I am planning on hiking JMT in August, as it sounds like many of the rest of you are. Hope to see you out there!
Before we do JMT SOBO we are planning on climbing Charlotte Dome and approaching via Kearsarge Pass. The idea is to hike in with a resupply package we will leave in a bearbox at Charlotte Lake or Kearsarge Lakes.
Have you heard of other people doing this? Any known problems with this strategy aside from the possibility of theft?
dfinnecy
I awoke from a lunchtime nap on the JMT to find a Backcountry Ranger rummaging through the bear boxes to remove trash - which there was no shortage of. There is the very real possibility that a Ranger will remove your cache from a bear box. The Ranger I saw removed 2 blocks of cheese from a bear box, gave me one, and he kept the other. Anything left unattended in a bear box could potentially be considered trash.
Personally, on the JMT, I don’t want a resupply package that I am dependent upon to have any chance of not being there. I know the other options are expensive, and the distance between resupply point results in a heavy load, but to me, that’s all part of the JMT experience.
Whatever you choose to do, have a great hike.
Jeffrey Hunter
I think it is technically against the rules because the rangers want to reserve the space in the bear boxes for people who are actually camping there. I suspect that if you labeled your cache with your estimated pick up date and did not leave it there too long, they would probably leave it alone as I’ve seen caches in the Kearsarge Lakes bear box before.
Another option would be to rent another bear can from Yosemite (last time I checked it was only $5 for as long as you want) and cache your food near the bear box in your own bear can. I would still label it with your ETA, but I’m sure the rangers would not remove it if you did it that way. Of course, that would leave you with a spare can that you would either have to carry or pick up later.
A final option would be to cache the food in the bear boxes at the Onion Valley trailhead, which I do not think would violate any rules. Again, you would have to label it with your ETA as I often see rangers pulling out undated and outdated food packages from bear boxes at trailheads.
Good luck, and have a great hike!
Kanga
Two years ago I had a discussion with Allison, the Tyndall Creek ranger about this. She convinced me that the ranger’s have it right - that the bear boxes have got to be for folks hiking through. Can’t remember the exact numbers, but the pounds of cached food she had removed was amazing. There really wasn’t room for campers.
booger
My brother and I hiked about a mile beyond Kearsarge pass and left a bear can hidden off the trail about 10 yards. We then picked it up on our SOBO hike making only a slight detour. It worked out pretty well though you might make a few notes about where exactly your leaving it so you don’t forget. We also left a note in the can with our ETA, etc…I’m not sure if its legal or not but it worked for us.
We left our trash behind in another bear can and after we finished our hike, we hiked back up Kearsarge and picked up the remaining bear can with the trash. The last hike was a pain and we kind of wished we had just taken the trash with us but we did spare ourselves the weight of the extra bear can for the last three days.
jalanjalan
I’ve known others who have cached a canister west of Kearsarge Pass and picked it up weeks later. They have done it several times without incident. They carry it out with them to skip the return trip. It is more weight to carry, but your pack will still weigh less than when you resupplied for the previous segment. The bigger problem is finding room for it.
They recommend storing the canister with the opening facing down. This way water doesn’t get into the canister if there are storms.
Snowball