Bears
08-04-2010, 06:20 PM
#11
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat...eer-bear_x.htm
08-04-2010, 06:28 PM
#12
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Don't sleep in the clothes you had on when you cooked. It doesn't do a lot of good to hang your food and then walk around with clothes that smell like a nice smoked steak. Hang you cooking clothes with the food.
I disagree with the other post about dropping your pack for the bear if chased. That teaches the bear to charge people for food. Also, if the bear keeps charging having a pack protecting your back and neck can provide some additional level of help.
Just my .02
I disagree with the other post about dropping your pack for the bear if chased. That teaches the bear to charge people for food. Also, if the bear keeps charging having a pack protecting your back and neck can provide some additional level of help.
Just my .02
08-05-2010, 12:57 AM
#13
Bear barrel/canister:
Bear box:
There's also the hanging method, but bears can easily get to them too. Bear cans usually required for hiking in national parks/forest, bear boxes usually located at major campsites, trailheads, campsites several miles away from major Ranger stations.
Like Toad said, you want to put ANYTHING with a smell in the box/can, not just food. Lotion, chapstick, etc. Or, you can always sleep with it under your head as a pillow. That what a Ranger at Sequoia National Park use to do when he hiked, and he still living.
Bear box:
There's also the hanging method, but bears can easily get to them too. Bear cans usually required for hiking in national parks/forest, bear boxes usually located at major campsites, trailheads, campsites several miles away from major Ranger stations.
Like Toad said, you want to put ANYTHING with a smell in the box/can, not just food. Lotion, chapstick, etc. Or, you can always sleep with it under your head as a pillow. That what a Ranger at Sequoia National Park use to do when he hiked, and he still living.
Last edited by TRAUMAhead; 08-05-2010 at 01:00 AM.
08-05-2010, 08:09 AM
#14
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If dropping my pack is going to teach the bear a new trick that charging someone will get you food but saves my ass for the moment then so be it. Just saying I'm not going to take one for the team for the sake of keeping my picnic backet from Yogi.
08-05-2010, 09:45 AM
#15
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Dogs
Bring a dog with you. Bears don't like dogs. I have had many, many run ins with bears and have yet to meet a bear that wanted to hang out or challenge a loud human. However be very careful with a momma bear with cubs, her cubs will run up a tree at the first alarm and if you are the threat then you can find yourself in big trouble. If the cubs are treed near you or your camp retreat slowly and stay away from the area for a least an hour to give momma bear time to get her cubs down and out of the area. Remember a mother bear with cubs is always the most dangerous bear, I can tell you this from a far to close call I had in my youth thanks to the company of drunk nearby campers. 
08-05-2010, 10:50 AM
#16
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Mother bear with cubs = will attack anything that smells like it might move. Period.
I used to work with helicopters in the mountains. If we saw a bear, we'd just radio the pilot and he'd fly into the area. That would normally convince Yogi to bugger off. If there was as stubbron bear, he'd hover over top of the animal. The noise and rotor wash would almost always convince the bear to vacate in a big hurry.
All of that is true unless it's a mother with cubs. One pilot told me about watching a grizzly sow with cubs rear up on her hind legs and swat at the big steel "carousel" dangling on the end of the 100' long line that was dangling from the bird.
If she isn't scared of a helicopter, she won't be scared of anything that a human can do.
That leaves two options:
#1. A bear medicine dispenser...either a 12 gauge loaded with good slugs, or an appropriate rifle (something like a 45-70)
#2. Use your head, and don't get into an ugly situation involving a sow with cubs
I used to work with helicopters in the mountains. If we saw a bear, we'd just radio the pilot and he'd fly into the area. That would normally convince Yogi to bugger off. If there was as stubbron bear, he'd hover over top of the animal. The noise and rotor wash would almost always convince the bear to vacate in a big hurry.
All of that is true unless it's a mother with cubs. One pilot told me about watching a grizzly sow with cubs rear up on her hind legs and swat at the big steel "carousel" dangling on the end of the 100' long line that was dangling from the bird.
If she isn't scared of a helicopter, she won't be scared of anything that a human can do.
That leaves two options:
#1. A bear medicine dispenser...either a 12 gauge loaded with good slugs, or an appropriate rifle (something like a 45-70)
#2. Use your head, and don't get into an ugly situation involving a sow with cubs
08-06-2010, 04:35 PM
#18
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Don't sleep in the clothes you had on when you cooked. It doesn't do a lot of good to hang your food and then walk around with clothes that smell like a nice smoked steak. Hang you cooking clothes with the food.
I disagree with the other post about dropping your pack for the bear if chased. That teaches the bear to charge people for food. Also, if the bear keeps charging having a pack protecting your back and neck can provide some additional level of help.
I disagree with the other post about dropping your pack for the bear if chased. That teaches the bear to charge people for food. Also, if the bear keeps charging having a pack protecting your back and neck can provide some additional level of help.
Never thought about the walking around in the same clothes that you cooked in. Good idea to change for sure. But gotta disagree with not dropping the pack if charged. I'm going to do whatever I can to get out of that situation if charged and let the next guy worry about it. Besides, you don't have to have food in the pack.
Also where are you camping. Yah, black bears can climb trees, brown bears can't. Just for piece of mind alone, carry a gun, if you're comfortable with it. Gotta agree with the shotgun, with slugs. Or the guide gun, like the 45-70. Both good options. With brown bears, I've heard that bear spray doesn't work all that well, unless you get them right in the nose, at close range. Just what I've heard though. And I wouldn't want to get that close to a brownie.
But seriously, Hang everything in a tree 100 yards from your camp and keep a fire going all night