Took me 14 tries over 3 weekends to nail the bear hang on the Kettle Creek loop
Kept failing the PCT method on the same tree for three weekends straight up at Kettle Creek. Either the rock bag slid down or my line got tangled in a branch 20 feet up and I had to throw rocks at it for 40 minutes. The third trip I drove 2 hours each way just to practice hangs on a random Tuesday because my buddy Dave kept roasting me about it. Turns out my problem was the line itself, that slick 2mm cord just does not grip when you wrap the toggle. Switched to a slightly thicker cord and practiced in my backyard with a milk jug full of rocks for a week before trying it on the trail again. Last Saturday it clicked on the first throw, bag was 12 feet up and dead level. Feels dumb to be this proud of a knot trick but here we are. Anyone else got a hang method that actually works when the branch is thin and high?
Man, I feel this in my soul. I spent a whole season fighting that exact same battle, slick cord sliding through the toggle every single time, and I kept blaming my throw when the gear was the problem the whole time. The milk jug in the backyard thing is genius too, way better than driving two hours just to watch a rock bag fall down again. Dave owes you an apology after all that roasting, honestly. Thin high branches are the worst, have you tried just hanging the line way out past the branch and walking it back into place instead of trying to thread it clean?