Re: [Paddlewise] Bears

I'm no expert on bears and I certainly don't deal with the threat on a 
routine basis like some of you but I recall talking with a wildlife ecology 
grad student who worked one summer on a bear and moose research crew in the 
Great Lakes area.  They stayed in the backcountry for a week or two at a 
time and daily baited bear monitoring stations with bacon grease and a 
variety of stinky meat products.  He said that everyone on the crew smelled 
like the breakfast special at Denny's from day one.  To a bear at night in 
their sleeping bags they must have appeared to be the lost mystical 
super-sized sausages of bear fairy tales.  They never had an incident with 
a bear doing anything more than wandering through camp.  He laughed about 
advice to never bring a granola bar in your tent - he said that any bear 
would have chosen them over a granola bar any day!

I'm not suggesting that smearing yourself with bacon grease at bedtime and 
wearing your favorite Oscar Mayer, pork chop-flavored PJs is sound advice 
in bear country...just passing along a bear related anecdote.

K

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