Whenever we arrived at our campsite, we had to identify the 'bear-muda triange' (bear bag cable, sump, & fire ring).
* All food had to either be in the bear bag or in the fire ring for immediate consumption. It had to be cooked and eaten next to the fire ring. * All food had to be eaten or bagged and carried out.
* All dishes were either in use or cleaned and placed next to the sump.
* All dirty water had to be poured down the sump. Any particles that were too big to fit down the sump screen had to be bagged and carried out.
* All smellables had to be in the bear bag or brought down for immediate use and put back up.
* All clothes except our sleeping clothes had to be on our body or in the bear bag. No clothes other than our sleeping clothes were allowed into the tent at any time. This meant that to change clothes, we had to do it outside of our tents.
Here is a story of some scouters on the Rayedo program (an advanced trek for older boys who have been to Philmont before). One scout got sick and vomitted into a zip-lock bag (what you are supposed to do), but they apparently did not hang the bag in the bear bag (like they should have done). The result is 2 scouts were injured and one bear is dead.
July 3, 2001
Bear That Attacked Scouts Killed
The Associated Press

PHILMONT SCOUT RANCH, N.M. — State conservation officers killed a black bear responsible for injuring two Boy Scouts at northern New Mexico's Philmont Scout Ranch last week.
Don Jones and Jason Kline killed the 15-year-old, 250-pound male bear Saturday evening about a half mile from where the attack occurred.
The bear will be tested for rabies.
Scouts who saw the bear at Philmont's Old Camp described it as having very small ears. Jones said the bear that was killed had lost much of its ears fighting with other bears several years ago.
He said he was familiar with the bear because it had been part of an eight-year study of black bears in New Mexico. Jones originally trapped the bear for research in 1992.
The bear rumbled through a camp at the 137,000-acre Philmont Scout Ranch on June 27, injuring two Arkansas scouts in a tent flattened by the animal.
One of the boys, 17-year-old R.J. Benz of Little Rock, suffered head, leg and arm injuries. Benz, who remained hospitalized Tuesday, was relieved the bear had been killed, said Joanna Lackey, Northeast Area supervisor for the state Department of Game and Fish.
The other boy, 15-year-old Zachary Reagan of Bradford, Ark., was treated for a bite on his arm.
The bear visited the campsite three times, rummaging through the cooking area the second time and attacking the third, said Mark Anderson, ranch program director.
Authorities believe the bear was attracted to the campsite by a plant called aromatic sumac, which is bursting with seed that bears feed on. Then it was drawn into the camp by a bag of vomit one scout brought.
To a bear, anything that smells is food, Game and Fish officials said.
"The first time the bear came to the camp to get the bag," Jones said. "The second time he got in the scouts' packs and the third time he got in the tent."
Problem bears that eat garbage in dumpsters, trash in campgrounds or refuse left lying around mountain homes or cabins eventually regard humans as a source of food. They then become aggressive toward people.
Last week's attack was the first bear attack at the ranch this year. Last year, bears attacked six Philmont scouts, the first bear attacks at the ranch since 1986.
Drought last year forced bears to look for food at some of the ranch's backcountry camps.
The department is conducting an educational campaign to alert people to the right way to handle trash in bear country.