[pct-l] Re: pct-l-digest V1 #871

["Tom Simon" <simontom@cgocable.net>]

I have a question about bears and not keeping food in your tent. While you
are cooking, some of the juices often flow onto the stove or the fuel
bottle. We get food all over the pots and bowls and who cleans them really
well each night. Some of the soup drips onto your jacket sleeve every meal
for a few days. The spaghetti sauce gets on your fingers and you then smack
a mosquito on your neck. Suppose we drink from our water bottle while food
is on our lips (what thru hiker carries a separate cup). Get the picture,
not only is your food appetizing, so are you and your things.
--- So what is the point of hanging the food; if everything else is kept in
the tent and smells just as good or better?---
You can't hang everything including the kitchen stove.
I tried several food storage methods while on the John Muir Trail this
summer. For a few days I carried a Orbs Bear Resistant food canister because
I didn't want the loss of food to spoil my trip. Bears do not touch them,
but after some advice from PCT thru hikers I sent the canister back home as
the weight of the canister was threatening to ruin my trip. For the
remainder of the trail, I hung my food as best I could. This is impossible
at places like the upper reaches of Evolution Valley so I slept with it
there. Doing this in combination with stealth camping techniques as outlined
by Ray Jardine, and reinforced by the 'thru" buddies I met, worked very
well.
Oher unfortunate people who also hung there food but stayed in the bears
happy hunting grounds of popular campsites were not so lucky.
If anyone has any opinions on this dilema, please respond via this PCT
digest.

* From the Pacific Crest Trail Email List |  http://www.backcountry.net   *

==============================================================================