From: gadient@rainbow.ecn.purdue.edu (JL Gadient)
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry
Subject: Re: Bears attacking people?
Date: 15 Oct 92 18:51:46 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

In article <1992Oct15.162722.3740@afterlife.ncsc.mil> mssmith@afterlife.ncsc.mil (M. Scott Smith) writes:
>Hmm.  Bears sound a bit too unreliable for me to feel too comfortable
>wandering around in the back country.
>
>Out of curiosity, is there any way to protect oneself against a bear
>(besides taking preventive measures; let's assume you're hiking and you
>come across a bear and s/he's not too terribly pleased about it)?
>
>How about mace?
>
>Or what if I started singing really loudly?
>
>Scott

About ten years ago while backcountry camping in White Oak Canyon in
Virginia my SO (at the time) and I were just finishing up dinner when
Kathy said, "Oh my God, John, a bear!" I was totally involved with a
giant millipeed about 8 or 10 inches long and didn't drop the thing
right away. By the time I got to Kathy, the huge black bear was coming
right up the trail into our campsite. We had Kathy's dog Topher with us.

I got between Kathy, the camp, the dog, and the bear and started 
yelling at the bear. he totally ignored me - the food was still out and
s/he was a hungry bear. I tried again - LOUDER - he kept coming. One
last chance now, the bear was within twenty feet or so. This time, at
the top of my lungs, as mean as I could sound, I yelled again. 
Something to the effect of " Get the hell out of her you bear!" 
Expletives deleted :-). It worked, the bear headed left and flanked us.
I got up on some downed tree limbs armed with an apple. I intended to
throw it far behind the bear to try to spook him out of the area. After
all, the food was still out. I winged the apple very hard; it hit
a tree limb and ricocheted off a limb far overhead and splatted on
a log about two feet from the bear. The thing jumped like a squirrel.
I was shocked at how fast it could move. Like I said, it was a very
large black bear.

He left for the time being and, shaking, I tied the food up in a tree.
I was scared to death to go near the food and in fact, the first thing 
I did was to grab the eggs out and put them in the branches of a tree.
I barely reached the limb (I am 5'10" w/long arms).

We turned in for the night. In the early morning, Topher woke us up
wining and shaking. I looked out the front and saw two or three
smaller bears - a couple more out back. All of the sudden the huge
original (attacking) bear showed up causing the others to make
themselves scarce. I watched the big bear put one paw on the tree
with the eggs and with the other paw, casually swat the eggs down -
TOWARD THE TENT. The eggs rolled out of the carton and the closest
egg was less than 10 feet away. I watched it eat all the eggs all the 
while giving the bear verbal grief. The bear took my advice and left 
us alone once finished with the delicate job of gently cracking the 
eggs and slurping up their contents. No further trouble.

Kathy was so scared, she cried. I also forgot to mention that Topher
at one point, went after the bear - right after I got it turned. So,
the moral is that black bears (I have never seen a Grizzly -( ) are
somewhat used to man and loud noises (or yelling in this case) can
(probably not always) make them go away.

True story.
gadient@rainbow.ecn.purdue.edu
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry