that you weren't
> worth their time.
>
> One bear story. In 1965 a bear raided our campsite, shared with several
> sister crews. Bear found a way to shinny up a tree and outwit the bear bag
> system of the day, eating most of a crews food. Our crew, too exhausted to
> erect the bear bag system, put our stuff under a tarp and set a jelly mixed
> with soap powder trap for the bear. (Warning: Do not try this at home. Do
> not try this at Philmont. It can only be revealed now because the statute
> of limitations for Philmont misdeeds has passed) Great chaos that night,
> with bear noises and boys yelling. Next morning the results were learned.
> Bear had eaten the other crews provisions, even though it had to climb to
> get them and outwit the bear bag system. The jelly/soap powder bait had
> been taken - and there were bear droppings very near where the bait had been
> set - but our provisions were untouched. We had a few jokes at the sister
> crew's expense over the next few days until arriving at the next food
> pickup. And once during this trek we saw bear claw markings on wooden "swap
> boxes".
>
> Joe Jansen
> JAJansenJr@gmail.com
> Philmont 1965; 1978
>
>
> On 1/18/07, Phil Brown <Phil@eisnc.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Lou wrote:
> > They love to play up the bear problem, but we didn't see any on our
> > trek.
> >
> >
> > I have seen bears on 2 of my 3 treks. I am convinced the reason
> > Philmont has as few bears problems as it does is due to the diligence
> > they have to their bear procedures.
> >
> > Phil Brown
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
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Received on Fri Jan 19 13:31:53 2007