[pct-l] more on bears

1. At this time, you have the following options in regards to bears: A. be a 
criminal and sleep with your food. B. Be a criminal and hang your food from a 
tree (the practice is illegal in several national parks in California. C. 
Forsake stealth camping and camp in designated areas only with bear boxes ( 
you may soon be REQUIRED to do this and you will be a criminal if you don't) 
D. Carry 6 pounds and $500 worth of bear cannisters for your hike through the 
Sierras. E. Eat all your food every night before you retire.
2. I have seen hundreds of bears on my various hikes and feel that I know 
them very well. They are thieves not muggers (they would use the term 
"opportunist"). They are creatures of dominance and dominance is what they 
understand. If you let them, they will walk all over you. If you stand up to 
them they will back down. They will not take food from you if you have it in 
your possesion and don't back down. They don't view hung food as being in 
your possession. They view hung food as finders keepers, first come first 
served, you snooze you lose, etc. Once a bear gets that hung food it is all 
over. You will NEVER get it back because they will consider it in THEIR 
possesion and will defend it rigorously, just like they would expect YOU to 
do. You HAVE to have the attitude that YOU are in charge, not them, just as a 
lion tamer would do.
 Tom, you are an enigma. On the one hand you espouse libertarian views and 
hate big government. Then you seem willing to swallow any misguided 
regulations that government tries to shove down or throats, such as required 
bear cannisters. Just where exactly are you coming from? Are you simply a 
Contrarian vs. a Libertarian? I'll choose to opt for common sense instead: 
Guarding your food 24 hrs. a day, including sleeping with it, is common sense 
to me given what I know from experience about their behavior and I have no 
intention of changing my strategy any time soon . If they try to force me to 
carry bear cannisters it will be catch me if you can with my fake ID
 I've already gone over why there is a bear problem to begin with (lack of 
fear of man brought about by not dominating them) in past posts. No point in 
going over it again and again. Criminal Mountain Dave
* From the PCT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *

==============================================================================
To:            pct-l@backcountry.net