Hiking / Camping with Bears

i've heard of bears in the bsf and surrounding national forest areas, and feral pigs. i personally never heard of injuries from either, but i've talked to one or two treed by boar. ditto on the two-legged critters and their interest in your stuff. also, wander off trail much in the park and surrounding forest and someone may think you're scouting to crop-steal later in the year.

mostly, though, imo you'll really enjoy the area. beautiful country.
 
A little bear poo I came across today while hiking.
CluffDairy041.jpg
 
you should be more worried about your fishing pole taking a lightning strike so long as you're taking care of your food properly.
take some cord and put your food up a tree if you're worried. you should keep your gear clean and tidy anywhere, bear country shouldn't change that.
spray and handguns help the mind, that's about it.
i've lived and worked around bears pretty well all my life, as have most of the ppl around me. working in hunting&fishing camps from labrador-quebec-all over ontario from moosefactory to pickle lake and on and on)
i have never had so much as a bluff charge. there have been times where i'd see 20 bear in a day and i probably wouldn't take notice, just normal operations.

never carry and gun when doin my bear baiting, trapping or most anything but hunting for that matter.

i have many a bear story. some crazy ones and some calming ones and some insanely wild ones... never have i wished i had fire power or bear canisters or any of these gadgets. be smart. don't sneak up on them and wash the tuna out of your beard before bed. tadaa! you're bearproof.
also don't worry too much about sows with cubs, the big boars are what you need to worry about.
 
I've had quite a few black bear encounters, including them pawing through my pack, and slicing open hanged food. I've used bear canisters where required in the Sierra Nevada, but never considered spray or a gun. That's over the top for me.
 
Here in Oz you have to be carefull of "drop bears"

[youtube]ULEQpUY_crc[/youtube]

Especially if you are good looking female tourists from Scandanavia :D



Kind regards :D
Mick
 
bearcut said:
In fact, it lured many grizzlies from around the area. They enjoyed rolling in the sprayed ground and seemed to take pleasure in it.
Park rangers now warn people not to use pepper spray in this manner.
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Grizzlies smell awful (roll in anything decaying, nasty, stanky) so they can mask their natural bear scent. If other things can't recognize their smell as a bear, it gives them a stealthy advantage to catch prey. This would explain their affinity for peppered turf.

As stated before though, black bear attacks don't occur like with brown bears. Just use common sense and that's it.
 
northern said:
i have many a bear story. some crazy ones and some calming ones and some insanely wild ones... never have i wished i had fire power or bear canisters or any of these gadgets. be smart. don't sneak up on them and wash the tuna out of your beard before bed. tadaa! you're bearproof.
also don't worry too much about sows with cubs, the big boars are what you need to worry about.
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You certainly have more experience than I'll ever have, which is minimal and only with black bears, but I have to highly disagree with the parts I highlighted in italics above.

I don't feel that advice should be considered by anyone here.

You cannot rely on your past experience with bears. For every one you encounter, no two will have the same temperament.
Just takes one old starving toothless brown or black bruin or a momma bear to charge you, pounce and remove your face with a swipe or two.
They can be skittish and docile but all are perfectly capable of ending your life pretty quick if they feel anxious or threatened or are surprised. (Think of our saying, "shoot first, ask questions later")

This forum is about being prepared for the unexpected as well as skills advancement.
You need a least a can or two of bear spray in bear country. The signs don't lie.
 
PorcupineMtns66 said:
You certainly have more experience than I'll ever have, which is minimal and only with black bears, but I have to highly disagree with the parts I highlighted in italics above.

I don't feel that advice should be considered by anyone here.

You cannot rely on your past experience with bears. For every one you encounter, no two will have the same temperament.
Just takes one old starving toothless brown or black bruin or a momma bear to charge you, pounce and remove your face with a swipe or two.
They can be skittish and docile but all are perfectly capable of ending your life pretty quick if they feel anxious or threatened or are surprised. (Think of our saying, "shoot first, ask questions later")

This forum is about being prepared for the unexpected as well as skills advancement.
You need a least a can or two of bear spray in bear country. The signs don't lie.
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Firstly, i stand by everything i said, and it should be taken as sound advice. my opinion relates solely to black bear, my experience does not extent to browns.
secondly, as i stated in my first post, your worry lies in poor food and waste management. maybe 40 ppl since 1990 are documented to have died from bear attacks. 90 persons in the US alone die every year from lightening strikes. let's be fair about the risks here. Anthrax, rabies and so on are more likely to get you statistically.
thirdly, if you can't rely on experience then what can you rely on? and why practice any skills? are you scared of rabies from a dog on a leash in a park? or has experience taught you how to safely pet one? we need to worry about a lot of things in the bush, priorities are important. i have stated my. food and waste management and experience are my tools against bear.
finally, perhaps it is my experience that has kept me out of serious situations and will continue to. confidence is important in dealing with any wild animal, and as stated in my previous post, carrying something may give you that confidence, it helps the mind, and that is important.
 
BREAKING NEWS. Reports tonight on the local TV news is that a hiker in Wolfe County , Kentucky was mauled by a black bear. The story is that a group of hikers (I assume in the Daniel Boone National Forrest) noticed that one of their group had fallen behind. When they turned back they saw a black bear on the trail in front of the lone hiker. The bear attacked and mauled the hikers legs. The hikers beat the bear off with their back packs. The wounded man was airlifted to UK hospital. No more details at the moment.
 
northern said:
...secondly, as i stated in my first post, your worry lies in poor food and waste management. maybe 40 ppl since 1990 are documented to have died from bear attacks. 90 persons in the US alone die every year from lightening strikes. let's be fair about the risks here. Anthrax, rabies and so on are more likely to get you statistically....
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“You have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than getting killed by a bear,” a report published by the U.S. Forest Service’s Bear Aware program says.
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Man struck by lightning is attacked by bear
 
Recent bear attack in our area (month ago).

http://www.thespec.com/article/775019

Attack a couple of years ago, also in Ontario, which doesn't appear to be food related:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1670661/posts

I'm not dismissing northern's experience with bears, however, Timothy Treadwell lived with grizzlies until he didn't. :eek:

The point is that under most conditions, black bears will pose little problems when proper food storage is observed and attention is paid to one's surroundings, but like all other aspects of wilderness survival, preparations are made for that odd time when.....

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Recent bear attack in our area (month ago).

http://www.thespec.com/article/775019
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Thanks for the link Doc.

In case that link didn't work for some, I'd like to copy/paste a key part.



Marois, who said he forgot his bear spray at home, then turned to the only weapon he had.

"I got my lighter out" - a regular cigarette lighter - "and I started burning his face."

Marois said when he shoved the lighter in the bear's face it clawed him in the head.
 
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sptpr said:
http://www.lex18.com/news/man-attacked-by-bear-while-hiking-in-wolfe-county

Today's post...2 to 3 hours NE of the BSFNRRA. so much for my previous posting about the lack of attacks in this area :o
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I just heard about this one, and the article points out something people often overlook about human/bear encounters:

We're told officials are in the woods searching for that bear because it will have to be put down.
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I often see people pooh-poohing the idea of bear bagging or otherwise protecting your food while in the wild. The most common excuse is "well, I've never even seen a bear, and certainly never had one steel my food, so why bother?"

The problem is when everyone has this mentality. You don't just have to worry about the statistics from a selfish point of view - whether you will ever have your food stolen or not, or get attacked or not. As long as people take the "it will never happen to me" approach, the large number of people in the woods mean it WILL happen to someone. And not only is that bad for the person whose food gets stolen, it's bad for everyone who hikes there. Because now that bear is a little bit more habituated to humans, and a little bit more likely to aggressively steal food or attack the next person it sees.

A fed bear is a dead bear, and since it's not exactly easy to tell one from another, it's entirely likely that the wrong bear, or more than one bear, will end up getting killed over these sorts of situations.



Bag your food properly or use a bear canister every time - not just for your own sake, but the sake of everyone else who shares the resource with you, and for the sake of the animals too. Keep the wilderness wild.
 
northern said:
maybe 40 ppl since 1990 are documented to have died from bear attacks. 90 persons in the US alone die every year from lightening strikes. let's be fair about the risks here. Anthrax, rabies and so on are more likely to get you statistically.
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I have no comment or experience on the bear subject, but this is a misuse of statistics. You are comparing two different populations. Many millions of people are potentially exposed to lightning, vastly more than the number who venture into bear country. One would need to determine a risk ratio to properly compare these two dangers.
 
I cannot see any good reason not to take some precautionary steps with food storage in bear country - treeing food (or using canisters), careful cleaning of dishes and leftovers, proper garbage storage, etc.

I had a grizzly wander into my camp in the middle of the night when I was canoeing in the BC interior. Freaked the hell out of me. It didn't stick around long, probably because we had been thorough in our policing of food and garbage (especially fish bits!).

It seems reasonable to take appropriate precautions and even to pack some countermeasures. Having done so, there is no need to dwell on the possibility of a bad encounter or hike / camp with a paranoid mindset.

All the best,

- Mike
 
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