[pct-l] Bear Cans and Intimidation

[Phil Newhouse]

Nice PICTURE ...  :-)



On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 2:54 PM, Umstead Tim-MGI1984 <tumstead at motorola.com>
wrote:

> You have to understand where I come from.  My wife and I thru-hiked the
> PCT in '96 and it was our first long distance hike.  There were no water
> caches.  L-Rod had not started taking in hikers.  The KO had not
> started.  The biggest group of hikes I saw was 11 and they broke up just
> after the Mojave.
>
> Water caches are not necessary.  We paid very close attention to how
> much water we consumed and the distance to the next source.  We learned
> how much water we needed given a distance.  It made it much easer to
> judge our needs.  We only ran low on water once or twice and that was
> around Lake Tahoe.  We also adjusted our hiking to cook dinner at the
> last water source and then dry camp.  Ex. In the later morning we cooked
> dinner at the North Fork San Jacinto River and carried it all afternoon
> before dry camping.  The next afternoon we got to the bottom of Fuller
> Ridge and the water fountain.  On a side note, the only time we found
> water left by the trail, it was in two boxes and we figured that a trail
> crew left it.  It was south of Aqua Dulce.  We were unsure if we should
> get into it, so we just quenched our immediate thrust and hiked on, not
> really needing the water.  But to answer your question we carried 14L up
> from Scissors Crossing.  But that is not the longest dry section, that
> is the Hat Creek Rim and there we carried about the same amount of
> water.
>
> As for bears, in the Sierras they have already learned that hikers are a
> free food source.  My question is why they have not learned that in N.
> Ca?
>
> My comment about a toll was meant to be humors.
>
> Let me say one thing about the KO, I like it and I've been to the first
> four of them.  Living San Diego makes it easy.  What I do not like is
> the group that forms because if it.  If they were to move it's date
> ahead or behind by a month I think that it would lessen the impact on
> the trail.  When my kids are older and we rehike the trail we will leave
> several weeks before the KO, just to stay in front of the herd.  I would
> rather be there then behind.  In my opinion, I think towns become burned
> out on hikers and I would rather be in front then behind.
>
> As for your comment about why people hike the trail, I agree.
>
> As for opening the trail to more people, I do not have much of an
> opinion one way or the other.  I will say that I hope the PCT never hits
> the same numbers as the AT.  I could just imagine having 3000+ people
> trying to hike a trail will create many problems.
>
> That got a lot longer then I ever thought it would.  Sorry.  Did I get
> to radical with you?  I hope not.
>
> The Ravens
> PCT '96
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