[pct-l] Sequoia Regulations and Intern Rangers...

[Jeffrey Olson]

My friend Deniece and I hiked a loop trip a couple weeks ago out of 
Horseshoe Meadows, up and over Trail Pass, down to the Kern River, up 
the Kern River Canyon to Lake South America, over the pass to Tyndall 
Creek, and south on the PCT over Trail Pass again, to Horseshoe 
Meadows.  It's a beautiful loop.  We saw only one other hiker in four 
days on the first half of the trip, and he was hanging out at Kern Hot 
Springs.  It wasn't until we got to Tyndall Creek and its bear box that 
suddenly there were 15 people camped. 


I'd spent what seems like hours studying the bear box/canister regs, and 
knew that you had to have a canister if you weren't staying at bear 
boxes if you're in Sequoia National Park.  I also knew that if we'd 
wanted to go over Cottonwood Pass, we'd've had to have canisters 
period.  I guess going in over Trail Pass puts you in the Golden Trout 
Wilderness, while going over Cottonwood puts you in Sequoia National 
Park.  I figured out how we would be able to camp at bear boxes in the 
park.  There's an adolescent rebellious strain in my 56 year old being 
that hates the idea of using bear canisters.  So I figured out how not 
to use them and hike the trip we wanted. 


We got a permit from the ranger village south of Lone Pine.  The ranger 
lady said that next year carrying bear canisters would be mandatory if 
you were going to hike anywhere in Sequoia National Park.  She said they 
were going to remove all the bear boxes there now.  We'll see if they 
get around to that.  I think it's a bad idea...   I said I was glad we 
were doing this hike this year...


We drove up the steep and narrow and scary road to Horseshoe Meadows, 
and were in the midst of final gear winnowing when a ranger walked up 
and said "Hi, my name's Aaron, and I'm an intern bear ranger."  I'd 
never heard of a "bear ranger." 


We greeted him  back and he asked if we had bear canisters.  I said no, 
we didn't need them for this trip - we would be staying at bear boxes 
while in the park.  He asked how far we were going, and I said somewhere 
around 75 miles.  He got this satisfied look on his face and said we had 
to go back to the ranger village south of Lone Pine and rent bear 
canisters.  Yeah right...


I told him, "No we don't."  He said, yes you do - unless you're hiking 
over 250 miles you need a bear canister.  I said that that regulation 
was nowhere on any forest service or park website.  He said it was a 
regulation.  I said, "No it's not!!!" 


He and I went at it for a couple minutes.  At one point I realized I was 
way too emotional and this guy was just settling into his tiny, 
subjective world.   He was a kid who thought he could save bears by 
making stuff - laws/regulations up I guess.  I don't know. 


I apologized for getting emotional.  He started talking about his 
passion for bears.  Deniece interjected we had a permit and it did not 
require bear canisters.  This made an impact on him.  The last thing he 
said was, "I love bears" and walked away, tears welling up in his eyes. 

He'd been putting orange, mimeographed warning notices on most of the 
cars in the Horseshoe Meadows parking lot.  The notice warned of bear 
activity and that cars should have absolutely no food or any evidence of 
anything that looked like food or a cooler.  I checked one of the 
notices and it said that the people whose car it was had left some tic 
tacs visible.


It took a couple hours to let the feelings from arguing like I haven't 
argued in a long, long time, and the feeling like I was a criminal 
diffuse as we dropped down into Mulkey Meadow and made our first camp.  
It makes me wonder about the supervision in that ranger district - 
interns are great, but jeez...


Jeff, just Jeff... 
Martin, SD