Re: Bear Food Ediquette While Camping Question CO

bheiser gets paranoid and says

Quote:

I guess I'll start carrying my bear canister even on day hikes ...

Well, it depends on where you are going (and how large that "extra food" one of the 10 Essentials is.

99% of the time (probably more), the canister for a day hike is way overkill. True, if you are hiking around Yosemite Valley or around human-accustomed grizzlies in some of the Canadian NP, you might want something heavily armored. But most of the time, all you need is to use a little common sense.

Kind of reminds me of a friend who, back in the 1960s, got paranoid enough about traffic risks that he and his wife started wearing racing helmets for normal driving on the LA freeways, as well as installing full racing harnesses. In part, he was inspired by my having full harnesses in our Cooper and later in our Porsche, both of which we used for what are now called "performance rallies". They gave that up after a couple years when they got stopped 2 or 3 times by the CHP who were a bit suspicious of the intentions of someone driving around looking like they were about to go street racing (except we don't see any of the "sideshow" participants with any safety gear, which says the CHP was maybe overly suspicious).

Anyway, for dayhikes, canisters are overkill, except in very rare instances. If you are careful about not going away from your pack and with what you put in it (and how you pack to avoid food smells), you shouldn't have any trouble. Maybe when you are taking a dip, you could just carry a 50 ft length of cord and bear bag the pack for the hour or so.