[pct-l] How to avoid bears

[BrianBowlsby at ieice.com (Brian Bowlsby)]

In my experience and practice, there are two ways to avoid bears in the
Sierra. The first one is don't camp in Yosemite!  The second, is when you
have to camp in bear infested areas such as Yosemite, stealth camping is the
only way to avoid bears. It's not 100% foolproof, but works most of the
time.
 
Bears have a very sensitive sense of smell. But I think, most of the time,
it's not a matter of the bear smelling your food, but that the bear knows
where to find the food!
 
Bears are smart and they know where the established campsites are that
people use on a nightly basis. So, they come by every night to the same
campsites hoping to find some improperly stored food.  And if I had to
guess, I'd say they probably find a lot of it, especially from the average
weekend hikers, who seem to be a little more carefree about their food,
since losing it to a bear would have less impact to them than it would for a
thru-hiker!
 
I recently stayed a night in the infamous Lyell Canyon in Yosemite during my
JMT thru-hike, (the one the guidebook says not to camp in if you want to
keep your food!) and had no bears. I stayed in a beautiful stealth camp
overlooking the canyon about 200 yds off the trail, fully expecting to see
bears that night, but didn't. 
 
I used the stealth camping method for the entire JMT and only had bears in
my camp the first night, in Yosemite between Half dome and Sunrise. In that
area it's hard to get away from other campers and established campsites so
proper food storage is essential! 
 
Along the JMT, some of our fellow thru-hikers who were staying in
established campsites had bear encounters only 1/4 mile away from where our
stealth camps were.  If bears can smell a dead deer 3 miles away, they could
surely smell our food 1/4 mile away right? Why didn't we have bears in our
camp then?
 
Brian Bowlsby
PCT 2004