[pct-l] Bear locker summary

[Travis Beals]

This has been an interesting discussion, and I now understand SEKI's  
rationale for removing the bear lockers a little better. Nonetheless,  
I don't completely agree. From the recent list discussion, we've heard  
the following things:

- Bears can and do get food even if it's hung or if the hiker is  
sleeping with it (*)
- Bears that get human food often eventually have to be killed
- Hikers sometimes bring more food than can fit in their bear cans,  
and this can lead to bears getting the excess food
- Hikers sometimes abuse bear lockers by abandoning junk in them
- Bear lockers can cause high-use campsites, and once bears learn  
this, it increases the risk of encounters

Based on these things, it seems like the best compromise would be to  
place bear lockers at sites that would be popular anyway (e.g., due to  
availability of water or lack of other nearby sites), and at sites  
where PCT hikers are likely to have too much food to stuff into a bear  
can. Lockers could be removed from other sites to encourage dispersed  
camping. This would achieve the best balance between minimizing impact  
on the wilderness and protecting bears (who, after all, are part of  
the wilderness).

If there's any sort of consensus among PCT list members on this, I  
might consider trying contact SEKI about this. If not, I'll leave it be.

(*) I'm not interested in the argument about whether this is only true  
for hikers who do it wrong; evidently, enough hikers do get it wrong  
that it's a problem. We're talking about things on a policy level;  
it's much more practical for the Feds to make and enforce a blanket  
policy on food storage, as policy is usually made for the average  
user. If you want to argue that it is morally OK for you personally to  
do things a different way because you're competent to do so, that's  
fine (and I'm sympathetic), but it's a different issue.