[pct-l] Will Bear Canisters Work?

[plockey@austin.rr.com (Paul/Maryann Lockey)]

I like this idea the best!! We could have backcountry wars the vigilantes
verses the rebels. I think instead of wrist rockets what you need is a good
pair of tennis shoes here's why:
Two hikers are out hiking. All of a sudden, a bear starts chasing them.

They climb a tree, but the bear starts climbing up the tree after them. The
first hiker gets his sneakers out of his knapsack and starts putting them
on.

The second hiker says, "What are you doing?"

The first responds, "I figure when the bear gets close to us, we'll have to
jump down and make a run for it."

The second says, "Are you crazy? Don't you know you can't outrun a bear?

The first guy says, "I don't have to outrun the bear... I only have to
outrun you!"

I think you are all taking this bear thing to seriously. Most of the people
that get into trouble with the bears don't take the time to participate in
discussions such as this. Has anybody on this board ever had a confrontation
with a bear.

Please
Paul

----- Original Message -----
From: "Reynolds, WT" <reynolds@ilan.com>
To: <CMountainDave@aol.com>; "Reynolds, WT" <reynolds@ilan.com>;
<Montedodge@aol.com>; <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2001 4:11 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Will Bear Canisters Work?


> It depends. Currently bear canisters don't work because:
> 1-People refuse to use them prefering to ignore the law because the risk
is
> small.
> 2-People use them but improperly store excess food. This approach saves
the
> hike but not the bear.
> 3-People use them but still forget to put smelly attractive things in
them.
>
> Dave, my response to all the perceived wrongs of the NPS is that these are
> all people mistakes, not bear mistakes. If people had always
counterbalanced
> correctly the method would probably still work because bears wouldn't have
> had poorly hung food bags to practice their trick on.
>
> Counterbalancing also didn't work because:
> 1-People refused to use it, prefering to sleep with their food because the
> risk is small.
> 2-People counterbalanced inproperly
> 3-People counterbalance properly but still forget to hang everything.
>
> This all sounds familier to me. If we mandated wrist rockets, they
wouldn't
> work because:
> 1-People would refuse to use them, preferring to shoot marmots instead
[more
> challanging]
> 2-People would use them improperly killing other hikers
> 3-People would use them but still forget to bring enough steeles and run
out
> of ammo
>
> The only solution to the "bear problem" is to educate people that proper
> food storage is mandatory. The only way to do that is to catch and punish
> those who don't comply. The best use of wrist rockets and steelies is to
arm
> a vigilante committee with them and instruct them to shoot people who
don't
> comply somewhere where the sun don't shine. This would be real fun, Monte,
> and would actually fix the problem.
>
> Tom
>
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