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I skipped the JMT because of one bear stat in a trail journal, and I still feel dumb about it
I spent 6 months planning the John Muir Trail for last August, but a friend sent me a NPS page saying black bears hit food hangs something like 40 percent of the time in the Sierra. That number stuck in my head, so I bailed and did the Wonderland Trail in Washington instead. Then I met a guy at a hostel in Packwood who had just finished the JMT and he said he used a bear can the whole way and never lost a single meal. Now I'm looking at permit dates for next summer. Has anyone here done the JMT with a can and actually had a bear mess with their stuff?
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nelson.finley9d ago
Man, my buddy did the JMT two summers ago and had one bear sniff around his camp near Vidette Meadow at like 2am. He had his can sitting out about 20 feet from his tent with a rock on top, and the bear just rolled it around for a bit, pawed at the lid, then wandered off. Nothing got in. He said the scariest part was just lying there listening to it, not the food. So yeah, cans work, the bears just test them sometimes. That 40 percent stat sounds like it's about hangs, not cans.
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