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Dropping Packs
#6945 08/29/10 02:03 PM
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Hiking up from Portal on a multi-day trip to Whitney Peak. 1st nignt Outpost Camp, 2nd night at Trail Camp. Peak and back for a night at Trail Camp then down to Portal. My second trip(40 years ago)my sons first.

Am interested in the safety of leaving our Packs at Trail Camp or Trail Crest when we go to the peak.
Thanks

Re: Dropping Packs
RangersRest #6946 08/29/10 02:52 PM
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Packs are safe from just about anything at Trail Crest. In fact there are usually several packs at the junction of the main trail and the John Muir.
I'd leave them at Trail Camp....just bring enough water and snacks to make the summit. Many people stay at TC all day, so you may be able to leave them w/somebody. Just make sure everything's in the bear canister and there's nothing for the marmots to get into. Actually, the Pikas aren't real scared of anything either. But they're small.


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Re: Dropping Packs
RangersRest #6947 08/29/10 02:55 PM
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Hey RR,
I am going to do a two day trip (9/7 & 9/8) and plan on leaving my pack at trail camp or consultation lake. Where I plan to bring my valuables with me, I am not too worried about my gear. Fact is, nobody wants to carry a bunch of weight anyway. And if they have a pack, they aren't going to want yours. And if they don't have a pack...they aren't going to be there.

My only plan is that I am going to leave my food and toiletries in my bear vault outside of my pack. Don't want the marmots ripping my pack up to try and get to the goodies.

Re: Dropping Packs
tdtz #6948 08/29/10 03:06 PM
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Tom, you should be fine leaving everything you need to at Consultation Lake and going as light as possible to the summit. Quillansculpture and I camped there last month and only saw a few mice and a pika. We were so confident that the marmots were concentrating on the Trail Camp Buffet that we didn't even collapse our tents before we left summit morning. Nothing disturbed when we returned that afternoon - even the bear can with food was in the exact same place we left it.

It's always a crapshoot with the damn marmots, but they do tend to congregate where the goodies are - and that's TC and the summit. If you've not camped at CL before, you're in for a real treat.

Re: Dropping Packs
Bulldog34 #6949 08/29/10 03:52 PM
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Bulldog,
I haven't camped at CL (or TC for that matter). I've only been through TC once and trying to eat a pre-switchback snack was a quite a chore with the marmots sneaking up from every angle.

That's the main reason that I decided on CL. I love nature and all, but I don't want no stinkin marmots molesting my food supply and tent. And yeah, I was planning on leaving the tent up....figure I could take a quickie power nap before breaking camp and hiking down the hill.

laugh
Tom

Re: Dropping Packs
Bulldog34 #6952 08/29/10 11:42 PM
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Hey Bulldog....I thought you were going to stop telling people to go the Consultation Lake!!! You're startin to piss me off :-0 I mean, you never talk about the very large and rare Eastern Sierra Grizzly Bears that straddle the steep cliffs looking for an easy meal. You never speak of the ugly and vicious High Sierra Rattle Snakes that only live in that small portion on the North End of the lake, or those Icy Beaked Elephant Mosquitoes that live there year round waiting to suck about a pint of blood out of unsuspecting hikers. What about the Golden Trout Piranhas that try to bite your thumbs off when your filtering water from that disgusting dirty lake? If you don't believe me, take a look at my hand where my thumb used to be!!!!!

Really Bulldog, you really need to be honest with these hikers. They don't want to end up all maimed and bloody like we were after that awful night at Consultation lake.

And oh yeah....didn't the idea for the movie "Tremors" come from that horrible thing that happened at CL????


"Turtles, Frogs & other Environmental Sculpture"

www.quillansculpturegallery.com
twitter: @josephquillan

If less is more, imagine how much more, more is -Frasier
Re: Dropping Packs
quillansculpture #6955 08/30/10 05:43 AM
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Y'know Joe, sometimes I just can't help myself. It's evil and twisted, and I'm currently in therapy for it. Sending these poor, unsuspecting people off to their doom at CL weighs heavily on my conscience, but every once in a while I find myself encouraging people to camp there. I guess it's a misery-loves-company complex or something.

I'll try to do better. Hope your leg re-attachment surgery went well - good thing that Griz didn't eat all of it. Also, I hear they have a treatment available now for the combined Malaria/West Nile Virus/Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever bug the CL skeeters carry, assuming they leave you alive.

Re: Dropping Packs
RangersRest #6956 08/30/10 07:12 AM
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Safe from what exactly?

People...my guess most folks have too much of their own stuff to haul your pack back it them. With that said, I would not leave any expensive electronics in them to tempt fate.

Marmots...This is your basic "do as I say, not as I do" thingy. Don't leave food in your pack and leave the zippers open. I've left food in a canister inside a pack at Lower Trail Crest numerous times with all the zippers zipped up and have had zero problems.

Re: Dropping Packs
wbtravis #6959 08/30/10 09:21 AM
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Originally Posted By: wbtravis
I've left food in a canister inside a pack at Lower Trail Crest numerous times with all the zippers zipped up and have had zero problems.
Tempting fate again I see.

I've seen packs at Trail Crest with critters having fun in them.

I'd definitely put the cannister outside the pack -- just in case some dumb marmot couldn't tell the difference between a pack with food inside versus a pack with a canister inside with food inside.


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