Fatal bear attack list...

[slow]

sorry for all the sarcasm, but i did offer some facts in the first place. your original comment was that black bears "on the AT" "are KID'S to the west and A.K." there are plenty of examples of large bears found in and around the Appalachian Mountains. while i realize that 400lb+ black bears are rare, there isn't any reason to suggest that appalachian black bears are inherently smaller than their western U.S. counterparts (except perhaps that they get more exercise 'cause there are more people to run away from). as for your insistence that bears within eyeshot of the AT can't also be larger than average ... you need to explain your logic here because it doesn't make sense.

a bear's size depends on its diet, the season, age and sex ... period. it doesn't depend on its east-west orientation (or its proximity to some hiking trail).

ugh! why am i still talking about this!?

WELL,come up with a 400lb on the A.T.

Out west more fish to be had....to even get to 400lb and standing at 5ft.

[ed bell]

WELL,come up with a 400lb on the A.T.

Out west more fish to be had....to even get to 400lb and standing at 5ft.

They are there. Show me a camera that gives the subject's weight. Just go ahead and say that 400lb black bears do not exist on the AT. That's what you are insinuating.

[Wilson]

WELL,come up with a 400lb on the A.T.

Out west more fish to be had....to even get to 400lb and standing at 5ft.

World record Black Bear was killed in coastal NC, weighed 880 ponds.

Lots of bears over 500 pounds have been killed in western NC.
The AT goes thru western NC.
So, sure big bears have crossed or used parts of the AT.

[slow]

They are there. Show me a camera that gives the subject's weight. Just go ahead and say that 400lb black bears do not exist on the AT. That's what you are insinuating.

Right on time ED.
The point is a 200lb...people think is 400lb.and no stats on the A.T.
Would YOU say this is true overall?

[ed bell]

Right on time ED.
The point is a 200lb...people think is 400lb.and no stats on the A.T.
Would YOU say this is true overall?

You been weighin' them suckers?

[ed bell]

I will say that you are right on with the lbs. estimations. Folks will ALWAYS claim the bear weighed more than it did. It's like a fish story. Same out west though.

[slow]

NO,But i had what i think was a 25lb BASS on...till he took me in the weeds.

[ed bell]

NO,But i had what i think was a 25lb BASS on...till he took me in the weeds.

Good one!

[trouthunter]

I have been told that big blacks can be found denned up in abandoned coal mine shafts, come out at night, and are very elusive.
Not sure that it's true, but the guy had lived in the area for 40 yrs. and seemed honest and down to earth.
He also told me some other stuff about fishing spots that proved to be true.

[trouthunter]

I once caught a brown so big it would not fit in the cooler, we had to pour the ice down it's throat.

No wonder the bears get so big!

[slow]

Good one!

Your a Good man.

When can i cook you a steak in FL?

[dessertrat]

Why because bear phobia is very popular. Actually proximity to the trail vastly increases the size of bears. A bear cub walks to within sight of the trail expands in minutes to 800 pounds of fury.

A teenage girl in Maryland shot a black bear of around 600 lbs in Maryland last year. It was not that far from the AT.

[cool breeze]

ok...here' s the thing about bears.....PUT YOUR FOOD IN A TREE AND ANYTHING THAT HAS A SMELL!! We have hiked all kinds of places and...it is true....what the experts/rangers say....bears are "food habituated" by us...they learn to come to tents,camp sites, etc.... by what we do.

I was shocked to learn that hikers on blood mountain this summer..2008..were so lazy as to place food on a tree limb instead of taking the time to put it in a bag and hang it in a tree....guess what.....black bear were seen at Blood Mountain....one tore into a tent...its us that causes this behavior.

IN Glacier National Park..Montanal...the slogan is ...THINK OF THE NEXT HIKER!. Our habits effect those who hike behind us.

[Captn]

Anything that has a smell?

We can't go around and hang all the thru-hikers!

[wilconow]

A teenage girl in Maryland shot a black bear of around 600 lbs in Maryland last year. It was not that far from the AT.

If you consider 2.5 hours "not that far"... ok.. It was in Garrett Co

[Hikerhead]

Show me 1 pic of a 400 lb taken on the AT?

I stopped to eat today in Elkton (first town east of SNP on rt 33) and grabbed the local paper. Someone killed a bear that field dressed at 418lbs in one of the bordering counties of SNP. That would have been a 500lb bear. They had a picture of it laying in the truck (not a very good pic).

[Hikerhead]

I stopped to eat today in Elkton (first town east of SNP on rt 33) and grabbed the local paper. Someone killed a bear that field dressed at 418lbs in one of the bordering counties of SNP. That would have been a 500lb bear. They had a picture of it laying in the truck (not a very good pic).

Make that WEST of SNP.

[Joey]

SC State record 594lb bruin. Record was broken twice that week during hunting season. 588-592 and then 594. Saw one with her cubs earlier this year crossing the Mtns to Sea trail near Shining Rock. She was fat and the cubs were healthy too! Thankfully I was about 200 yards away from her and she never once looked up, just kept high-tailin it up the slope of Chestnut Bald.

[buckwheat]

Well, we've killed enough species to discount that theory.

Extinction is part of the circle of life, and is an integral design consideration of the planetary ecosystem I created for you. It is not a bug. Please do not interfere with the natural order of things.

Sincerely,
God

[Rockhound]

as for the whole bear weight thing, I helped skin my first bear a couple years ago. It weighed 310lbs. I have seen bears larger than that before and since. In fact a blackbear was spotted near the trailhead by Standing Bear right before Christmas that easily weighed close to 400lbs. This whole bear weight debate going on is kind of pointless though. If it were me, I think I'd much rather get eaten by the 600lb bear and not the 200lb. I mean I'd just hate to think we were evenly matched and I lost.