The short version: A dangle cord is an extra piece of line that you leave hanging down from a food bag that you hung in the trees, allowing you to pull the bag down again if friction prevents it from obediently descending on its own.
The long version: Have you ever hung your food in a bag, with the food bag hanging from one end of the line, with the rest of the line looped over a tree branch, then tied to something sturdy down below?
And then the next morning when you wanted your food back, you untied that bottom end, gave it some slack, and then your food bag just kept hanging there? Way up above your head? Refuseing to decend into your waiting arms? So then what?
Well, if you've ever spent two hours trying to get your food back out of a tree, and have almost decided to give up and go hungry for the final three days of your backpacking trip, then next time you hang up your food you might want to tie another piece of line onto the bottom of the food bag, or leave a loose end of that main supporting line hanging, so you can reach it. Either way works.
So that lets you give a tug to that second piece of line if you need to. To get the food bag started on its descent toward your waiting arms. Got that?
In other words, if the food bag don't move on its own, just give a tug straight down and pull your damn food out of the damn tree already, 'K?
Who cares if it suddenly decides to let go and fall, bonking you on the noggin? Better to get a brief head butt than to starve, is what I say. Are we all on board with this?
Try it. You'll like it.
Have anything worth adding? Then try sosayseff@gmail.com
Me? Always learning, usually the hard way.
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so says eff: sporadic spurts of grade eff distraction
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