[pct-l] bears, canisters, and OPSaks

[Edward Anderson]

I have now finished riding the PCT from Mexico to Canada. It has taken four seasons, and I can add up about six months of trail miles. Thinking back, I have only seen seven bears - total. The first, I chased out of my camp at Joshua Tree Spring. The next two I saw in Washington - from a distance, not on the trail or in camp. Then, this summer, I saw four while on the trail as I descended from the PCT to Cedar Grove to resupply. All four were on the trail and left it when they saw me on my horse. Three of those were a family - a mother bear with her two beautiful cubs. I had time to get a video while she herded the cubs off the trail.
 
I did bring a bear spray during my entire PCT journey.  My wife had bought it for me and insisted that I carry it. I carried two Garcia Bear Canisters the entire distance through the Sierra National Parks. In 2011, going SOBO from Sierra City to Tuolumne Meaows; in 2012 going NOBO from Horseshoe Meadows to Yosemite Valley. 
 
I would never consider sleeping with my food. Except in the Sierra, when I used the bear canisters (as required by law in the National Parks) I kept my food in the odor-proof sacks - OPSaks - and placed them away from my sleeping spot. In bear country I also camouflaged them, since, while bears could not smell the food inside, they might SEE it. I also surrounded my camps with a circle of about 20 "Bear Charms" (they are used in parts of the Yukon), these are cotton tobacco sacks with two or three mothballs inside each. Bears dislike the smell - it repels them - the opposite of food. Every morning I would walk the circle and picked them up to be re-used.
 
MendoRider-Hiker
 

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