Bear Canister Requirements on the Pacific Crest Trail
Bear canisters are required in the Sierra Nevada section of the Pacific Crest Trail. Technically, they're not required every step of the way from Kennedy Meadows (South) to Sonora Pass, but those are convenient places to pick up / ship home a bear can in order to comply with the regulations, and it's what many hikers do. Some people choose to carry their bear cans a bit further, through the Desolation Wilderness area around Lake Tahoe, due to the high levels of bear activity in the region.
If you're new to long distance hiking, you may not be aware that we carry bear cans primarily for the benefit of the bears. "A fed bear is a dead bear." That is, once a bear acquires a taste for people food, they may become problematic and potentially dangerous, and they end up getting put down. Don't feed bears.
Note, there's also a short, approximately 20 mile section of the PCT coming north out of Belden in NorCal's Lassen NF that requires bear cans due to bear activity there. By the time most hikers reach that area, they just hike through it in a day. If you'd rather not, there's a campground with bear boxes a few miles off the trail.
Links
Sierra Nevada Wilderness Food Storage Requirements map, from sierrawild.gov:
Exhaustive list of which bear canisters are approved by Yosemite NP. If a canister is approved by Yosemite NP, it is likely adequate to comply with regulations anywhere else in the Sierra Nevada.
"What to Do if You See a Bear," according to Yosemite NP:
Sierrawild.gov's bear info overview page:
