[pct-l] tendonitis and bear boxes?

[mardav@xxxxxxxxxxx (Marion Davison)]

To my knowledge there are no bear boxes on the PCT north of Woods Creek
Crossing.  Chances are all your food will fit in your bear cans by then.  I
have always used a stuff sack for storage in bear boxes, without incident.
You will reach Tyndall Creek "frog ponds" a couple miles before you reach
Tyndall Creek Crossing.  Both have bear boxes.  In my opinion the Frog Ponds
are a more appealing place to camp, as far as the situation of campsites,
morning sunshine, and privacy.  I have never found the bear box to be full
there.  Tyndall Creek Crossing can get very crowded as it is the closest
bear box south of Forester Pass.  The same is true of Center Basin Crossing,
the first bear box north of Forester.  If the camp is too ghetto-like for
you there are more boxes a few miles further in Vidette Meadows.
One advantage of bear cans over Bear boxes, you can avoid camping in hiker
ghettos around boxes and have some solitude.  I am sure some people enjoy
the companionship, it just reminds me too much of a car campground.
It takes a bit of hunting to find the bear boxes at Rae Lakes.  The first
one I found northbound was located near the lake shore.  A post on the PCT
marked a use trail that led to the bear box and camping area near the shore.

There are a couple boxes at Woods Creek Crossing, one very close to the
bridge and the other down in the woods south of the bridge.  We found
superior camping on the north side of the bridge, a hundred yards or so down
the Paradise Valley trail.  I am looking forward to returning there this
August.
llamalady

Nathan Goldfarb wrote:

> Hi fellow hikers-
>
> I had posted that I may have a stress fracture that would threaten our
> JMT hike in June.  The bonescan was negative for a fracture and I'm
> being treated for peroneal tendonitis (Relefan and physical therapy).
>  My doc says our trip should be on!!!!  I have about 5 weeks to heal,
> though this means a trip without training (I am biking and stretching
> and swimming, but no walking with weight).  you can't win them all.  we
> will just take it very slow to start...in fact we may start at Happy
> Isles instead of Horseshoe to limit our initial food weight.
>
> Question 1:  Does anyone recommend a better insole for such a  problem.
>  I have superfeet in my Clarions...the NB 806 with spencos is what we
> think started the tendonitis, as they were a bit big to account for
> swelling.
>
> Question 2:  IF we start south, we will hike from Horseshoe to VVR.  All
> of our food wont't fit in our cannisters, so we were planning on using
> bear boxes (and stealth tactics)  for the rest...there seem to be many
> boxes between Whitney and VVR according to Winnet's guide.  When putting
> the rest of our food in the bear boxes should we just place it in our
> nylon stuff sack and place that into the bear box?  Is this safe from
> animals or is there a better way?
>
> Thanks for all the help on everything.  I have truely enjoyed the
> message board.  We are so excited and happy that our trip is on!
>
> Peace,
>
> Nate
>
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