[pct-l] Bear canisters

[William Skaggs]

Having had a chance to watch bears trying to get food a few times, I've
come to the conclusion that people generally overrate their intelligence
and underrate their persistence.  They aren't actually very good at
figuring things out, but they may spend a couple of hours just trying
things at random, and if there is any way of getting to the food, sooner
or later they'll blunder into it.  They don't have the intellect to figure
out a complex food-hanging system, but if they can reach any part
of the rope, they'll try chewing on it to see what happens.

It's amazingly difficult to double-bag food so that a bear can't reach
any part of the cord.  You can't really understand how hard it is
until you've tried to do it.  When somebody is bone-tired at the end
of a long day of hiking, it's hard to motivate yourself to go to all
that trouble.

  -- Bill