Sorry, Doyle.. still love your "ate my chair" comment.
I'd be kind of ticked off as well. I just don't camp near their den.
Good advice.
I can't take total credit for my quote. I think I have told this story before, but I was camped with a group near the pass in Deadman Canyon (below a great fishing lake, Big Bird Lake, you would love it). We were sitting around when a marmot approached. Suddenly, one of our members shrieked, leaped up, yelling, and began chasing the marmot. We were kinda shocked. When he came back and sat down, looking sullen, he said, "Marmots ate my Buick." Turns out he was a victim of the infamous Mineral King marmots.
Marmots ate my chair in Granite Basin early spring in winter conditions.
rlown wrote:guess i agree somewhat that unhabituated bears probably won't bother your food, but at the same time, why not protect them from it? Russ
I believe the problems with bears began in the 70's and 80's: few if any trail quotas, no bear regs, and most people did not know a decent bear hang technique to save their lives. The Sierra was crawling with hikers, and you couldn't swing a dead marmot without smacking into a habituated bear. Lots of people were routinely losing their food to bears. You can't regulate stupid so something had to happen.
Actually several things happened. There was a sharp decline in in backpackers (which is now on the increase), trail quotas were established everywhere, better efforts were made to educate the backpacking public, and bearcan regs were established. All of these led to a sharp decline in habituated bears, and further habituating bears (although people with bearcans still lose their food to bears in high impact areas: as I said, you can't regulate stupid.)
All of these things work, and my only beef is with them leaving out the perfectly serviceable and reliable Ursack, which I know from personal experience is proof against bears. The full approval of the Ursack would be a great benefit to climbers, lite-packers and experienced backpackers. I would still advise beginners to use a can: it is more "fool" proof.