Who needs Bear Spray?

Nice video…he captured that encounter well.

Always best to talk about things first

once you tell the cute cuddly bear that you didnt bring spray because it would have pushed your base weight to 5.00001 oz … it ran away because it didnt want you to suffer the shame on BPL of not being SUL ;)

Nonsense? I agree. A kiss on the cheek was probably warranted.

I like how the bear slowly climbed down the ladder. Cute fella.

Good video!

Was the camera mounted on the end of his rifle barrel?

My guess would be the man in the perch was an archer waiting for deer. They tend to set up stands like that. If he'd had a bear tag, he had any number of potential shots. I thought the bear did a great job of climbing the ladder, and wasn't all that scared of the hunter – he only went a dozen yards away before resuming his slow amble…

That was great.

That was easy!

eric, you should be ashamed! ;)

Honestly though, I bet that guy pooped a little.

Funny video but I wonder "How do bears like this make it through hunting season?"

I went for the "bluff the bear" approach myself. Although it didn't seem so funny at the time, I can't help but laugh at my words here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iinv_5e_QGg

Have to wonder what the bear would've done had he had reached the top.
He seemed more primed for a cuddle than a meal.

Erin,

Somehow I missed this thread last year. VERY, VERY nice job on handling that bear encounter. My wife also does a great job (1) of noticing food sources / water noise / poor sight lines and yacking it up to avoid any encounter and (2) talking to them calmly when needed. But you two do even better.

-David
(in Kenai. But we took the ferry up from Seattle 14 years ago – not walking the whole dang way!)

Black bear video- cute.
Erin's griz video- #$&@ing terrifying. I'm staying in WA.

That was pretty impressive, Erin. I'm not sure I would be that calm with one of our black bears.

You southerners might be even more impressed if you saw a brown bear in the fall. A well-fed bear ready for hibernation has its belly dragging on the ground. The bear in the video – its belly was VERY high and the shoulders, back, and sides were all looking VERY lean. Not that it changes the proper strategy – which Erin and Hig demonstrate wonderfully in that video, but that was one hungry bear!

"Staying in WA" is exactly what they didn't do – 4,000 entirely human-powered miles from WA along the BC and AK coastlines to the Aleutian Islands. I do that same route many times a year, but at 31,000 feet. At ground level, I only do a few score of miles at a time.

I just saw a video of the worst way you could handle a bear encounter.