[Philmont]

Dan,

With our bear bags, we could put a full 4 days of Philmont food for a crew of 12 in one bag. We never put that much in because some meals were always either eaten or put in the oops bag for easier access for dinner.

Bear bag lines and PCT method…

Philmont uses (and makes each crew use) a “bear cable” that is just a large steel cable run between two trees about 20 feet off the ground. They won’t let you run lines over limbs, etc. The bear cable is your limb.

Our para-cord line setup – each of our two para-cord bear lines is a 100’ length of 700 pound test para-cord. The length is “folded” in half with a figure 8 loop in the center (carabineer loop). So, the two “ends” of our bear ropes are 1) two loose ends of the para cable, and 2) the center loop. The two loose ends are tied to different trees once the bag has been attached to the center loop and has been raised

We run one bear cord over the bear cable – the center loop is run over the cable leaving two loose ends on one side and the center loop on the other. We attach our main bear bag to that center loop using a climbing rated carabineer. We also run the oops bag bear line through this carabineer (the carabineer is now the pulley for the oops bag). Once the main bear bag is attached and the oops line is run through, we raise the main bag up to within about a foot of the bear cable (with someone holding onto both “ends” of the oops line to make sure it doesn’t get caught up or twisted. The main bag should never have to be lowered until the next morning.

Once the main bag is secured to trees – a whole other process for us – we attach the oops bag containing any meals to be eaten that day and our smellables to the center loop of the oops line and raise the bag, tying off to the same trees as the main bag. With our method, the oops bag can be lowered and re-raised in about a minute when/if needed.

Are you confused yet? It’s a lot easier than it sounds, and I’m a terrible writer.

We don’t tie our bear lines directly to trees either. We have a tree harness we use that is a 1” nylon webbing (less tree damage). The harness has two loops – one for the main bag line and one for the oops bag line. The lines are attached to the harness using smaller carabineers – allows for much easier/faster lowering of bags…

I’ll take some pictures of our stuff in use this month and post on the forum photo gallery.

I know this all sounds confusing. Let me know what parts I need to explain better…

What is your 2008 expedition number? We’ll be there from June 18 to June 30.

--
Shane (from work)
Advisor - Crew 445 - crew445.org
CM - Troop 445 - troop445.org
WM - Philmont Forum - philmontforum.org
'81-9 | '84-24 | '00-8 | '02-23FM | '05-26 | '08-??
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