"Lowell Holmes" wrote

I never made it to Philmont because I had to cancel after the scouts
transgressed the rules. I refused to take a patrol that I couldn't trust
to follow orders because Philmont is true wilderness camping. I know the
bear bags have to be suspended from high trees and high enough the bears
can't jump and reach them. I never rigged one though.

Don't under estimate what a coon can do. We had one walk into the campsite
at summer camp one year and tried to get into an igloo cooler that had
food in it and when we tried to shoo the coon away, he challenged us big
time.


I went on a scout backpack camping trip when I was about 13 to an area that
had lots of elk and deer. We got to our campsite and just dumped our packs
and scattered. I guess we needed a little time without those heavy packs
weighing us down.

I got back to the campsite about twenty minutes later and a deer had his
head in my pack chowing down on my food for the next three days. I screamed
and charged him. He paniced and took off still wearing my pack over his
head. We probably ran at least two hundred yards with that pack over his
head before he finally managed to get it off his head. By this time the
pack was completely empty. All my pack contents had been scattered along the
flight path.

It took me an hour to complete picking up my worldly goods and transport
them back to camp. I was on half rations for the next three days. That
definitely made me crabby. And I suspended my food from a tree after that.

Add deer to that list.