My son was passing thru Montana last month and sent us some literature on the local wild life. A postcard showed a tourist trolling for bears with a small dog. An official-looking notice from one of the visitors' centers had detailed instructions on how to avoid being injured by bears. It recommended making a lot of noise on the trails and said that bear bells on the backpack frame were good, and that one should carry pepper spray. The brochure claimed that it was important to know what sort of bear was threatening you and suggested that the hiker should examine the bear's feces. Evidently, grizzly bear poop smells like pepper and contains little bells. Several years ago, in Alaska, every park's evening program centered on bear avoidance. We got so paranoid that when we went for a hike, we took turns shouting, "Hey, Bear." As a result, the only evidence of wild life we actually saw while afoot was pika poop. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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