Well I have decided to break my silence - It was quite comedic watching ringtail and phat trying to put up a bear bag on our campng trip to Whatum Lake Oregon last year. Huge douglas firs are just too big to be tree like - they're more like camping next to a round cliff and the first branch is about a thousand feet up. Hanging you food is a complex chore and one that you do differently every time and even old pros get laughed at sometimes from their antics.

So anyway a couple of words of advice.
Do Not use a soft twisted rope or cord that will "stick" to the bark of the tree branch that you throw it over or you most likely will end up a piece of cord in your hands while you food sways in the breese 20 feet out of reach in the tree where you can't get it but everything else can.

In many areas there are bear and they are extremely inteligent although each individual is different in his expertise - they say some Yosemite bears can untie knots. Anyway be sure that the method you use to hang your food is adequate for the local fauna. A squirrel type will chew through ropes to drop food, I see it in my backyard.

Hang your food in a waterproof container and I have found that 2-4 plastic grocey bags can be extremely useful both as vapor barriers inside boots and for hanging food, emergency waterproof gloves, garbage bags, etc.

Besure to have a method or retrieval before hoisting your food (stuff) into a tree.

And a warning. If your cord/food is stuck and you decide to use overwhelming force to pull it down - think. If you pull with 200 pounds of force on a nylon line, the line will stretch. Now lets say the limb breaks - its above you and its going to come dead at your hands if you are pulling with your hands. That stretched rope is like a bow string and accelerates the branch to very high speed depending on its mass and the cord etc. Being hit with a couple hundred foot pounds of energy contained in a hard sharp object can be very bad for you. Fortunately I wasn't hurt too bad, but it Could kill you. SO IF YOU USE OVERWHELMING FORCE TO REMOVE A PACK STUCK IN A TREE DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN THE PATH OF A FLYING OBJECT, INSTEAD PASS THE CORD SLIGHT AROUND ANOTHER TREE AND BACK UP TO PULL SO IF ANYTHING SNAPS IT WILL FOLLOW THE CORD AND HIT THE TREE NOT YOU.
Jim