A strange reaction to an extremely unlikely occurrence. Do you go around staring at the sky to avoid getting hit in the head by an asteroid?
A strange reaction to an extremely unlikely occurrence. Do you go around staring at the sky to avoid getting hit in the head by an asteroid?
Last edited by egilbe; 06-23-2017 at 11:38.
no but I do look up when I am setting up my tarp and hammock to make sure there are no dead hanging branches over me. I also like to eat at the farthest table from the door with my back to a wall. I'm not paranoid, I just don't like people behind me when I eat.
Blackheart
On one of the Alaska settler TV shows they were showing the equipment of a guy who was out hunting deer. He had a rifle for the deer, then a shotgun with deer slugs for bear, plus a .357 as a backup, then a big knife. I think he also carried bear spray. That would kind of mess up your base weight! On you-tube there are videos of people spraying agitated bears and they back off. Of course, we don't have the video of anyone where the bear didn't back off...
I think over time black bears will revert to a more aggressive personality. We did such a good job of killing any we saw for a couple hundred years the only ones left were the super-shy ones, a kind of an evolution by lead. Alaska might already be at that point. Plus they have brown and grizzly bears, so I can't imagine going in the woods up there without spray.
After reading Lewis and Clark's journals, it is my opinion that a pistol or even rifle with slugs is almost useless against a charging griz.
(they shot one with 50 caliber rifles and later counted 11 slugs in it's lungs and heart, but it kept coming)
Give me bear spray over a gun. (and a knife? maybe for mountain lion, not griz))
Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams
And there's this: https://craigmedred.news/2017/06/22/bear-ignored-spray/
It usually not the actual spray contents, but the propellant use to get it out of the container that is flammable.
Blackheart
Be some hiker's luck the the hair of the bear would catch on fire and start a forest fire.
Blackheart
...or this, where it did work. I'd rather be able to at least try then not.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017...aska-saturday/
Two people in recorded history have been hit by meteorites (only one died, the other was bruised, because it went through her roof and ceiling before hitting her.) Not quite the same thing. I do agree that the chances of being attacked by a bear on the AT are slim, but not nearly as slim as the chance of being hit in the head by an asteroid. Orders of magnitude difference.
Time is but the stream I go afishin' in.
Thoreau
I used to think bear spray was a needless item, too, until I had a run-in with a problem bear at #41 in GSMNP. This bear wandered into camp shortly before dark and no amount of yelling or pot-banging would scare it off. It started to come across the trail, directly into our camp area and I grabbed a couple of good-sized rocks, lobbed them close to the bear and managed to get it to run off.
After a discussion, it was nearly dark, we hung to food on the cables and camped up the trail a ways. Later that night we could hear the bear shaking the cables, trying to get the food (it didn't get it). Since then, I've carried spray because you always think things like this aren't going to happen to you, until they do. I do not fear being killed by a back bear but I do not want to be injured, miles from help, or have my gear destroyed all because I was adverse to carrying a few extra ounces. As always, HYOH.