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Posted by Bill S on May 3, 2008 at 1:27:13 pm EDT
In reply to Bear Food Ediquette While Camping Question CO posted by skinny_duck on April 28, 2008 at 12:16:03 am EDT

bheiser says

Quote:

Actually, Bill S, I respect your opinion when you suggest using a bear canister on day hikes is "overly paranoid", but I am beginning to disagree with it.

What?!?! You dare to disagree with my inconsistent and self-contradictory "advice??? Gasp!

Well, (the Old GreyBeard mumbles in his beard, while trying to explain himself), Kinda depends on what you mean by "dayhike" and what you are carrying and where you are hiking. In kutenay's situation, his "dayhikes" are more like most people's major expeditions. The territory is much more challenging and the risks are much higher than my usual dayhikes around here (even for the same distance and elevation gains). We have lion locally (one just killed 4 goats in a local resident's backyard in a semi-rural area in a town at the south end of San Jose, plus one roaming around the Hayward area in an upscale neighborhood), but very few bears (mostly on the Santa Cruz/Monterey side of the hills). The pack I carry for these hikes is small and light enough to have with me at all times, including when scrambling at Castle Rock State Park (one of the world's premier bouldering areas, by the way, often compared to Fontainebleau in France, and where people like Chris Sharma learned to climb). Same thing in much of the Sierra for the kind of dayhikes I take there - the pack stays on my back except when actually getting a jacket in or out or a snack. The camera is out all the time, and the tripod is within easy reach to remove and hang back on me, so no need to take the pack off most of the time.

In most places I go, for a dayhike, a canister is overkill, as I said. And as kutenay said, if you are sceambling down a steep embankment where a sprained or broken ankle is even a remote possibility, you better have your pack with you with a good first aid kit (unless your partner, who should be with you if that's what you are doing, has the first aid kit). Reaching a pool? That means potentially slippery rocks, again, increasing the risk of an accident. Keep the pack with you. In most areas (NOT BC, Yellowstone, other areas where there are grizz or are known rogue blacks), you won't need the canister.

Skinny duck - 100 to 200 feet is the recommended distance for sleeping area to canister (or other storage), and a similar distance to the cooking area (it is often recommended for the cooking and food storage areas to be separated).

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