I am an inept bear bagger. I have spent a lot of time wandering through the woods searching for acceptable locations. After an acceptable site has been found, the next dilemma is the “toss.” Rocks tied onto lines and thrown into trees sometimes loops around a limb or become hopelessly tangled. Then you have to decide whether to pull hard enough to break the limb or climb the tree to untangle the line. When you finally manage to throw the line over a limb some times it is too close to the trunk, sometimes it is too far from the trunk. Try, try again. Often after a successful toss the line is too high to grab. Try, try again. I have spent many wonderful hours throwing rocks and lines unsuccessfully into trees. There is a reason why I backpack instead of quarterback in the NFL.

The bear bag is the reason that I try to set up camp before dark. I can cook and hang a hammock just fine in the dark. Rigging a bear bag is difficult in with good light, but a real challenge in the dark.

The perfect limb sometimes is just rough enough that there is too much friction to hoist a heavy bag without an assist. Boost the bag with one hand while pulling down on the line with the other hand is standard technique. You just have to hope that the bears in the area are shorter than you.

I have broken camp before sunrise and could not find the food bag in the dark. More time spent wandering through the woods shining my headlamp up into the trees.

After much trial & error I finally have a satisfactory bear bag system. It is not a light solution because the complete kit is 3.7 oz. I use a modified Marrison Haul System from “The Backpacker’s Field Manual” by Rick Curtis

http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/training/bearbag.html

My throw rope is 50' of UrsaLite Bear Bag Hanging Cord:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/...nging_cord.html

For me that is the smallest diameter that does not get caught and it seems to be fairly easy on the bark. I wrap about 20' of the cord around a rock and it toss over a limb. The cord can be close to the trunk because the B end will be tied to an adjacent tree to pull the food away from the trunk of the main tree. This is one modification from the Marrison Haul System. The other modification is that the UrsaLite cord is joined to a 50' length of Triptease with a slipped sheet bend. One carabineer is put in the loop on the Triptease and the slipped sheet bend is tied behind the carabineer. Place the Triptease line inside the carabineer then the other carabineer is hooked on the Triptease between the sheetbend and the first carabineer.

This may be quite elementary for very experienced people, but even with a pretty well defined system my single most time consuming task in pitching camp continues to be rigging the bear bag