Best UL rope for food hanging/multi-purpose?

[Bob Gross]

Hiking Malto, obviously you have never been corrected by a Yosemite National Park backcountry ranger.

That was what happened up until about 15 years ago. Since then, they've enforced the use of bear canisters, so the hanging method is a moot point.

–B.G.–

[Ken Thompson]

+1 w/arborist throw line.

[Hiking Malto]

"Hiking Malto, obviously you have never been corrected by a Yosemite National Park backcountry ranger.

That was what happened up until about 15 years ago. Since then, they've enforced the use of bear canisters, so the hanging method is a moot point."

Bob,
There are plenty of hiking areas outside the Sierra where canisters are not required. So it is hardly a moot point.

[Dave @ Oware]

How to hang food using the counter balance with retrieval cord method.

Pick appropriate tree and branch. In bad bear areas a proper tree may dictate where you camp. As you near timber line there may not be tall enough trees, so you must plan ahead. The limb should be about 20+ feet from the ground. Higher is better as bears are less likely to jump off a limb onto the bags if they know they will take a long fall. The bags should hang about 10' out from the tree. Where the rope goes over the limb, the diameter of the limb should be about the size of your wrist or smaller. Larger and they can climb out the limb, smaller and they can break or chew through the limb. Some bears can get any food hang too. Check with local authorities about food storage methods. Food hangs work best with wild bears that have some fear of humans.

Camping with groups, I have had to hang as much as 200 lbs of food each evening. It can take several hours, and several trees, to do it right for that much food. A bear resistant canister may be a safer and easier choice for some folks.

[Bob Gross]

David, that is a good illustration. I tend to agree with your 65-foot length. I always found 50 to be too short and 100 was too long, so 65-70 was best. For a heavy food weight, more length is useful. It depends on what kind of trees you have.

Instead of bear bells, we used to tie our metal cookware onto the tree. The bear sees about four or five cook pots, each with a rock inside, and wonders whether he really needs to climb that tree. The rock rattles when anything moves it.

For one tree, we used to wrap a space blanket around the trunk. The bear would look at it and wonder what that was instead of climbing it.

The half-grown Yosemite black bears were the worst. They had no fear of falling off tree branches. Sometimes they will see the branch with the food bags, and they climb above it on the trunk. Then they jump off, hoping to catch the food bags on the way down. Those were called Kamikaze Bears.

–B.G.–

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