[pct-l] sleeping with your food everywhere except in the Sierra

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

The topic of food storage comes up a lot. I always kept my food  
inside my tent. Except when I had the bear canister, and then that  
stayed outside the tent. I never had any trouble with bears with my  
food inside my tent. I did have rodents two times, once in the desert  
and once in Washington. In the desert I had no tent. In Washington my  
tent had no zipper. So that is why rodents were able to get at my food.

I think the reason I never had trouble with bears was that I rarely  
camped anywhere that ordinary backpackers camped. I had a rule for  
personal safety that I avoided camping within 10 miles of a major  
road. (Bad two-legged critters rarely go further than a mile from  
cars, so 10 was a good buffer.) Once I got outside that 10 mile zone,  
there was almost nobody on the trail and the camping spots I used  
were dispersed and small.

Bears are smart enough to have rounds to all the regular camp sites.  
I saw no evidence that they made rounds to remote, dispersed sites.  
All evidence showed me that outside Yosemite National Park, bears  
were terrified of humans. I accepted the risk that my presence alone  
would serve as adequate deterrence against bears should one stumble  
upon my remote site one night. The gamble paid off and I would do the  
same next time.