I want to learn how to hike it bear country

Transient boat dock, past the Harbormaster's office, this Friday, Homer, Alaska. 24-foot aluminum custom-built with twin Honda 115s. About 10 am. We'll be out for about 3 days down the coast about 10 miles past the last Native village and go inland from there. We've always encountered multiple bears on this trip in past years (it's kind of the point). Get a non-resident, 3-day fishing license – we'll try for halibut on the way back.

Not a trip for vegans.

Pretty good information available here to study up on: http://www.udap.com/safety.htm

In the sierras where it seems like bears are tame, I've been close enough to bears on 2 separate occasions that I could have pet them on the head. Even then I don't think they would have done anything.
Any way, not afraid at all.

I've also been even closer to a very large buck that was not afraid of me at at.
I had this huge deer within 10 feet of me for about 20 minutes.
That scared the crap out of me. One lounge with those horns and I would have been a goner.
I was setting up my shelter with ice ax in my hand ready for a battle to the death the entire time.

I lived most of my life in Alaska and learned to hike there with abundant bears seemingly around every corner. I now live in Washington and have seen a few here but nowhere near as many.

If you want to join me on a hike or any of us on a hike, jump in. I will be out on the PCT late summer doing a section in Northern Washington and then will likely be spending 2 weeks in September doing something else.

My experience has grow over a lifetime but I have not ever taken a course in safe hiking in bear country or anything related to that. But my years of hiking have taught me a few things that I can share with you:

1) The vast majority of hikers break so many rules regarding safe hiking in bear country that it has become apparent to me, that bears for the most part want nothing to do with us.

2) While grizzlies may be able to cause more damage per swipe, it is far more likely you will encounter a black bear that is habituated to people and those scare me.

3) If you are able to camp in Central Ohio without raccoons causing you problem, then you should be able to hike/camp safely in bear country. The principles are basically the same, with the exception of latrine/camp/kitchen placement.

Read up on it and apply those skills in all your hiking in Ohio. Get the down pat and then come out here and you will have a great time.

john the xcar

May I recommend a book that will cover ALL bases concerning bear travel…

NOLS Bear Essentials: Hiking and Camping in Bear Country
John Gookin and Tom Reed

•Seven common bear encounters and how to survive them
•Best ways to identify grizzlies and black bears
•Learn essential info on bear behavior at different times of year and in different habitats
Traveling in bear country comes with responsibilities to camp and hike in ways that respect the natural activities of bears. To give you the information you need to coexist with bears, NOLS Bear Essentials draws on NOLS’ expertise and their 40 years of experience leading trips in bear country, as well as the input of noted scientists who have studied bears and their relationships with people. Learn ways to set up camp so as to not attract bears, the safest options for storing food when car camping and backpacking, and how to protect yourself while fishing and hunting.

GO HERE

Kind of long winded but this is very good too:

Safety in Bear Country – Dr. Tom Smith – 2012 NOLS Faculty Summit

Timothy, good on you for asking. Would that my summer schedule had an opening to offer you.

There is more advice on proper comportment in bear country than one could possibly use. Some of it is even good. Where most people go wrong is not so much in having knowledge, but in having the strength of mind to use it when it counts. I set the bar for whom I'll backpack with pretty high, and higher still in Griz country, as I don't want someone else's panic to put me in a bad situation.

Only way you'll learn to have that calm when you stand one up at 10 yards is to get out in the thick of things. Having some fear is both normal and healthy, you just need to control it.

>"Only way you'll learn to have that calm when you stand one up at 10 yards is to get out in the thick of things. Having some fear is both normal and healthy, you just need to control it."

I've posted this before, but when there are hundreds of grizzlies between you and nearest settlement of any kind, here's BPL's Erin showing how it's done:

If you are ever in the Peace area in Alberta, look us up. It’s a pretty beary country here; mostly black bears, but if we go toward Grande Cache, there are lots more grizzlies.

If we go to the other side of the border and hook up with someone with a bear tag during the appropriate season in British Columbia, we can also demonstrate how a well-bred dog can help too. Illegal on this side of the border though unless it’s on private property; and illegal outside of season in B.C. too. Can’t make any promise in this area since it requires having a resident of B.C. tagging along.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIoh-y90sqk (Not my dog, but rather a similar one owned by a friend).

Unlike other residents in the area, I don’t carry a shotgun, only a bear spray can (UDAP). Even then, I don’t really carry a bear spray in some of the surrounding areas near the city; only when I am in the backcountry. Not uncommon for trail runners to bump into black bears though.

Opportunities for bear bagging is a hit and miss. Sometimes there are tall aspens, and other times it’s black spruces which are basically useless. So, one pretty much learn how to cache very quickly. We could use a canister or a Ursack, but never really needed the former and haven’t experimented with the latter. Chipmunks are a bigger problem than bears to be honest.

Been bluff-charged at a lot my whole life though.

There is also this:

https://youtu.be/TtC14cpwwXg

Done this a few times with big sticks.

More afraid of moose than bears. I almost got trampled upon by a moose once when I spooked it from its bedding. Was bushwacking for grouse and martens. Wouldn’t be here if my dog didn’t intervene.

Too bad in one of the Facebook groups, people are bashing the guy for carrying a camera instead of a handgun; but the men were out training their moose-dogs and were trying to capture the action of baying moose on film. They weren’t expecting a bear. So it wouldn’t have mattered if he was carrying anything or not.

>I’ve posted this before, but when there are hundreds of grizzlies between you and nearest settlement of any kind, here’s BPL’s >Erin showing how it’s done:

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iinv_5e_QGg

Cool video, just watching that got my heart going.

David, that video by Erin… Is that a Grizzly Bear or an Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear?

–B.G.–

>I've posted this before, but when there are hundreds of grizzlies between you and nearest settlement of any kind, here's BPL's >Erin showing how it's done:

Key point here is how calm they appear… well perhaps appear calm to the bear, but I am sure the adrenaline was pumping.

Thanks to everyone for posting the references, suggestions and anecdotes. For me, having a chance to get this type of experience will be a big step in opening the door to many more hiking adventures than I would be comfortable taking on with my current set of skills.

Next on the agenda are developing off-trail navigation and winter hiking skills. :)

"developing off-trail navigation and winter hiking skills"

I just follow the bear tracks, they usually know their way around.

>"David, that video by Erin… Is that a Grizzly Bear or an Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear?"

It's on the coast of the Alaskan Peninsula (that bit that projects out towards the Aleutians). So I'd guess it is a coastal brown bear. I'm not sure how far up or down the coast the nearest salmon stream would be. It wasn't a small bear (just skinny in Spring).

For others, Alaskan usage is:

"Grizzlies": inland locations such as Denali NP or the North Slope between the Brooks Range and the Arctic Ocean. These areas don't have salmon streams so the bears subsist on grass, roots, berries, caribou and moose calves in Spring, moths, and ground squirrels.

"Coastal Brown Bears": live near a salmon stream and for each salmon run, May through August, are gorging on salmon. By late summer, they are sometimes so well fed that their belly drags on the ground and they just take a bite out the salmon's brain and two of the belly (the fattest parts) and let the fillet meat (that we'd eat) float away. Their weight range and max weight is twice that of the inland grizzlies.

"Kodiak Bear" or "Kodiak Brown Bear": a coastal brown bear on Kodiak Island. They are even larger than other brown bears.

When we talk to 48-staters, we often group them all together as "grizzlies" because that's what you folks call them.

Safer behavior around any of them is the same.

learn to hike in bear country? You just put one foot in front of the other.

The first thing you need to learn is to always wear little bells on your shoes to warn the bears you are coming.

The next thing you need to learn is how to tell black-bear poop from grizzly-bear poop. Black bear poop has berries and bones and fur in it. Grizzly poop has berries and bones and fur and little bells in it.

>The first thing you need to learn is to always wear little bells on your shoes to warn the bears you are coming.

>The next thing you need to learn is how to tell black-bear poop from grizzly-bear poop. Black bear poop has berries and bones
>and fur in it. Grizzly poop has berries and bones and fur and little bells in it.

Love this joke…

It is so great when a park ranger gets a small group listening intently, goes through how to handle bear encounters with Black and Grizzly bears; wearing bells, pepper spray, waving arms and such. Then ends with that punchline (with the added feature that Grizzly Bear poop also smells like pepper). Telling this joke should be part of park ranger training.

>"It is so great when a park ranger gets a small group listening intently. . . ."

It's even better when you plant some bells in the next bit of bear poop.

A friend and I had a riff back and forth about finding bear scat:

"Was it still warm?" (I actually do hold my hand over it to assess that if it still looks wet.)

"Was it still steaming?" (it does for a few minutes and that's really good to notice).

The discussion on bear bells reminded me of something the park rangers in Lapland told us.

Don't use a bear bell in the reindeer husbandry area. They associate the sound with reindeer. Good idea in southern Finland though where livestock are fenced (powered with car battery) and the bears there don't make that association.

Not sure if that is a problem anywhere in North America though because I am not really sure if sheep farmers use bells or if grizzlies extend down far south enough into where sheep are most commonly kept.

We only have cattle up here. Wolves and coyotes are too hard on sheep for them to be practical.

When you see a bear and are unsure of which they are climb a tree. If the bear climbs after you and eats you, it is a black bear. If it pushes the tree down and eats you, it is a brown bear.