[pct-l] to sleep with or not to sleep with...

[reynolds@xxxxxxxx (Reynolds, WT)]

Jim,

Bear boxes don't work for the simple reason that they quickly fill up with
the excess sh!t that people leave behind [think of hiker boxs]. Inyo tried
bear poles but the bears knocked them down [Really? I was amazed till I saw
it].

My issue is NOT the use of a bear canister. My issue is sleeping with food.
At popular locations where Inyo would put boxes, sleeping with food would be
incredibly scarey and probably lead to getting hurt rather quickly.

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Ginny & Jim Owen [mailto:spiritbear2k@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 1:54 PM
To: reynolds@ilan.com; jomike@snowcrest.net;
pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: RE: [pct-l] to sleep with or not to sleep with...


Tome -
Why don't you put that effort into getting Inyo to do something useful -
like putting in bear boxes?
Walk softly,
Jim



Tom Reynolds -

>As I have stated repeatedly. The reason you don't sleep with your food is
>to
>protect me and my four year old son.
>
>If a bear gets the nerve to crash a tent and GETS food from the experience,
>that bear will repeatedly crash tents until it is destroyed.
>
>You keep your food from bears to protect the bears. You don't sleep with
>your food because you don't want to be responsible for the child you maime
>by creating a tent crashing bear.
>
>All this, "I have never had a bear problem" is just BS. In over 300 nights
>in the Sierra a bear has shown up maybe 10 times and those ten times are in
>the predictible locations. In general, most nights a bear never visits your
>campground. Stealth camping is the art of hiding from a bear. Aside from
>the
>fact that it is illegial and subject to a big fine, stealth camping will
>work very well for thruhikers passing through the sierra in the early
>season
>[before July 1]. During that timeframe a stealth camper is very unlikely to
>have a bear visit.
>
>Sleeping with your food says something like. "If a bear shows up [unlikely]
>I would rather risk maiming a child than losing my food"
>
>If the thruhiking community can't take responsibility for not sleeping with
>their food, I fear that I must throw the effort I previously put into
>ADZPCTKO into ending thruhiking thru Inyo without a canister.
>


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