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

[reynolds@ilan.com]

Tom,

I don't think you understand. You must NEVER sleep with your food for any
reason. First, it risks my health because you might train a bear to crash
tents. That is the ONLY way to keep bears from crashing tents that have
food smells in them. Once a bear gets human food in a tent he will crash
another for precisely the reason you state. All tents, even tents with zero
food, are subject to a bear making a mistake. You are in danger in your
smelly tent because some other backpacker previously slep with food in the
tent and a bear had a good meal. The only answer to your question is noone
ever sleep with food in the tent.

All improper food storage is illegial. Mostly this is done to protect the
bears. I don't get adverserial over bears BUT I took my young son along
much of the JMT and I will be as adverserial as necessary to protect him. I
used to be that above treeline was safe from bears. You could simply leave
your food out. This is not true anymore.

My personal opinion is that by tossing a bear canister 25 yards away, IF a
bear shows up he will attack the bear canister, not the tent. To me, this
is the best way of protecting myself from a bear. However, I am not
adverserial about bear canisters or even proper food storage. That  only
risks bear's lives, not my son's.

I am also somewhat adverserial that a significant portion of this list is
advocating breaking the law of the NPS and USFS and that the PCTA could
lose some of the privilidges it now has making thruhiking more difficult
for those who follow the law. The NPS/USFS could make it very hard for
thruhiking if they chose. The concept that "thruhikers" not only store food
in their tents as a matter of course but, also "encourage others to do so"
as they did you, could cost the thruhiking community dearly.


Tom Reynolds

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