[pct-l] Burying food

[Eric Lee]

Brad wrote:
> With all this talk of bear canisters, is it at all realistic to consider
> digging a little hole and burying a bit of well sealed food every night? I
> was thinking that one could use the bear canister and bury a couple extra
> days worth for a few nights.

I doubt it.

>From a legal perspective, I'm quite sure that wouldn't be considered proper 
food storage by the authorities.  Various people care about that to 
different extents, but the fact remains that rangers have the ability to 
seriously interrupt your hike if they find you in violation, so it's worth 
considering.

>From a practical perspective, there are a couple of issues.  One, bears are 
decent diggers.  They dig up plant bulbs and rip apart rotten logs like you 
wouldn't believe.  They're extremely strong.  Nothing you could pile on top 
of a hole would present much of a challenge for a bear.  Two, I've only 
spent time in the Yosemite area, but from what I remember there wasn't a lot 
of thick soil around for digging large, deep holes.  It's mostly shallow 
soil and then lots and lots of granite.  In the areas we're talking about, 
I'm skeptical that you could count on digging holes large enough and deep 
enough to store food in any meaningful way.  I'm sure someone with more 
experience in the Sierra will correct me if I'm wrong about that.

Eric