My "mileage" didn't "vary"
Posted by: guideboatguy
on Dec-08-06 5:23 PM (EST)
I honestly had a hard time making sense of all that you wrote (couldn't figure out the relationship between all those years of camping and the "one camp hung food, the other didn't" statement), but of course not that many bears have learned that trick about chewing ropes, and it works fine most of the time.
As for me, I didn't say I've ever had a problem. I made no mention of my experience at all, but when I was up there, I hung my food and all was well. It's just that I've been hearing so many stories recently about "educated" bears, bears which know what happens after chewing on a rope. When you say that "properly" hung food won't be gotten by the bears, do you tie-off the rope way up a tree or something? That's probably what I'd do next time- make the tie-off point very hard to get to. I imagine when a bear chews through a rope, it's a rope which is easy to see and which can be reached from the ground. I also have read that some people have started hanging their food using dark-colored ropes, but with a white rope installed nearby as a "decoy", because white ropes are what the educated bears have been chewing through.