<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">I guess you have to ask yourself
whether avoiding that simple act of tossing a rope over a tree branch
is worth getting yourself and undoubtedly one of very few grizzly
bears killed. Sure, the probability of that happening is really
really low, but why are you so resistant to hanging your food? You
carry pepper spray, why bother with that?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br></p><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 10:52 PM, Matthew Edwards <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Hetchhetchyman@aol.com">Hetchhetchyman@aol.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Yep, I slept on my food everywhere except
Yellowstone and a few places in Glacier.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I would not recommend anyone else do
that.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Be here is what i did, albeit
stupidly;</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Each night when i stopped hiking I would either
cowboy or tent but always i would</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">take my plastic grocery bag of food and roll it up
in the garbage compactor bag i use as a </font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">back pack liner. I would squish all the air out and
roll that baby up like a taquito.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Then fold the end over and set it right above my
head. I would put my empty pack on top sometimes.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I also usually had a trekking pole leaned across
the heap with my days dirty sock hanging on it to dry (which they never
did).</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">However, I never cooked in Grizzly country.. in
fact i had no stove. I very rarely ate where i slept.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">The foods i ate were summed up in three catagories:
Nutella, Peanut butter, Tortillas, powdered Fritos corn chips(a health
food)</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">and Snickers Bars(Kingsize..
naturally).</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I did encounter two grizzlies on my CDT hike. One
was south of Togwotee pass. A sub-adult griz and i were sharing the same
trail</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">in oposite directions. As soon as we saw each
other, and with a few encouraging clicks of my aluminum trekking poles, the bear
left.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">The other Griz was above Two Ocean pass grazing on
the grassy hillside and two far away for interaction.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">If I were to do anything different i might have
carried my pepperspray in a more accesible location.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I suppose and Ursack would have made more sense
than a plastic grocery bag and a garbage compactor bag for food
storage.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Personally I think the fear of Grizzly I
encountered in the local population of humans was overblown.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Yea a dude got eaten in yellowstone but it was in
an established campsite where people cook bacon and store yummy donuts in the
trunk of their car.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I am gonna catch hell for this opinion so i will
just give it both barrels here... One stinky hiker, making stealth camps in the
wilderness has less to fear</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">from Grizzly than from man himself. Oh...The
wilderness is as safe as it should be. Oh.. and.. A man has a right to die in
his own back yard.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">In the past two years the fear mongering has been
far greater than the reality. </font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">For example: "You'll never make it over: Fuller
ridge..Forrester pass, Whitney, Hat Creek rim, The San Juans, The Basin
Divide."</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Snow, Rain, Heat, Bears, Mosquitos, Forest fires,
Snakes, Ticks, Blisters, Giardia..</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I am not trying to make light of serious issues.
Fear is the biggest challenge for most people. Lets be sure we have answers
before we start flinging fear.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">A few anecdotal stories by people, and particularly
people who don't live in the woods for 5 months at a stretch, does not mean
the entire woods are rife with man killing bears.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Okay.. let the slings and arrows begin.. I can take
it.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">-Iceaxe</font></div></div>
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