[pct-l] Bear Cannisters in the North Cascades

[chelin at teleport.com (Sharon & Chuck Chelin)]

Good evening, Steady,

I concur with your comments about both bears and mice.  I recommend avoiding
the bear problem by not camping in NCNP.  I tired to avoid
the mouse problem by not camping at the larger, more heavily-used spots, but
the most trouble I had was at a place where hikers seldom pitched.  I hiked
the regular trail west of Glacier Peak in '02.  I wanted to camp at
a spot just across the Milk Creek bridge, but a  FS trail crew had the whole
spot occupied.  There aren't many decent camp spots in the area, and I
didn't want to tackle the grade out of the Milk Creek canyon that evening,
so I pitched on a wide spot of the trail at the near end of the bridge.

Even though it was raining on my tarp, I could barely hear the pitter of
little feet running on my sleeping bag.  Several times I brushed it off but
back it came in a few minutes.  Then finally I had my arm in exactly the
right position, and my timing must have been perfect, because when I whapped
the inside of the bag right under him I heard an immediate thwack on the
underside of the tarp.  I am reasonably convinced that if the tarp hadn't
been in the way I would have sent his fuzzy-butt into low earth orbit.
Anyway, that was the last I heard from him and he didn't get in the food
sack.

Steel-eye

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Bowlsby" <go4ahike@pacifier.com>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 11:02 PM
Subject: RE: [pct-l] Bear Cannisters in the North Cascades


> As already stated, the bears in N. Cascades are pretty timid, so they
> shouldn't be a problem.
>
> However, the mice throughout most of Washington are fearsome! Nearly every
> night they raided my tarp last September on my thru-hike. It's hard to
sleep
> with mice crawling over your sleeping bag and running across your face in
> the middle of the night!
>> Steady