[pct-l] bear canisters too small for long stretches on PCT?

[Katy Shaw]

There are also several campsites in the Sierras that have bear boxes.  The first couple of days back on trail after a resupply, you can time your stops so that you arrive at those campsites if you have too much food that won’t fit into your canister. I saw several JMT hikers last summer who employed this strategy.

-Unicorn 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 23, 2018, at 7:01 AM, <jplynch at crosslink.net> <jplynch at crosslink.net> wrote:
> 
> One suggestion I've seen is to carry the first day's food outside of the canister, since it'll be eaten before nightfall.  And for the last day, you don't need to carry food for dinner, since you'll be off the trail.
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Richard Sturm
> Sent: Friday, March 23, 2018 9:58 AM
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Subject: [pct-l] bear canisters too small for long stretches on PCT?
> 
> Regarding bear canisters the larger 2 lb 9 oz BV500 supposedly holds 7 days of food, per the manufacturer (and this is written on the box it comes in). I can only get  about 5 days of food into mine including packaging.  You'd have to dump all your food together out of the packages to fit in 7 days, right?
> 
> 
> Even if you can fit in 5-7 days worth of food, the distance between resupplies in the Sierras can be 10 days from what I can see, at least at my slow hiking pace. Doesn't this force many hikers to "cheat" and carry a separate food supply kept outside the approved canister?  It wouldn't be practical to have two canisters.  One might consider the lighter Ursack (about 8-13 oz, depending on the model) as a backup to the canister, but apparently the local rules don't approve of that.
> 
> 
> How do other hikers handle this issue?
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> RS
> 
> r-sturm at msn.com
> 
> 
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