Bear spray.

[Stephen Willard]

In 2005 I fended off a mountain lion attach on my two llamas with rocks. Both my llamas and I were in camp when the attack happened. I new something was going to occur long before the lion arrived because of how my llamas were acting. This gave me time to gather some big rocks. So when the very big tom showed up in camp I was bouncing rocks off it as pots and pans were flying in the air and my llamas were going berserk.

I can assure you that defending yourself against a mountain lion attack or even a bear attack with rocks is NOT the way to go. Since then I have armed myself to the teeth with bear spray with backup canisters, four bear proof food containers, and bear bells on my llamas and myself. I can stay out for 30 days at a clip before I have to return for fresh film and provisions, and for the past two years, I have been shooting in the backcountry of northern Wind River in prime grizzly bear country. Boy, do I love my bear spry....

[David Lobato]

Roger, a similar thing happened to one of my female pioneer ancestors. She was picking berries from a thick bush and unknown to her a bear was on the other side. She got a good scare and the family got a good laugh.

When I was a Scoutmaster we were planning a 1998 summer camp in the mountains of central New Mexico and were forewarned about bears. A young scout with his mother asked me, "Mr. Lobato, what kind of bears do they have there?" I replied "Hungry bears." The looks on his and Mom's faces were priceless.

Something we at least call huckleberries grow wild on Unaka mountain up in my home part of TN. My dad usually likes to go pick them every year. They make delicious pies. One of his friends was picking from a bush once and encountered a black bear eating from the other side of the bush. They spotted each other pretty much simultaneously when one or the other moved a limb, and both startled and fled quickly in opposite directions.

[John Kasaian]

This is a truly amazing thread!

[bobwysiwyg]

This is a truly amazing thread!

In length or substance?

[Bill Burk]

Then you missed my reference of having a black bear walking into my scene I was photographing with a 4x5...

Bill:

Did I already tell the story about when Bigfoot yelled out to warn me as I approached a black bear eating a pine cone in Belknap Grove?

I am confused, was it you or the bear that was eating the pine cone?

Many parts are edible, but no... it was the bear eating the pinecone. Story doesn't work as well the other way around... Actually is a true story though.

[John Kasaian]

Newsflash from the YNP!
Several cases of Chalula Hot Sauce have been reported missing from the Ahwanee Hotel kitchen.
Bear paw prints were found all over the crime scene.

[Drew Wiley]

That all pretty much sums it up .... spray chili powder on your llamas, but never huckleberry jam, that is, unless the bears involved were known to frequent
MexTex brunches at the Ahwahnee ...

[Vaughn]

I appreciated the bears in the Yolla Bollys -- they dug up the yellow jacket nests along the trails. I figure being stung in the mouth as they munched down the yellowjackets must be like eating good spicy Mexican food for us!

Having the bears dig out the nests was a lot better than having one of the mules stepping into one -- and the rodeo that was often the result!

Vaughn

[Drew Wiley]

I've stepped into a couple of those nests myself, once crossing a rotten log up on the Oregon coast.
Got about twenty stings. Maybe that's why I don't like spicy food!

[Roger Cole]

Ouch. I got three stings once and wound up shivering all night and puking my guts out. 20 might kill me. No, I don't carry an epi-pen - that was the only time I've ever had that kind of reaction and I did get stung three times. But I don't go on overnight trips into the wood either, just shortish day hikes. If I were, I might look into that (I did carry Benadryl when out riding my bike dozens of miles from civilization.)

I got stung twice last summer by other wasps under my deck (and went on the warpath and destroyed their nests) without any ill effects except the usual localized sting and itch.

But I love spicy food, hold the wasps.