[pct-l] caching - how to do it

[Stephen Adams]

I met some lama people on a couple occasions and they were caching 5-gal buckets.  I've also met a lot of folks caching food in food lockers.  These have all been JMT hikers a little later in the season.  They park at Onion Valley and hike over to Viddette, Charlotte Lake, or Rae Lakes, or up from Zumwalt Meadows to the Woods Creek Bridge or Viddette.  Which is silly considering it is only a couple days to Whitney from there.   
This is also one of the most popular loop hikes in the Sierra and I get a kick out of folks putting not only their required rental canisters, but also their pack, cook ware and dirty clothing in the brown storage locker, that is after they used it as their personal kitchen counter.  My last experience with this was this last June.  Some guy who was bragging to me about his new John Muir Trail book, which he hasn't hiked by the way, was all spread out around the bear locker.  It was laughable.  And I mean camped right in front of the locker.  I hurt my heal hiking there to Woods Creek Bridge and had to stay there all afternoon and evening and this guy never went more than a few yards from this locker or his camp.   There I was, a trapped audience.  Then PCT type JMT hiker comes in and saves me.  Between the two of us we were able to finally talk over book author guy.  I then suggested to PCT type JMT guy that if we walk ten yards down that hill there's another locker he could use (didn't have a canister) and I bet author guy wont leave the security of the locker and his camp.  He didn't praise the lord.   And I was able to help PCT type JMT guy with two days' of food and stuff I didn't want to hobble out with.  Made that kid's day.  
Last time I met the Rae Lakes ranger he was packing out trash he pulled out of the Rae Lakes lockers.  Not a little either.  His pack was loaded, and he was carrying a medium size bag full.   Dario is a good guy and I have met him in three different locations.  Interesting that not only did he not ask me for my permit, but suggested I have it handy when I went over Glen Pass as his supervisor was coming out.  Sure as heck I met her on the pass summit, and a newbie ranger who tried diligently to steer the conversation so he could valiantly ask for my permit, and it was quite obvious,  but shortly found himself introducing me to his boss, and thereby removing himself from the conversation before achieving his goal.  The poor guy actually walked away.  
So if you were going to cache there, you'd have had to meet both rangers, maybe stash your stuff with trash, maybe not, but definitely would have wanted to have a permit, which you would have either payed in advance for, or picked up the day you went in next, which both have rules, and then hope for two weeks that it's still there when you go thru.  That is to say, the ranger left it because you put a nice note, but more than likely, with hordes of weekenders passing thru, hope that some mischievous boy scouts don't fool with your stash, or some Sierra vagabond, or who knows what...       
So there is todays lesson about locker etiquette.    
On Feb 13, 2010, at 7:25 AM, Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com wrote:

> 
> On Feb 12, 2010, at 10:21 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>> seeing a bunch of 5-gal buckets right off the switchbacks up there  
>> either.
> 
> I recall seeing an orange, 5-gallon bucket right off the trail in  
> Washington. Someone left it there with a sign on top that said  
> "FREE". What hiker is going to see a bucket and think, "Oh goody!"?  
> Well, I did, thinking it had food inside, but no, it was just a free  
> bucket. It was clear it had been used to resupply someone.
>