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[pct-l] Yellowstone VS Yosemite and Rainier





>
> Sly wrote:
>
> I'm not sure about all of Yellowstone, but the permited backcountry campsites
> I visited last year had bear poles (a cross bar between two trees) where you
> hung your food.
>
>

This fits with what I read in a Backpacker article about backpacking in
Yellowstone.  It said that camping areas were situated to avoid areas where bears
are active, and that everyone in the backcountry is assigned to a camp everynight
and must be in their assigned camp.  It is easy to provide bear storage
facilities if everyone must camp in an assigned site.  That turned me right off
to the place.  If I don't have the freedom to travel and camp where I wish, then
that is not a wilderness to me.  To me the whole definition of wilderness is
freedom to travel and camp where I wish (while following LNT camping
practices).   I live in So. Calif and use places like San Gorgonio Wilderness for
weekend trips.  San G has assigned camps too.  I put up with it in a small
wilderness with a huge number of users, but it seems sad that such a vast
wilderness as Yellowstone is being micromanaged to such a degree.
I have been to Yellowstone only once, as a kid on a car trip.  I was properly
awestruck by the wildlife, the geothermal features, and the waterfalls.  They
have been given the mandate to protect the resource as they see fit, and this is
what they chose to do.  Sigh.
The basic premise of the National Park system is that each location is protecting
a unique resource, so each Park is able to make its own rules as they see fit, to
protect their unique resource.  So we have to put up with seeming inconsistencies
in regulation, like bear can rules that vary widely as you hike out of one park
and into another along the PCT.  Imagine if we had to stay in assigned campsites
all along the PCT.  I guess there are worse things than bear cans.
llamalady

PS  I am signing off the list today as we start our summer adventures on
Wednesday.  See y'all in September.