Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Muir Ranch to Whitney Sept 10-25

Hello! This is a GREAT BBS!!! I am packing for a hiking trip from Muir Ranch to Whitney Sept 10-25. Will there be snow on the passes? Will there be snow on Whitney? If all my food and personal stuff won't fit into one bear vault, what are my options?

The passes should be completely dry, unless a freak storm passes through. Same for Mt. Whitney.

I hiked from Florence Lake to Charlotte Lake in June, and the first several nights, I hung our excess food using two stuff sacks and a counter-balance method from the highest, longest branch I could throw a rock with string over.

Pack as much as possible into your cannister. If you have any of those just-add-water meals, remove the food from the pouch and store it in a zip lock bag, and take the pouch along flattened, so you can add the food and hot water later.

Ken's reply is short and to the point. The map of Wilderness Food Storage Requirements (effective March 2008) makes it clear where bear canisters are required.

Thanks Ken!

You can remove all the extraneous packaging, and even combine food into baggies. Crush it up into finer powder to pack more per cubic foot. Just scoop out what you feel you need for a meal. You might be surprised upon how gastronomically creative you can be if all you have to do is add water and stir. Don't buy the 'complete' meal packages that include deserts and drink. Packaging takes up a heap of space. You probably won't be craving a lot of deserts.

Personal supplies? What are you carrying besides a small bit of brushing powder or a small tube of toothpaste? You don't have to dress and primp for a prom every morning. You might think you will, but you won't rot in two weeks.

Don't use freeze dried as your main food supply. Use it instead to supplement denser food. Consider brown gravy sauce to get a load of rice down you (as an example). You can pack a LOT of crushed pasta, powdered milk and rice into layers at bottom of canister. Consider olive oil as a significant source of calories. Tortilla and pita pack flat and last for eons. Dump some honey and peanut butter or instant humus on it and slather it all with olive oil and you have a high calorie meal Big Boys would even appreciate.

Get a bigger canister like the Berikade Expedition. You can pack so much in it that you can't lift it.

You can plan your route to utilize bear boxes for secure overnight storage of your extra food.

http://www.climber.org/data/BearBoxes.html

You can plan to split your food up and have somebody walk it and some cold beers in to re-supply you, at perhaps Kearsarge or Bishop Passes.

You can stash your own food ahead of time at the same passes. Parsons Camp at Bishop Pass and some place in Independence. It takes a day or so to get there from your route.

You can go in a few days before starting and cache your food along the route in a secure container and retrieve the container after you finish the hike.

Do the trip in fewer days.

Lots of options.

Steve - thanks for all your suggestions!

As far a personal items - I was figuring that medicines and first aid also had to be in the canister. Not a whole lot but still something. Is this not needed?

I'm not bringing any deserts and don't have any complete meals or MREs. We are using freeze dried dinners though (I'll try to take them apart and see if they get smaller).

Bear boxes do not seem to be available for the first half or our hike and we are using a food drop about half way.

We are not doing this hike to prove anything, or set any records or feed any egos. We are taking our time to enjoy the outdoors, and carry perhaps more luxury items including food items than mamy hikers do.

Again, thanks for your suggestions - I will certainly try some!

David, I don't know if you happened to spot it on the link, but there is a link to page on packing a bearcan, which some find quite helpful.

In the Sierra NF, where I've been a ranger, you can counter balance (although discouraged), however there is a lot of bear activity in the MTR vicinity, itself. I don't put in the first aid stuff.

Well, true on the bear boxes being off trail until you get close to Rae Lakes. But a logical person might wrongly deduce that the bears are not that much of a problem if there are no boxes. Take the recommended precautions and you will be safe from the freeloaders.

When repacking food in ZipLocks, leave a small opening at final edge and suck out the air until everything is flat then final seal it. Save HEAPS of room doing this. Or spend a small fortune on the plastic vacuum sealer gadgets on the 3AM infomercials.

Medication and first aid don't have to go into the canister. The less wary bears are looking specifically for food items or things that could be confused as food (smelly lip coverings, some UV protection, toothpaste). Food (and empty containers) for sure go in there and then the personal smelly possibly edible things if room. You could hang the personal things and garbage that doesn't fit in areas that allow a hang.

Savvy bears might have a 'hmmmm' moment as to why THAT is hung, tho.

I too love to eat well on the trail. You have to make up for a lot of exercise calories. That's the good news.

This is the bad news...

http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/Weight_Loss/Weight_Loss.html

Some pack both a large and small bear vault. I just finished reading this 2007 JMT trip narrative by this hiker who did the trail unsupplied in eleven days. (Went to his home page and found out that he was the pilot who had pedaled the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel back in 1979.)

http://bryanlallen.googlepages.com/home

This reminds me of the eight-day JMT trip a friend and I took in 1984. Our starting packs weighed 24 pounds--12 of food and 12 of gear. We took an aluminum pot, but no stove. Every other night we built a fire, so could have a freeze-dried meal and hot drinks half the time.

No tents, no sleeping bags. For sleeping, we used bivy sacks and down sweaters, wore all our clothes.

With today's lightweight gear I would be 5 pounds lighter, even with the bear canister. Warmer, too, with my 40 deg Marmot Atom.

There are obvious advantages to going slow and savoring the views and experiences, but going fast and light was great for us. We were sailing along, watching the countryside unfold at the rate of 25 - 30 miles a day, heads held high and taking in all the sights. The heavier the pack, the more the tendency to focus only on the ground ahead.

(By the way, in another thread I talk about a recent eight-day Kaweahs trip. There, my pack weighed 24 27 pounds at the start. But it had sleeping bag, comfortable pad, poncho/tent, book, rope, slings, bear canister. My partner took the stove and fuel, so we had hot meals morning and night. The canister and wag bags were carried for the first day and a half, then stashed/hidden once we got to the Wallace Creek trail. We picked them up on the way out, so only carried them for part of the trip.)

Thanks, Bob, I had been curious about your pack weight. Your pack was suspiciously small in the photos.

Your comment about looking down with weight is an issue that I think is often overlooked. I think of the years I spend trudging along, seeking out every step so that I would not sprain an ankle or slip. I wonder if I saw anything around me.

We are doing the opposite route, kind of. Starting in Bishop Sept 12 & hiking to Muir Ranch on the 14th, and staying at the ranch thru the 17th. The most difficult part was getting the ride back. Luckily a friend will hike into the ranch from the Florence Lake side & meet us.
The ultimate transportation solution is 2 groups hiking in from opposite sides swapping car keys when they pass.
Have a great trip.

Well, the 10th is coming up soon. We got our bear canisters loaded, keeping out the first night's food. Arranged for a re-supply at the half way point and transportation at both ends. We're looking forward to a great trip and will try hard to keep my head up! Last year we did the backside of the Teton range with the same pack loads and had a great time. Before that we did the Grand Canyon, also a superb trip. Thanks everyone for all your help and advice!!

Our trip was awesome. Great weather, neat people, incredible scenery. Our re-supply at Taboose pass was flawless ( anyone wanting re-supply can contact Deb Leyh: dleyh@hotmail.com and/or Lowell Jones: mtntri@gmail.com ). Thanks to all the people who contributed to this BBS and helped our planning.