Bear spray.

[rguinter]

Matt, that’s a sad story about your Airedale puppy.

I don’t have an answer to your question – but may be able to offer a few related remarks...

Grizzlies are intelligent & independent – certainly smarter than black bears, and probably smarter than clever dogs. To be sure, their intelligence makes it difficult to predict their behavior. Some grizzlies who are victims of pepper spray (or gun shot wounds) might be smart enough to avoid future encounters w/ humans; others might be smart enough to stalk and successfully “rid” their territory of their aggressors. Still other grizzlies might switch between the two behaviors, depending on experience, mood, and whim – on what they’re “thinking” at the moment. It’s a fascinating animal, worthy of our reverence.

Heroique has an interesting comment about animal behaviors. Reminds me of a poster I once saw on the wall in an animal testing lab. The caption read, "Under perfectly controlled experimental conditions a test animal will behave - As it Damn Well Pleases!"

Years later after some unexplainable experiences with wild animals I've modified this a bit: "Under uncontrolled environmental conditions a wild animal will behave - As it Damn Well Pleases!"

So my opinion?... best to bring the bear spray et al.

Bob G.

[Drew Wiley]

One of my favorite vintage Far Side cartoons was the one that showed a mauled hunter
lying on the ground and two bears standing beside him, one holding his wallet and the other shuffling thru his credit cards.

[C. D. Keth]

[David Lobato]

One of my favorite vintage Far Side cartoons was the one that showed a mauled hunter
lying on the ground and two bears standing beside him, one holding his wallet and the other shuffling thru his credit cards.

My favorite Far Side cartoon showed a peaceful happy bear drinking from a stream. Then a hunter sneaks up from the bushes and shoots him. The last frame showed the bear stuffed in a standing menacing pose in the hunter's living room.

I like this thread because of so many posters who spend time outdoors. Good group here to be associated with, besides big cameras. I've seen several bears in the wild, spent a nervous night at a lake surrounded by huge piles of fresh scat (containing no bells or pepper), knew a woman who was dragged from a tent at Yosemite, knew a crazy friend who resisted food raiders with thick sticks and foolish bravery, knew a guy who shot one in California and vowed to never kill again and his friends who all got trichinosis from that bear, had a mountain lion stalk me, and of course read many stories about bear/human interactions. Personally I've been in far more danger from unpredictable weather and exposure at dizzying heights. Common sense, preparation, and caution (and running out of film) keep us returning home.

[Heroique]

If it’s a mountain goat, forget the pepper spray.

“Chase it off by yelling & throwing rocks,” says Olympic Nat’l Park.

(No grizzlies here, but killer goats roam the high meadows.)

[Vaughn]

One of my favorite vintage Far Side cartoons was the one that showed a mauled hunter
lying on the ground and two bears standing beside him, one holding his wallet and the other shuffling thru his credit cards.

My favorite Far Sides (and my boys, too) is the one where there are three fellows in sleeping bags sleeping around a campfire -- two bears come across their camp and say, "Sandwiches!"

[Heroique]

My favorite Far Sides (and my boys, too) is the one where there are three fellows in sleeping bags sleeping around a campfire -- two bears come across their camp and say, "Sandwiches!"

I missed that one, but I do recall another Far Side w/ two polar bears.

They’re sitting on their haunches, enjoying a meal next to an Eskimo’s broken igloo.

“I love these!” one bear says. “Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside.”

[Eric James]

And there's the one with bear in the crosshairs pointing at the bear next to him. Gary Larson's work is a national treasure.

[Roger Cole]

I'm a hunter and long range target rifle shooter (open sights though), but why is this thread being turned into a discussion on bullet stopping power and extreme range game sniping? That has nothing to do with a hiker asking if pepper spray is worth carrying.

Back to the question, yes, I'd carry pepper spray if that was my only option, and if allowed. Especially if I was hiking or riding alone as I used to. When in a crowd of more than 3 people, studies show the chance of being attacked by a bear become almost nil.

I think if I were in grizzly country I might carry it even if it was not allowed. Being ticketed (very unlikely if you keep it out of sight and keep your mouth shut anyway) beats the hell out of being mauled by a bear.

[Roger Cole]

Have to say I agree with Thad. For many years I spent lots of time in the north Maine woods just East of Katahdin. My late uncle had a cabin there on the East Branch Penobscot River.

The black bears there are big as a Volkswagen Beetle and can run over 35 mph. And several very close encounters over those years convinced me they have little fear of humans. My opinion for what it's worth.

Bob G

Well worth noting, the fact that behavior of even the same species is colored by their environment and experience. I've been in the mountains of east TN a lot, having grown up there and worked at a TV transmitter on Holston mountain on sleep over shifts for years. One of the other engineers would put out bird feed for birds and squirrels, and that brought in the bears (until the manager made him stop.) I went up on a maintenance shift one night to find three black bears, two rather large, in the driveway. They didn't run from the truck and I didn't get out. Blowing the horn several times sent them ambling away, as if it annoyed them and they were just done being there more than being scared. (In semi-defense of the old man who fed the birds though, bears, at least more than one sighted every couple of years, were a pretty new population there. Even ten years before you'd probably have never seen a bear there no matter how much food you left out.)

I've hiked and photographed on that same mountain though and the only bears I've seen have been a couple, or one bear and one black shape I think was a bear, seen from the road who beat retreat when they heard my vehicle coming. I've never seen one on foot when I make it a point to be a bit noisy. Bears who haven't learned to associate humans with food are generally more afraid of you than you are of them. Only when they've made that association does that seem to no longer hold.

One of my favorite vintage Far Side cartoons was the one that showed a mauled hunter
lying on the ground and two bears standing beside him, one holding his wallet and the other shuffling thru his credit cards.

I missed that one, but I do recall another Far Side w/ two polar bears.

They’re sitting on their haunches, enjoying a meal next to an Eskimo’s broken igloo.

“I love these!” one bear says. “Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside.”

I recall a cartoon in Dragon magazine once years ago of a large dragon holding a helpless knight in armor and talking to a little child dragon saying, "Once you get past the hard outer shell the inside is good eatin'."