[pct-l] Re: Yogi, is that food or a smelly hiker in that tent?

[tsimon10@xxxxxxxxx (tsimon10)]

Let's say you've been bathing in the odour plume from your cook pots. Some
of the boiling slop called trail food splatters on your shirt sleeve as you
cook. Perhaps you dribble some spaghetti sauce onto your jacket as you eat.
Man, you smell just like your dinner to a bear. So do we need a clothes
canister too now? I'm baffled by the need for a canister through most of the
JMT portion of the trip.
But I would absolutely use one from Kennedy Meadows to Tuolumne. For one
thing it's mandatory for much of this section to protect the bears, not you.
Secondly, for one other big reason that never existed five years ago - the
masses of people doing the JMT and attracting herds of bears in certain
areas like Rae Lakes, LeConte Canyon or Yosemite. It's like a hiking highway
through there and the bears know the camping spots will be a source of easy
meals. Finally, and most of all, when the thru-hiker reaches the Sierras the
bears are just coming out of hibernation. How hungry would you be after not
eating all winter?
Tom Simon