I had an "ah...hah" moment yesterday evening with regards to bear-ropes and my next food pack hanging efforts (coming up this Labor Day weekend for the Mudro entry).

For many of you, this will seem quite obvious and frankly, boring. But it may provide a chuckle for others so read on if you are in the latter group!

I struggled with my last food hanging episode on Lake Three while trying a "new system".  Up. Down. Branches snapping. Line twisting. Pulleys hanging up. Mosquitoes clouds. You name it. It happened.  This last attempt probably yielded a bag dangling at about 6 ft off the ground and my wife and I diving into our tent to escape the flying pests!

A bit of history:
Previously I was a one-pulley guy, struggling to get my family's food pack (usually the first day or two) up in the air and correctly hung at the right height distance. You all know that drill. Then I read a trip report that I think MT wrote about an excursion with KF that I finally got around to reading that described "a 2-pulley system" that was fabulously easy ( I may have that wrong but that is what I seem to remember .

Anyway, 2 pulleys are hard to make work with a heavy food, at least the way I attempted it. One up above and one down below near the food bag.

Long story short:
I re-discovered the suggestions for bear ropes and hanging packs on this site. THE SECRET: 3 Pulleys in a triangle --- which is what MT was actually describing and not what I misunderstood.

Success:
I've immediately reconfigured my ropes and pulleys and tried it out at home. Works great. If anyone has another solution that they like, I would also like to read about it (especially if you have diagrams for us visual learners.

solotripper,

Good advice on the pvc and line twist issues. I've had similar problems and that gives me a good option to try out.

Quote:


Not exactly. The traditional system has a horizontal rope to which a vertical rope is attached and is pulled up using pulleys.  The problem is the horizontal rope is opposing the upward force of the pack.  This cause the horizontal rope to sag and also makes pulling up the pack more difficult because there is "give" in what you are pulling against.

The solution is to JUST have a horizontal line with the pack attached to the center of it.  Have enough rope so when slack, the horizontal line sags to the ground.  To raise your pack, use your pulley system to take the slack out of the horizontal rope.  In this system, the force your are exerting is against opposing the point where the rope is attached to the tree.  With a decently size tree, there is no give in that.

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I love the strong nearly non-stretching cord that ST recommends (and use it as the rope my pulley hangs from). However, when new and clean it is perhaps the most tangle prone cord invented by man short of monofilament. when the cord is new and the bugs are out......

MP, thanks for the link to the Ronstons. Looking into those for future upgrades. Don't want to admit what I'm using now but I'm tempting fate. I use whatever thick blowdown is nearby to wind  the rope when I tug. I have thought about something more systematic so that I'm not searching for that impossible-to-find branch for the task (which happens!).