[pct-l] Smart bears

[Tortoise]

Years ago I recall someone was selling a commercial version of this. I 
bought such a cleat and played around with it but couldn't figure out 
how to work it in the woods.

Years ago I led a Sierra (Club) Singles trip to Rancheria Falls in 
Yosemite where we used the counter balance method for our group food. 
Bears tried to get the food but all they did was damage the tree. Maybe 
the bears are smarter now. However the counter balance method depends a 
lot on finding a suitable limb on a suitable tree; often hard to find. 
Also when counterbalancing the food, one should loosely coil the free 
end of the line and lay it over the lower bag being raised; and leave a 
loop dangling down so one can use a limb or pole to pull the free end 
down when one is ready to lower the food. This eliminates a line hanging 
where a bear and pull on it and perhaps break the line.

But as others have noted, counterbalancing apparently doesn't work very 
well any more in the Sierras.

----------
Tortoise

<> He who finishes last, wins! <>

I switched to Mac OSX rather than fight Windows
Using Mozilla Thunderbird  http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

Jo Pegrum Hazelett wrote:
> Hi Sly-- I had my husband answer this for you-- (BTW-- I'm Josie)
>  
> Hello Sly and Donna, 
>  Bears can and do grasp with their fore paws--we've seen it up close and
> personal , in this case a cub yanking on the tag-end of a line in his paw.
> We have never lost food to bears, even when others in the vicinity lost
> theirs using more customary methods.  Like Josie said, we have actually had
> 40 face-to-face encounters with bears, the majority of which were in
> Yosemite, and not all of those incidents were controversies over our food
> bags.  The clamcleat method is ingenious, but I didn't invent it, I got the
> idea from a long-time backpacking and sailing friend who was a forester and
> former Scoutmaster who is now in his 80's and has hiked thousands of miles
> in Yosemite, the Sierra, and places beyond (most western states).  Whatever
> works for anyone is best.  Our experience with the clamcleat vs
> counterbalance method is that the clamcleat wins hands down.  Josie is
> right...unless it's a well designed canister, everything else is just a
> delaying tactic.  
> Missing the long trail,
> --Kerry
>  
> 
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: Slyatpct at aol.com [mailto:Slyatpct at aol.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 9:39 PM
> To: joph at piedmontbsa.org; pct-l at backcountry.net; dsaufley at sprynet.com
> Cc: karsten.n.hazelett at smithbarney.com
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Smart bears
> 
> 
> 
> joph at piedmontbsa.org writes:
> 
> My husband used a clam cleat like sailors use
> for securing the sheets on a sailboat to run the bag up the tree, then he
> threw the rope up so it wasn't on the ground. If we had bear visitors and we
> were unlucky enough to have the bear snag the rope and pull on it, all that
> happened was that the bag would be cinched up higher on the rope.
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
>   _____  
> 
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