Hammock Hiking and Bears :eek:

[fin]

Yeah, my Dad, my brother and I walked up on the den and saw the bear sleeping there. My dad is deathly afraid of bears, and I never learned his healthy respect of things with claws. I jumped in to show him there was nothing to be afraid of - that black bears are basically wusses.

It's not as crazy as it sounds, as the bear had enough space to get around me. If I would have been totally blocking him off, THAT would have been crazy!

Reaching in and stroking a sleeping bear isn't that scary either - the trick is to make sure they are sleeping.

[turk]

Had my first experience, hanging in Polar Bear country. It was definitely something I truly underestimated. Was hounded to the 9th degree by Inuit police for not having brought firearms. They were convinced I must have a criminal record. (apparently no sane person, would fail to carry a gun, up there, without good reason) To add tension to the matter, 2 bears had to be exterminated in the last year within a 3km arc of where we intended to camp on nights 3 and 4. We struck a bargain with authorities, kept daily satellite phone communication, and kept meticulous tabs on our exact location. Getting a good nights sleep was very shaky the first few nights. But exhaustion and the comfort of our hammocks eventually won over.

We never saw any polar bear, nor signs of them in the area. And quite frankly, that suits me just fine. My most valuable lesson has been that my cooking habits, and general food hygiene are nowhere near up to acceptable standards for an active polar bear region. This is a situation I plan to give much thought and work on over the next year.

I have also been an anti-gun advocate for a very long time. My latest trip has completely humbled me on gun usage, and safety concerning polar bears. Nobody in the north jokes about them. And its not well enough to just carry a firearm. But it needs to be loaded, and within arms reach.... always.

On our return trip, while waiting for the train, we were treated to many stories from local hunters about being stalked by bears out on the ice, and other scary events from locals and veterans of polar bear country.

I have sworn to my wife to not go back up there without an appropriate firearm, the acquisition of which my wife and mother are campaigning for loudly. Of all the birthday presents you never expect to receive from your mother, I think a high powered rifle, ranks pretty high on that list

[fin]

Of all the birthday presents you never expect to receive from your mother, I think a high powered rifle, ranks pretty high on that list

A high powered bullet from the mother-in-law would be more likely.

[BillyBob58]

............ My most valuable lesson has been that my cooking habits, and general food hygiene are nowhere near up to acceptable standards for an active polar bear region. This is a situation I plan to give much thought and work on over the next year.

I have also been an anti-gun advocate for a very long time. My latest trip has completely humbled me on gun usage, and safety concerning polar bears. Nobody in the north jokes about them. And its not well enough to just carry a firearm. But it needs to be loaded, and within arms reach.... always............ Of all the birthday presents you never expect to receive from your mother, I think a high powered rifle, ranks pretty high on that list

I have no experience in Polar bear country, but I have quite a bit in Griz country. Where I find that the logistics of trying to be safe as far as cooking and storage of attractants can all become a bit overwhelming. And I can only figure it is probably worse in Polar bear country. It's all a tremendous PIA, but better than increasing your odds of becoming bear food. As you improve your skills, please tell us how you are handling this. The smell of cooked food on clothing, tarps or your body is a major problem for me.

And I don't hesitate to carry firearms, but what about bear spray? Any good for Polar bears?

I just saw a report on TV about 2 guys mauled by a Griz. They had bear spray but, for some reason, could not get to it. So one guy makes it up a tree, the other guy is being devoured. The guy in the tree in yelling at the bear and throwing pine cones or whatever at the bear, trying to get the bear to drop his buddy and come after him, safe in the tree. So the Griz climbs the tree, bites him a couple of times and knocks him out of the tree. The guy gets to a pack where the bear spray is while the Griz is coming down out of the tree. The bear then charges him again, he sprays the bear, who reverses direction mid-charge and runs off. Worked good that time.

This was all part of another report of a Griz climbing a tree. The other was 3 women, one climbs 30 feet up a tree with the bear after her. This gives the other two the diversion needed to run away and get help, assuming their friend was safe. When they returned with help, they found the Griz had climbed the tree and pulled their friend out of it, killing her.

As we all know, Griz are not supposed to climb trees, unlike their black cousins who practically live in trees. But this showed that if they are pissed off or hungry enough, they will.

But it also showed that the spray was effective, at least in this case, with a very angry Griz who already had the taste of blood in his mouth and who was way beyond the "bluff" charge stage.

[Coffee]

I watched a show on bears on national geographic and I am starting to develop a new respect for them. Seeing onerun over 25 mph in from of a van I was riding in last fall without stressing helped as well.

The show said dogs have a nose that is something like 300 times more developed than people, and bears are something like 100 times more than dogs. They have a huge nose chamber that is hard wired into their brains. I don't see how pepper spray would not work on them. I read and saw a bunch of reports of people using pepper spray on bears. It seemed to always work. Some reports say it stopped them in mid charge.

I hadn't used it yet. I do carry a small pepper spray for dogs now though.

I think concerning a gun you need to have a well placed shot to stop one. That wouldn't stop me from carrying one in polar bear country. Maybe that and pepper spray would be in order.

[Mule]

What are bears good for? Answer me that if you can.

[Preacha Man]

I started this thread because in Northwest Arkansas we had a freeze in mid spring that ruined all the berries and tree nuts. All the animals were without food. There was some talk around here that hikers needed to be more careful because the black bears would be more aggressive. Still to date I have never seen a bear in the wild. I have seen numerous tracks, and signs, but never a bear. Some swear by taking handguns, which I have, but I have never seen the need. Thank you guys for your great advice!!!!!

Being alert, and pure common sense I think are anyones best bet for being safe. I want to keep a healthy respect of bears (I do not plan to scare the fool out of them by jumping into their den ). It does make me feel better to know that "black bears are wusses ". Again thanks for all the great advice.

Dwight

[photomankc]

I do carry a handgun when hiking alone but that has more to do with two legged problems than bears so that is always there as a last resort. The thing is, for any bear you need something in a large heavy caliber to be effective which is the exact opposite of what you want for comfort's sake while backpacking so I have no delusion that the little 9mm I carry is some kind of super-duper bear zapper but it beats trying to poke it's eyes or punch it if it's on top of you.

Like others have said, in Black Bear territory I'd just stick to common sense and be ready to convince the bear that you are the bad-a@# of the woods if an encounter does happen. I've been in NW Arkansas in the OHT a bit and all I have ever run into were some great looking deer and annoying raccoons.

[Coffee]

I think that unless you hit it just right, you can empty a whole clip into a bear and do nothing more than make it madder. I'm not going to turn this into a pro or anti gun argument other than I have read some convincing research, don't ask for the link it has been awhile, that bear spray is a lot more effective than a gun in defending yourself from bears.

[red devil]

I think people are a bigger threat on the trail than bears are. That's probably what drives most of the handgun carry. There are also hunters who purposely hunt with pistols and apparently bring down game that I would not have expected. "Shooter's preference" so to speak.