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  1. #21
    Registered User JPritch's Avatar
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    02-03-2017
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    Lynchburg, VA
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    When I do the WRHR, whether it's this year or next, I plan on bringing bear spray and a handgun for the times where bear spray may not be effective.
    It is what it is.

  2. #22

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    I don't have as much experience hiking in grizzly country as previous posters, but pretty much everywhere around here has grizzlies, or has reports of grizzlies. I take bear spray. This year, at the recommendation of biologists where I work, I'm going to take a second can, just in case. I've never been charged by a bear. The Montana fish and game people had a little railroad track thing set up last summer, when I was driving through Cooke City, on my way to Yellowstone. They gave me a can of bear spray with propellant, but no bear spray, and they had me stand at one end of the track. I knew the guy at the other end was going to give a little push to a bear they had painted on a little car that ran on the railroad track, and as it got close to me I was to spray it. They had me remove the protector on the fake bear spray and the guy sent the "bear" hurtling down the track. I sprayed it, but geeze it was fast. I realized that I could easily round a corner on a hiking trail and have a similar experience with a real bear. And even though I talk (about every 10 feet), a bear might not hear me. I've started doing a stupid yodel noise. I've run into all kinds of people, as I turn corners, and they always look startled by the yodeling solo (crazy) hiker. Sometimes I don't even talk to them, I just pretend I'm demented.

    I always have my bear spray in it's holster on my belt, but if there were absolutely no notice, I don't think I'd have a chance. That said, I don't worry much about bears. I have a very healthy respect for them, but I don't worry about them. I have had encounters with buffalo, though. Bears usually have enough facial expression that you can kind of tell what's going on. I've had black bears amble away. Bison, on the other hand, usually have no expression at all, and graze contentedly, until they don't. Bears, if they ARE in your path, or you otherwise encounter them, usually find somewhere else to be in 10-20 minutes, if not immediately. Bison may graze for hours, and then lay down for a few more hours. I worry less about moose, but they, too, will do as they jolly well please. I've been fortunate that none of them has ever really taken a dislike to me or what I was doing. Get your bear spray (in Yellowstone you can rent it) and go hike. You'll have a great time. Pringles

  3. #23

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    Absarokanaut, have you solo hiked in the Pelican Creek/Valley area?

    You say that there are more cinnamon/brown colored black bears than black colored black bears... is that down in the Tetons? I have seen a number of cinnamons in Yellowstone, but plenty more black colored black bears, so I was just wondering if it was an area-thing. Thanks for any info.

    Pringles

  4. #24
    Registered User
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    03-22-2014
    Location
    Jackson, WY
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    60
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    Northern
    Yellowstone has seemed to have more actually black colored bears on the Northern Tier but I came upon a group 4 or so miles up Slough Creek that didn't want to believe me when I told them the cinnamon bear they were looking at was a black bear. I've seen lots Cinnamon blackies mixed with lots of black colored ones on the Tower side of Dunraven too. Just remember wherever you are COLOR IS NOT AN INDICATOR.

    JPritch,

    Not trying to patronize so just to make sure some rhetorical questions: I assume you know every conventional handgun caliber is not big enough for the sometimes several inches thick skulls of grizzlies including a .357, .44, etc, right? You will be properly holstering the monster/bulky/awkward gun that shoots a .454 Casull because you know that's really the minimum round for a grizzly, right? You understand that's a pain in the you know what on a flat trail let alone the High Route, right?

    We all assume folks are decent and aren't going to shoot a bear unless it is threatening them at extremely close range or indeed charging from the longer distances of 10 yeards or less. With conventional firearms unless you're a you know what and shoot a non-threatening bear at relatively stationary distance that presents a heart lung shot when a bear is charging for most firearms it presents two targets; both the size of dimes and closing on you at +/- 25 MPH.

    Be smart: Properly holster your bearspray and know how to use it. Don't carry an inappropriate gun likeso many folks do. Be Bear Aware and have a great time.

  5. #25

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    Thanks Absarokanaut. The first cinnamon I saw was just down from Dunraven, toward Tower. A lady from Ohio told me it was a grizzly. I watched for a couple of minutes and finally said I thought it was a black bear. She looked baffled. Having never see a cinnamon before, I was flustered, too. It was a wonderful viewing experience, though.

    I have pictures and video of a bear that I saw twice, outside the park--two weekends in a row--and I can't tell which it is. I have still and moving pictures of its snout, its shoulders, its ears, and its claws... I can't tell. Based on habitat, I think it's probably a grizzly, but I dunno. It's a beautiful brownish-cinnamon bear, whatever kind it is.

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