Hiking in Bear country

[Josette]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/grizzly-bea ... ook-video/

[Racetrackreject]

I was just reading an article about this and it's so scary.

When I went to Montana, I went looking for bear. That's what I wanted to photograph, and I knew it was risky and dangerous. We hiked back country, just a few of us, with bear spray and prayers...lol. We had watched videos on youtube of people hiking the same areas and coming face to face with grizzlies. It was kind of terrifying in a primal way, and people either had 1 of 2 reactions. 1. You're freaking crazy and you're going to get eaten or 2. After they saw my photos of the grizzly that we came across in an open meadow, "Why didn't you get closer?". Yeah, we could have gotten closer, but we knew how fast grizzlies can be, and we knew that it's nothing to spot a grizzly way off in the distance only to hike a mile and meet it face to face on the trail. We kept our distance. We knew he knew we were there, but luckily he was content to just lazily wander around this large open meadow and allow himself to be observed.

I'm fascinated with large predators and grew up wanting to study them. For one of my future big trips I want to go to South Africa and photograph Great Whites, along with other large predators in Africa.

This guy was oh so lucky. A big sow with cubs is not high on my list of animals I'd like to meet up close.

[Koolkat]

From Yellowstone's website:

It might seem obvious that grizzly bears, wolves and coyotes—you know, animals with big teeth—are capable of inflicting bodily harm, but those seemingly docile mammals like moose, elk and bison have just as fierce a temper. Stay at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards away from other large mammals like bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose and coyotes.

Not that he meant to get too close. . . .

We went to a event recently centered around the reintroduction of grizzly bears to the North Cascades. One of the interesting factoids I picked up was that since grizzlies had evolved here on the Plains, they tended to respond to threats aggressively since there was no where to hide. Black bears on the other hand, evolved in forested areas and their first mode of defense is to run and/or climb a tree. Of course, grizzly bears' range, unfortunately has become very limited.

[PaulaO]

I would think 100 yards is even too close.

[Rhianon]

Me, too, Paula.

We live in black bear country. See them routinely--pretty much every couple of days this time of year. We don't have an attractants-- no fruit trees, etc. But they seem to like our creek. I think it's a traditional path. We always laugh when folks put up the "bear in area" yellow flags. We'd need them every two feet on our place--like pink flamingos on the lawn!

Anyway, I've seen how fast those guys can run, and how quickly they change direction. Impressive. Very impressive. Can't imagine a Grizzly ... though we may soon. Some seem to be trying to get to our island due to low fish stocks it seems.