Bear spray-necessary?
How many of you consider bear spray to be a necessary part of your pack and how many think it weighs too much to bother with.
Thanks.
A
every hiker to a one that i have ever met carries two bear sprays.
matthewski
kidding. only uninformed non hikers are ever seen with it. and we allways recomend they get rid of it. it cannot help you. on the other hand. being familiar with the rules of the bearoad gives us all the confidence we need to calmly do what were trained to do if a bear is suddenly in our path. calmly continue around the bear or away from it if no path around exists. feeding, takeing pictures, vocalizing or not moveing along may cause death.
matthewski
it doesn't weigh too much but it is totally unnecessaryOriginally Posted by Prettywoman0172
on the AT....not necessary
GA - NJ 2001; GA - ME 2003; GA - ME 2005; GA - ME 2007; PCT 2006
A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.
—SPANISH PROVERB
worst bear senerio is an angry bear focused on you cause your in its face. your job is to continue calmly and without fear or hurry but with respect. and that means backtracking if needed. comming back in an hour wont break you. but being stupid like bolting into the woods offtrail is silly.
matthewski
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I wouldn't bring it,, make noises when you are in thicker cover sing / whistle do what it takes to make your self more comfortable... But they will hear and or smell you usually way before you even know their there. I've had a number of encounters over the years in my business by myself and with others, and I did the text book make your self bigger than you are. back away slowly. they all ran after my initial encounter. The best answer is prevention.............Including a clean campsite
Ditto this.
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
Prettywoman0172 This is a good question and is often on the minds of people contemplating a thru hike. The biggest problem with bear encounters is when hikers don't keep clean camps allowing bears to learn they have easy access to food. In time the the bear loses it's natural fear of humans and encounters get more aggressive with subsequent hikers. While there have been encounters with aggressive bears on the AT, they are still isolated and rare. Personally, we saw a lot of bears on our AT thru, but never felt threatened. I didn't carry spray on that hike, but on rare occasion I do carry it in some areas of the Sierra if I'm hiking in places with known aggressive bear activity. Understanding bear behavior helps ease the concern of not being at the top of the food chain in the wilderness. To help increase hiker knowledge there is a great CD presented by the Bear Country Society in cooperation with the International Association for Bear Research and Management called “Staying Safe in Bear Country”. It covers both Black and Grizzly bears in North America and presents real life situations to show bear behavior and it's relevance to human safety. There is a lot of good info on their websites as well.
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. Henry David Thoreau
Carry it if it makes you feel better. Read the bear books and your own experiencies with bears. It can be helpful.
http://www.bear.org/website/ has lots of info and some pretty entertaining videos.
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British Columbia is a bit different than the Appalachians.
The only grizzly bears in the Appalachians are found on the covers of A WALK IN THE WOODS
Paul "Mags" Magnanti
http://pmags.com
Twitter: @pmagsco
Facebook: pmagsblog
The true harvest of my life is intangible...a little stardust caught,a portion of the rainbow I have clutched -Thoreau
If I were to ever carry bear spray outside of grizzly country, it would be for unleashed or feral dogs.
Prettywoman... I do carry bear/pepper spray...just a little tiny very light tube of it but it has a good range. I carry it in my shirt pocket where I can actually get to it if there is a sudden need. I'm actually thinking of it more as an all purpose personal protection tool versus being bear specific.
I have never needed it yet and I suspect it's long odds that I ever will...but it does make me feel a little bit more safe when I'm hiking or camping alone.
if you ever visit grizzly country you'll see bear spray for sale in every store thats even remotely outdoors orientated. ive never seen it for sale on the east coast. anywhere. kind of tells you something, no?
the funniest thing to me about people who live in grizzly country is how equally afraid of black bears they are. guilty by association i guess.
I always carry pepper spray. Good for mean dogs, angry hikers and the ocasional GSMNP overly friendly bear. Weighs nothing and is good insurance.
this bear walked within 25 feet of me at GSMNP, I pulled out my bear spray but talked him into going around me without using it.
Last edited by sheepdog; 10-07-2010 at 00:10.
If you find yourself in a fair fight; your tactics suck.
They have slightly different behaviors. A grizzly will often attack but break it off and stop and not kill if a victim covers up and plays dead. If a black bear attacks you it is generally going to kill you and eat you, so you better damn well fight for your life. Yeah, most of the time black bears run off, but that doesn't mean you should lose respect for what they can do.
"That's the thing about possum innards - they's just as good the second day." - Jed Clampett
A bear is charging you. Quick, is a small dark grizzly or large pale black bear?
My answer: Holy feces, a bear!
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