[pct-l] Park Service vs Park Service

[spiritbear2k@hotmail.com (Ginny & Jim Owen)]

*************

Tom said:
I hiked in Glacier a few years ago and noted two significant differences:
1.  Glacier allows camping only in designated sites, which have cables.
They don't "allow" stealth camping (any CDT input here?).
2.  According to an NPS ranger I talked with there, they just shoot the bad
bears -- maybe that's a difference between what's acceptable in Montana
versus California...
**********

You're partly right -
1 - CDT southbound early season thruhikers have been known to get
'undesignated permits' when the snows still covered the campsites and they
weren't officially open -- but then they were required to carry bear
canisters.  (We chose a route that had an open site so we wouldn't have to
carry the canister - and worse return it to the place where we rented it,
miles from the park exit.)  Otherwise, except fora few sections of the park=
,
you are supposed to use campsites with bear poles and separate kitchen
areas.
2 - the policy in Glacier is that they kill problem black bears (they kille=
d
a mama and cubs who broke into a rangers' cabin a few days before we hiked
through the park), but if grizzlies are the problem, they just completely
close the trail until the bears move on.  On our second hike in the park,
they closed the CDT for about 3 months.  The rangers actually came up to ou=
r
campsite to tell us that the trail ahead was closed and we'd have to exit
the park.  The grizzly had just clawed a couple of packs, not hikers, but
they weren't taking any chances.  There are whole sections of the park that
have been closed for years because of grizzly activity.

Good thing there aren't any griz in Yosemite.

Ginny





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