[pct-l] hanging food vs. bear cannisters

[Jeffrey Olson]

"The Myths about Bears"


Where bears are hunted it's ok to sleep with your food.  That's most of 
the PCT.  


Where there are cabins or towns or suburbs are within a couple miles of 
the trail sleep with your food but cook an hour before you stop and 
don''t sleep somewhere it's obvious someone sleeps every night. 


If you sleep in a civilization impinged camp by yourself expect a 
nocturnal visit.  It likely won't happen but this is a good rule. 


I still tend to sleep with my food, but I don't sleep as well, 
especially if teenagers in monster trucks come for a visit...  
Richardson Lake, some miles south of Donner Summit.  But that's not the 
kind of nocturnal visit I was thinking of...  You'll be lucky if you see 
a bear. 


I saw seven on my June SOBO through Washington in 2005.  Only one was 
close enough I felt an adrenaline rush, but it was so wrapped up in 
tearing apart a log for food it didn't even notice me, and I stood there 
for a couple minutes before slowly leaving...  The rest were more part 
of the world I moved through - off in the distance, across the 
river/creek, a  couple hundred yards up the side of the glacier valley. 


When a bear does appear and you're sleeping with your food remain still 
and observant.  Unless your tent rain fly is open you won't see the 
bear.  You'll only hear it.  Don't make any large moves.  Make sure you 
have your stove or a big cannister in your hand as you listen to the 
bruin snuff around your camp.  You're so damn satisfied you didn't cook 
in camp.  Whatever happens - this feeling of being satisfied of having 
good wilderness practices - it'll make the story... 


Lying there, fuel cannister in hand, food scrunched under my chest, the 
bruin snuffing and snorting - is there any other place  I'd rather be?  
I'm in his world, and he's exploring it/you.  It's not dangerous or 
silly or stupid.  I'm sleeping with my food - a rational choice. 


I don't know about you, but this is when this happened to me in 1984 in 
Yosemite Valley, New Years it was, ice skating on the outdoor rink, 
drinking bourbon from a a bottle.  It was OK.  It was New Years.  I 
found my way back to camp in the early hours and was awokened from a 
stuperous sleep to my sister stridently screaming the bear was on the 
table and getting the food.  My brother-in-law and I lay there, warm in 
our bags in the sub-freezing 2AM night.  Marcy ejaculated, "You guys! 
and got out of her tent and started yelling at the bear and hitting her 
nalgene bottle with a book. 


The bear leapt off the table, pasta pot in mouth, and grunted his way 
into our neighbors campsite.  They freaked and yelled and almost knocked 
over their tent getting out of it, the bear cringing as he sauntered by 
with the pasta pot.  Marcy chased the bear, yelling and banging, and it 
was like a ripple went through the campground.  This was 2AM or later in 
a campground in Yosemite Valley.  It's been dark for nearly nine hours.  
There's a bear out!!!!


Luckily he dropped the pot within 80' of our camp three, camps away - 
the sites are fairly small in Yosemite Valley - and Marcy got it and 
brought back in triumph - literally!  Steve and I were still in our 
tents, heads out, watching the action from the warmth of our sleeping 
bags.  I was really drunk and it was all really surreal and there was my 
sister waving the pot in the air, like she'd won the Kentucky Derby! 


What I learned is that with enough noise and environmental confusion you 
can scare a bear away.  You might be able to get him to drop a pasta 
pot, but you'll never get him to drop your food bag.  He's got you in 
his territory.  This is the civilized wilderness and I'm a savvy bear... 


Most of the PCT is open to bear hunting.  Every year hunters come into 
the far reaches of the wilderness, where the PCT goes, and look for that 
perfect shot. 


You don't have much to worry about where bears are hunted - unless you 
haven't learned to cook an hour or more before you camp.  If you cook in 
camp hang your food in hunted bear country.  Personally, I still sleep 
with it, but I know my odds of a negative encounter are greater.  I 
solved that problem by not cooking while backpacking alone.  When I hike 
with Deniece we cook, and sometimes in camp.  But bears are hunted where 
we are...  The odds are better...  Better to eat an hour before camp...  
We try to eat the hot meal at noon - snacking for an hour for dinner in 
the tent - finger food...  We aren't cooking in camp, even in country 
where bears are hunted. 

Jeff, just Jeff...