[pct-l] food containers when you don't need a bear vault?

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Sep 23, 2008, at 5:27 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> From: Laura Newman <lanewman at mac.com>
> Subject: [pct-l] food containers when you don't need a bear vault?
>
> Any good suggestions to insure not ending up with a bag of crumbs for
> dinner or the possibility of spilling something all over one's gear?
> And how do you keep the critters out if using a stuff sack?  Lastly,
> is the point to start using it at Kennedy Meadows?  And when can one
> safely send that thing home?

I used an Ursack the entire time when I was not using a bear canister  
(and actually, I used an Ursack while I was using the canister, too,  
because not all my food fit inside.) I heard from other people that  
smaller critters can bite through an Ursack so I guess it was  
ineffective, but nobody ever tried any funny business with my food so  
it worked fine for me. I kept my food in my tent or right next to my  
tent in non-bear country.

I used a bear can from Lone Pine to Sonora Pass. Most people started  
using bear cans at Kennedy Meadows, but mine hadn't come in time so  
that is why I didn't start using it until Lone Pine. I saw that some  
people used bear cans all the way to Carson Pass and others all the  
way to South Lake Tahoe.

As far as crumbs are concerned, the only food I had that would turn  
to crumbs were cookies and pop-tarts. I kept them in a cereal box.  
The box came in handy later when I needed a sign for hitchhiking.