I know this is a dirty word but you are responsible for protecting your food. My guess is if you are napping day hiker and your food is sitting there in a pack out in the open and LE ranger walks by you could be fined. However, the chance of a LE officer walking by are near nill.
Day hiking permits do not exempt you from protecting your food from the four legged residents. Most day hikers are on the move most of the time and finish their trips in 13 to 18 hours. Longer trips are usually because of injury, illness or misjudging there physical requirements of a trip up and down the MMWT. Those who go past 24 hours on a day trip are usually in some sort of trouble and the cavalry will have been called out or will be shortly.
The case here is there were canister requirements...if he did not have one he was in violation of the law.
