[pct-l] Resupply

Fri Nov 19 21:17:36 CST 2010

Hello Kevin, 
You are certainly right in advising me to mark the general location of a 
cache with a GPS.  And then also taking a picture of the exact spot of the 
cache.  I will do that next year. At one of my Oregon caches it took me well 
over an hour just to find the general location of my cache. I had bought my 
Garmin GPS - 60CSx just a week or so prior to my 2008 ride.  I was able to put 
in several locations where I had read another rider had found camps with good 
graze.  That worked out pretty good. I found about 75% of them.  But I never 
really learned how to use (take advantage of) all of the things a GPS can do.  
For my 2009 ride I left the GPS at home and just went by the topo map and 
compass as I always have.  I did print out the great topos that halfmile was so 
generous to provide. For my 2011 ride I want to learn how to use the waypoints 
provided by Halfmile. He emailed me some tips.
MendoRider

________________________________
From: Kevin Cook <hikelite at gmail.com>
To: PCT Listserve <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Thu, November 18, 2010 9:07:01 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Resupply

Hi Ed

I actually liked reading the details of how you handle your caches. I think
you have mentioned some aspects before, but this detail is useful to know
what works.

You recently mentioned you had a GPS. In addition to taking a photo of your
caches, I would recommend you mark the location in your GPS. You probably
already thought of that, but I wanted to mention it just in case. I've used
this method to find things I "hide" in the forest. A couple months ago I had
to "cache" a mountain bike to travel between trailheads after a hike.
Honestly, I thought I would have no problem remembering exactly where it
was, but I was glad I had the GPS. It took me right to it, and it didn't
look at all familiar more than a week later LOL

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 8:56 PM, Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Carl,
> I have cached in many different places during my ride. Once in a barrel in
> a
> barn ( with the permission of the owner) near the school that you pass just
> before crossing the Mojave on the way to Cottonwood.  Once (with
> permission) in
> someones garage. Once in the storage room of the Ranger Station at Harts
> Pass in
> Washington. Once in an abandoned log cabin near Windy Pass also in
> Washington.
> I have learned to always store cached food in OpSaks to prevent rodents and
> bears from smelling it.
>
> But most often I bury my caches - usually about 200' or more from road
> crossings
> or trail heads. I have become an expert at camouflage.  I carefully peel
> back
> the ground cover so I can reuse it. I dig a long shallow hole and bury my
> OpSaks
> along with exactly 10 mothballs if I am in bear country. (the bears dislike
> the
> smell of mothballs - they do not smell like something that a bear would
> want to
> eat) Then I carefully cover the cache, using the original ground cover and
> often
> branches and leaves found on the ground nearby. My criteria is that if a
> person
> were to walk by that spot, my cache would not be noticed.  When I am back
> to
> recover it, days or even weeks later, I have sometimes had  great
> difficulty in
> finding it myself. That is because, when deciding where to cache, I will
> have
> considered several possible spots. Then, since I camouflage so well, it is
> hard
> to remember where I cached. For my 2011 ride I will always take a picture
> of the
> cache location.
>
> When I return to recover my food I do everything in reverse - remove
> branches,
> peel back ground cover, recover food bags and all 10 mothballs (for reuse)
> and
> return the ground cover and camouflage again so that there is no sign that
> that
> spot was ever used for a cache.
>
>
> Sorry I had to go to so much detail to explain, but I feel that it is very
> important that  "leave no trace" be a priority. It takes time to do a
> proper job
> of returning the spot to look as it did originally.
>
> MendoRider/Ed Anderson
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Carl Siechert <carlito at gmail.com>
> To: Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com>
> Cc: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Sent: Thu, November 18, 2010 6:16:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Resupply
>
>
> Hi Ed:
>
> I've often wondered: How do you cache your food? Bury, hang, or ??? And
> how,
> exactly, do you do it in a way that protects your food from bears, rodents,
> insects, marauding thru hikers, moisture, etc.? Assuming the cache is
> hidden,
> how do you find it weeks later?
>
> Thanks,
> Carl
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> locations and will either cache or send my food and processed horse feed
> via
> >Priority Mail to each of them:  Priority Mail to T. Meadows, Muir Trail
> Ranch,
> >and Ceder Grove.  I will drop off a resupply bucket at Agnew Meadows. I
> will
> >cache and also camp when I pick up resupplies at Donner Pass, at a lake
> >near Echo Summit, and at Sonora Pass. I will be caching as I trailer my
> horse
> >north from Agua Dulce to Sierra City.  Then I leave him there in good care
> >
>
>
>
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-- 
~ Kevin
Soon To Be PCT Thru Hiker!
"The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial." Edward Abbey
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