[pct-l] re: mandatory bear canisters

[csiechert@hotmail.com (Carl Siechert)]

I'm not alarmed, but my own observations over the past 30 summers in the
Sierra suggests that the bears have learned a lot in that time. In the '70s,
we were lax about hanging our food and often slept with it, even in popular
campsites. We might have to chase off a bear once in a while, but never lost
any food. In more recent years, it's become apparent that the bears have
figured out how to defeat various hanging systems and have become more
aggressive about pursuing food and even attacking people. We still haven't
lost any food, but we've heard of many others who have. (Anecdotal, sure;
but it seems like we hear more of those stories now than in the '70s.) Now
when we're in smart-bear territory, we carry the friggin' cans. They work.
(At least until Monte figures out how to break into one and then shows the
bears how it's done.)

Now we have the same problem here at home. I've trained our neighbors not to
leave garbage cans outside, so now our resident bear is destroying fenced
enclosures, sheds, and garages to get at the garbage he knows is inside.


----- Original Message -----
From: <Dusybasin@aol.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 8:13 PM
Subject: [pct-l] re: mandatory bear canisters


> My experience of 25+ summers' hiking in the Sierra has shown me:
>
> 1. No bear has attempted to take food from me while hiking with food in my
> backpack.
> 2. If I sat with pack on, bears did not regard my pack as something to
> consider food.
> 3. Lying down with pack on didn't give them any more encouragement.
> 4. If I crawled inside a tent, still with pack on, this did not give them
any
> less regard for me than either 1, 2, or 3 above.
>
> Am I missing something that others are alarmed about ?