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[pct-l] Re: JMT Hike



>According to Christine Kudija, Inyo can charge you a fine of FIVE
>THOUSAND dollars
>if they catch you in a mandatory bear can zone without a bear can.
>It is not worth
>fooling with no matter how you feel about it.  I hate bear cans, but
>I use them,
>because they work.  I hate them like I hate seatbelts and bike
>helmets.    I hate
>to see people hanging food, because it just perpetuates the problem.
>Illegalizing
>food hangs and requiring bear cans is the workable answer to an
>unfortunate history
>of foolish regulations and smart bears.
>Marion Davison, "llamalady"


	Agreed.
	I met two hikers below Donahue Pass last week who lost their
last two days' food to a bear at Garnet Lake.  Said in 4 JMT
thruhikes, this was the first time a food bag was lost. Bear climbed
the tree, and despite harassment from below in the form of thrown
rocks, shouts etc, the bear just snapped the (substantial) branch off
the tree, then quickly dropped the 20 ft to the ground to retreive
the bag first.  This area is now cannister-mandatory.
	OK that said, here's a purely pragmatic thought:  over time a
bear gets used to raiding regularly-used sites, then a cannister rule
goes into effect.  Now,  (and esp after two yrs of drought in Sierras
and it's late summer) there's been no easy food from hikers due to
cannister rule, so hunger breeds determination.  Along comes a few
hikers hanging.  Not only are they now THE TARGET, but in the absence
of any others hanging (can't just go raid the next camp now, they're
cannistering!), Yogi won't be so easily shooed away!  No!  He's
determined now, and easy intimidation tactics won't scare him off.
	So I'm thinking that at lakes and valleys where bears once
got used to getting food from easy raiding, the hiker who shows up to
camp, and hangs a bag instead of storing in a can becomes the bear's
main chance of eating.  I wouldn't maintain that the animal is
THINKING this out, but that's how it is when he's hungry.  I'd choose
to tote a can or completely avoid those places altogether, and I can
sleep better.

Kevin "Where's My Nickel" Corcoran