[pct-l] bear canisters

[JohnDRandall at aol.com (JohnDRandall@xxxxxxx)]

Nine days of food in a bear canister.  Wow.  Way to go!   I'd be OK except 
for my box of Honey Nut Cherrios, 1-lb of Oreos and jar of p-nut butter.   
Size-wise, the interior of the canister holds roughly the equivalent of three bags 
of Snickers junior candy bars.  You don't need to buy one.   On the eastside 
of the Sierras they're readily available at the FS ranger stations and sporting 
goods stores in Lone Pine, Independence, and Bishop.   I rent one because I 
have to, but there's no way to conveniently put a one-week supply of food into 
it.    I'm a terrible cook, so I use pre-packaged Mt. House.  Even poking 
holes in the packages to remove the nitrogen, then wadding them up...it's 
impossible to get a week's worth of groceries into them.  They're really designed for 
the overnighter/weekender crowd, which is really where the bear problems are 
anyway.   I've been hiking Kings Canyon and Sequoia for the last 19 years.  The 
last time I saw an actual bear was at (Bearpaw Meadows) in 1985 on the High 
Sierra Trail.   The metal bear boxes in SEKC have done the trick for the high 
country.  However, if I was doing a similar hike in the Yosemite backcountry, 
I'd want a canister and bring enough climbing rope to bearbag the rest.

john