[pct-l] Food in the Sierras

[CHUCK CHELIN]

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 4:53 PM, Jason Moores <jmmoores1 at gmail.com> wrote:
"Personally my number one reason for carrying a can is for self
preservation.
By not camping in the heavily used areas where the bear boxes are located, I
greatly reduce my chances for a bear encounter. My first concern is not that
I may loose my food(I know that I can hike out and get more), it's waking up
in the night to a bear in my camp. This could be a direct threat to my life
and therefore supersedes my concern for the bear.  This is the reason for
wanting to camp closer to the pass that I mentioned before. Postholing can
be dangerous.

Yes, please do all that you can to protect the bears. Don't get me wrong,
I'm all for protecting the bear population. It's just that in the end...self
preservation wins hands down. There's no reason not to expand this topic
beyond the usual core argument, to include personal safety."

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

Good morning, all,

We each get to choose what we fear so my fear-pick is being pursued by a
rabid *Tyrannosaurus rex.  *Compared to that grim possibility everything
else – particularly the wanderings of our timid black bears – is reduced to
insignificance.

The PCT transits the home range of many thousands of black bears.  Very few
of them are ever observed, but be assured that they are probably aware of
you.  Think about all those thousands of bears and the many thousands of
short, medium, and long distance hikers on the trail vs. the number of
reliable reports of attack resulting from bear aggression.  Doom-sayers can
possibly dredge up reports of bear attack – some possibly from tabloids or
shock TV – but I believe the probability is extremely low.  One report I
remember was when a park bear carried off a careless hiker’s food pack.  The
hiker chased the retreating bear to retrieve the food when the bear turned
around and swatted her in defense.  A comment about bear psychology: If a
human has possession of food the bear will respect that and not aggressively
try to get it.  However, once the bear gets its paws on the food – literally
and figuratively – it will actively defend what is then “its food”.  That’s
why the hiker got swatted.

My personal opinion is based upon the experience of having slept out under
the stars, mostly alone, in the territory of both wild and park bears,
regularly since the mid-1950’s, without once having seen even mild
aggression from *Ursus americanus*.  I take appropriate measures to secure
my food: Sleeping with it in wild bear territory and using a ‘can where
required in park bear territory.

Wild bears won’t come near a hiker or a hiker’s camp.  Park bears may
approach camp, but bears don’t want hikers; bears want hiker’s food.  I
don’t really care if a bear wanders through camp on its nightly business; I
am very unlikely to even awake.

The old, tried-and-true comment that, “A fed bear is a dead bear” grossly
understates the situation.  Half – and probably more – of the problem bears
are females with cubs, and those cubs quickly learn bad habits.  If the
original habituated bear is killed, likely her cubs will eventually have to
be killed as well.  If it takes over two years to find them, then the third
generation must also go, *ad nauseam*.

Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09