[pct-l] PCT's birds and other critters

[scourtway at bpa-arch.com (Steve Courtway)]

I generally agree, the caveat being that just as one who decides not to take
a water filter should be careful about borrowing others' who have carried
one,  The "stealth camper" needs to be careful not to let the
responsibilities of their method fall by the wayside when they're tired at
the end of the day and end up stopping in a high-traffic area because they
havn't seen a bear in 50 days of sierra hiking or some such......

s.c.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brett" <blisterfree@isp01.net>
To: "Steve Courtway" <scourtway@bpa-arch.com>;
<pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 12:33 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] PCT's birds and other critters


> > "stealth camping" hahahaha
> >
> > tell the bear who hears you and the 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 other
> > chattering
> > "stealth campers" you're stealth camping, therefore are
> > safe from them
> > helping themselves to yr food.
>
> Sure, a bear _could_ find you at a stealth site. No
> guarantees of 100% success. But a genuinely stealth method
> of camping - well away from established sites, on pristine
> ground, away from trails and corridors of human and bear
> activity, and not cooking at these sites - can greatly
> reduce the chances of a bear encounter. A bear follows his
> nose. Avoid tickling the thing at all costs.
>
> IMO, the "bear can mentality" suggests the impossibility of
> avoiding bears. Matters of legality aside, this is often a
> false assumption. But it is propagated by the feds because
> they want people to camp in established sites, where bears
> are omnipresent. They can't suggest stealth camping to the
> masses. And it wouldn't work if everybody did it, at least
> where human numbers are so high that bear cans are ever an
> issue in the first place.
>
> - bf
>
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