[Philmont] Bear Bags

We're doing a shakedown 18 miler this weekend on the Alabama Pinhoti trail.
Our plan is to bring 3 30-liter bags per crew and an oops bag. I'm going to
bring a scale to check the volume and weight of our smellable gear, as this
should remain constant since we are hiking with a full 12 man crew. We can
also estimate our weight and volume for food since we will have 2 days of
food when we hit the trail.

-=Dan=-

On 10/5/07, WHDickens@aol.com <WHDickens@aol.com> wrote:
>
> If you head into the Valle Vidal, which is more Leave No Trace than the
> main ranch, you will not have bear cables. You will need to put up your own
> cable using Philropes. It can get to be quite challenging in some places.
> We put a climbing carabiner in the center of the cable/rope and used it to
> raise and lower the bear bags. Our ranger was training the crew and they
> didn't show him how we had been doing it on shake downs. Without the
> carabiner they cut through the main cable/rope when attempting to raise the
> bear bags. The ranger really liked the carabiner idea after that.
>
> The next morning there were fresh bear tracks all under the bags and along
> the creek next to them. The prior afternoon soon after reaching the
> campsite the ranger and I had to walk towards a bear to get him to leave the
> campsite area. We had to do this twice, and a nearby crew had to do it
> once. This was at Rich Cabins; trek 6-17-K3-2006. One of the boys also saw
> a mountain lion while we were there. The lion spooked two young bucks that
> ran right through the middle of our campsite. The animals were somewhat
> disturbed because of a lot of smoke coming from a fire on Ted Turner's
> ranch. This was the summer that there was "Fire Danger - EVERYWHERE!".
>
> In a message dated 10/5/2007 2:27:35 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> mycales@tx.rr.com writes:
>
> 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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-- 
-=Dan=-
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loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
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