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[pct-l] Interesting Experiences about Bear Bagging

>> Maybe some people on the listwould like to share some of there interesting experiences about bear
bagging. <<

Okay here's mine.  Hiking JMT southbound in 96 and arrived at the crossing of 
Evolution Creek late in the evening.  Didn't want to get my feet wet that late so I 
headed off trail to stealth camp in bear country.  I found my campsite with a great 
Jeffrey Pine tree about 30 feet away and decided to put the bags up real high.  
Usually, when I throw the rope over the limb, I wrap the other end around my leg or 
step on the rope to keep it from getting pulled up as the rock/rope comes down.  
This was a high limb (~30 ft or so) and I made one of those spectacular throws right 
over the desired limb.  But the other end of the rope got loose as the rock went 
over the limb.  As I pulled the rope down again to try again, the other end of the 
rope got hung up on the tree cause it had a small loop on the end!  I pulled from 
every angle conceivable and worked up a good sweat.  Then, to get more leverage, I 
got a large heavy dead branch, tied it to the end of the rope and used it to pull on 
the rope.  I swear I had 200 plus pounds of torque on the rope and the big tree 
swayed slightly, but the rope belonged to the Jeffrey Pine.

By this time, I was really working too hard -- I was sweating up a storm and a cloud 
of mosquitoes were honing in on the heat generated from my body, and then 
they launched a full agressive attack for my blood.  I finally gave up, sat down, 
cooled off and thought about the situation at hand.  I depended on the rope and it 
was stuck in the tree and it was real important to me.  Well, I carry a 2nd nylon 
parachute cord type rope to counterbalance my bags and a couple of 5 foot long 
pieces to hang my clothes. With this I was able to string together enough cord to 
hang my food -- not high enough, but it had to be enough.  Still I added more 
protection to my food.  I positioned my tent so I had a clear view of my food, 
gathered a pile of rocks by my tent, took a leak on the tree trunk and made a noise 
maker from my cooking pot lid and pot grabber.  The noise maker was position such 
that if a bear climbed the tree, it would have to move the suspended noise maker.  I 
went to bed.

Sometime at about 4:00 am, I was dreaming that I heard a telephone ring -- like on 
of those old pay phones in a booth.  Then, in my dream I realized that there are no 
pay phones in the wilderness and woke abruptly, thinking that the ringing was from 
my psuedo noise maker.  I groped for my flashlight ran outside, yelling to the 
imaginary bear trying to steal my food.  Then, as the cobwebs cleared from my eyes I 
realized there was no bear around.  I heard this deep wind rushing through the 
canyon and as it reached me, the noise maker went off again and the sky began to 
sprinkle rain.  I took another leak on the tree trunk and went back to my warm tent.

It rain till about 8:30 that morning.  I went over to the big tree, pulled down as 
much of my original rope as I could, reached as high as I could to salvage a piece 
of rope about 12 feet long.  I used this rope and my makeshift nylon cord for the 
rest of the trip and it worked just fine.  I still keep the makeshift cord to remind 
me that every problem has a solution.  You just got cool down, keep the mosquitoes 
at bay and think about it in a calm way.

Ernest Chavez
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