The Etiquette of Bear Country Travel Special Report by Michael Kundu, Misty Fjords National Monument in Southeast Alaska ---------------- Geesh Michael, that's some pretty scary stuff. How do you tell the difference between a predatory assault and a regular one, when the bear starts swallowing after it's done chewing? I suspect if you're close enough to use pepper spray you're still going to get hurt. If you're only 10 feet away, it's going to take some amount of time for the spray to take affect and it would certainly be on you before then. Better than nothing, I guess. A gun is probably not an option for me. Some sort of noise maker would seem to be the best bet. An air horn or something that would startle the bear while it's still some distance away. I particularily liked Victoria Jason's use of some kind of noise maker in a flare gun, something you could shoot into the ground in front of the bear, make a lot of noise, scatter some gravel on it without torching the forest. Thanx for the post. I'm going to tuck it away and bring it out whenever I want a good scare. You can be sure I'll start scouting the sporting stores and catalogs looking to see what kind of detterants are out there since I expect to be doing some paddling in bear country. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Dec 17 1998 - 08:25:24 PST
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