[pct-l] hanging food vs. bear cannisters

[Ned Tibbits]

Excellent advice, Jeff!  I do the same and have had only a few memorable 
visits.

Mtnned

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeffrey Olson" <jolson at olc.edu>
Cc: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 10:34 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] hanging food vs. bear cannisters


> "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...
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