"Bear bells" stink. They don't work. They're sold to tourists. Look at all the "locals" in bear areas. They don't wear bells. My brother was a tour boat cap'n in Glacier National Park (MT, USA) for 3 years. Every summer, they'd take naturalist training to better handle the needs of 2-legged park visitors and 4-legged park residents. He was told that bear bells are not a good enough warning for bears. I realize that bears have better hearing than we humans do, but I've noticed when I'm out hiking that I can hear bear bells on other people at a whopping 60- or 70-foot distance. Even if bears can hear them at double that distance, that's too close for my tastes. The pro naturalists recommended talking loudly while hiking, shouting when you reach blind corners in the trail, or near rivers and streams. Water features really drown sounds out--nature's "white noise generators". Nick's gong idea wouldn't be bad either; a metal spoon tied to your pack next to a Sierra cup will make a lower frequency ring than the bear bell, and will carry a lot farther. I've never seen a griz on the trail. Not sure if I ever want to. Even with talking loudly and shouting, we've surprised a few black bears. Once near a river, once when it was very windy and we were downwind from the bruin. It was neat seeing them at less than 200 feet, but that's way too close for me to want to see a grizzly. I always carry pepper spray in bear areas. I own a few guns; I respect guns, and occasionally use them for hunting. I probably won't ever carry them on the trail or in the boat, though. I'm not necessarily pro-guns or anti-guns in wild areas, it's simply that the inconvenience (weight, avoiding dampness) outweighs my perceived risk. My $0.02 Shawn Nick wrote: > Seriously, isn't it a better idea to rig some kind of bell or gong to warn them > of your presence when coming around blind curves in a river? Yeah, I know, > disturbs the solitude. -- Shawn W. Baker 0 46°53'N © 2000 ____©/______ 114°06'W ~~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\ ,/ /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ baker_at_montana.com 0 http://www.missoulaconcrete.com/shawn/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Apr 19 2000 - 07:36:09 PDT
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