Colour Me Nervous

[LynnF]

Lynn, you have probably been close if you fish the racehorse area often enough, just that the bears saw you first and avoided you.

 

Trust me....I know that to be the absolute truth. In fact I swear my dog has seen more than one that I haven't.......

[clarki]

a friend once saw a grizz eating berries right next to the path on one of the k lakes. she hiked up to a vantage point and watched this bear for 45 minutes as many people walked by without ever noticing the bear as it was well hidden by thick shrubs but still only feet from the trail. only when a couple of guys noticed her they called CO's and they came along and shot blanks near the bear to scare it off. all the bear wanted was to strap on the feed bag. then it got hassled.

 

M

[ham]

Definetly summed up in one word, Legend.

[Hawgstoppah]

i wonder how many bears have seen us anglers that we just had no idea was watching us.

 

Was hiking a trail to Headwall Lakes. There is a headwall that once you get up it you can see the area you just came through very well. Looked back to see 3 bears (black bears). They were 10 feet from the trail. Noticed another group of hikers approaching the area and doing the right thing (making a lot of noise). The bears wandered off about 100ft, hunkered down a bit, waited for hikers to pass, and procedded back to 10ft from the trail to eat the berries. Make noise, and don't act scared or change your routine once one gets too close. Been good tactics for me through about 20 encounters of less than 200 feet between me and bear. I've been 500 feet from far too many to count, possibly over 100....

 

Never once have I fired a can of spray at one.... only to test it in a feild years ago to see the pattern / effective area coverage...

 

Did you guys here my drunk bear story?I'm sure I posted this one before......

 

[Hawgstoppah]

Haha legendary.... up to the part about peeing the pants LOL... I felt like such a jackarse after that but hey... better than a can of spray I'll tell ya that. If he was sniffin me up for dinner, and then smelled that... coulda saved my hide ya know!!

[Hawgstoppah]

So....do you fish in Depends now?

 

No comment

 

****runs to walmart to prepare for a mountain trip****

[Pipestoneflyguy]

That griz (72) and cubs in town have been hazed so many times now that the other night I found myself about a 100m away - all I did was raise my rod up like a shot gun and all three of em smoked it into the woods. They recognize the motion as something that will hurt their ears. (ha the applications for spey just keep rolling in LOL)

 

I agree on the spray, by last resort I mean already on the ground - fact is that half of it will end up in your own face anyway - oh yeah and keep in mind it will also burn the hell out of your armpits and acorns too. Blind, with a burning bean bag, is not the ideal way to deal with an angry bear LOL

 

I saw mention of the bangers - really they are best for scaring your friends - they have quite a range and if you pop it on the other side of the bear guess which way it is going to run.

[snakeman]

Enjoyed my first bear sighting last Saturday. I spend a lot of time in the backcountry and bear-infested areas, fishing and hiking and whatnot, but had never seen a bear. So imagine the irony when, driving to Banff on the Trans Canada with some friends from Ontario, we spot a crowd parked at the side of the road, watching a small male grizz do his thing in a phone-line clearing, about 3 minutes outside of the town of Banff. We watched him for about 30 minutes (and watched some complete morons push the limits of how close you can get with a camera) until a park ranger came with a shotgun and bear bangers to scare him away. It's amazing seeing how fast they can be when they want to move.

[Hawgstoppah]

It's amazing seeing how fast they can be when they want to move.

 

Remember that when your first thought upon seeing one 500 feet away on stream is to run..... never, ever run no matter if the bears 15 feet or 1000 feet away and is aware of you...

[BlueNorther]

I was charged by a griz last september while bow hunting for elk S.W. of Pincher Creek.That was a 10+ on the pucker factor.To compound it,it was 4:30 in the morning on a ridge in thick aspens.We were walking up the ridge to get into some meadows before daylight to call and glass for a bull we saw the evening before.The first thing we heard that something was wrong was a low gutteral growl followed by the sound of popping teeth off to the left.Our head lamps were on red lense to keep any glare from warning any game of our advance up the ridge.We switched over to spotlight at the first growl and were trying to see the bear,it didn't take long,that bear came in like a freight train slapping the ground with its front paws for three or four bounds.It came to a stop at about 20 yards from us on the trail,looked us over for what seemed like an eternity,probably only a few seconds and then left the trail and headed off into the aspens.While all this happened I was only aware of the bear and my partner,after it was over the adrenaline rush was amazing.I didn't know whether to throw up or crap my drawers or both.After about ten minutes we gathered our wits about us and continued to the top of the ridge,I'll tell you my spidey sences were tingling.I was attuned to every noise and smell on that ridge.We broke the top with an hour till sunrise and I was never so glad to see the sun come up in my life.