[pct-l] Stolen backpacks - nothing new

[David Hough on pct-l]

There was an unhappy incident the week before I started my intentional section hiking of the PCT in 2001:


http://www.backcountry.net/arch/pct/0104/msg00032.html

Lake Morena is not a friendly place after dark.       As I recall, Helen got back on the trail though.     I believe I met her
husband Larry a year or two later near Barker Pass and we talked about it.

And I recall that about 40 years ago, when the west was really wild and you could climb Mt Whitney without a permit,
there was a local industry for a while in Lone Pine where young men would climb up to Trail Crest and pick up and hike out
with one of the fine new packs left there by backpackers who cached them there while walking over to the summit.    Those
were real trail pirates.

Unfortunately there's just no way to keep all your equipment in your direct possession all the time.     Social parasites are
like giardia or mosquitos, something to take reasonable precautions to avoid, but with an awareness that no precaution works
100% of the time, and so having a plan B in mind for dealing with low-probability high-consequence events is a good idea.

The only positive aspect of equipment theft (and other encounters with social parasites)
is that it usually occurs near a road, where the consequences are not quite as life-threatening as in remote wilderness.
But life-threatening enough.