Bears!

That's my biggest hangup about the Appalachian Trail. I don't know what I'd do if I woke up with a bear outside my tent.

Anyone have any experiences to share? Tips? Other than the ones about leaving food out and making noise. I know those.

 

appalachian trail should have black bears ......we have plenty of those here and the only problem they cause are them going after food that has been left out or thrown out ...99 percent of black bear attacks are usually to people that riled them ..i have come across them many a times and i just ignore them ....never had any problems ..not even when the mother was with the cub

 

Agreed. I've been in ME, NH, VT many times and run into a black bear; they are truly more afraid of you than the reverse. My tip is also to have a dog with you, black bears HATE the scent and will avoid you because of the dog, and the dog will act as a WAY early warning mechanism also. This is not the case with Brown bears (Grizzlys), but Black bears are much more timid. Like Tuatara said, just don't mess with them if you do come across 'em.

 

When I was living in the woods in Quebec last summer I met a bear one night. It passed through my campsite and went on its way.

 

pretend to be a fish - the bear will pick you up, knock your head against a rock. At least then you won't feel anything when it rips your arms off.

 

i lived an entire summer in the mountains and i never saw a single bear...saw a couple rattlesnakes which i would find a bigger problem than a bear.

 

Just read a news story about a 6 year old girl mauled & killed by a bear in Cherokee nat. forest in TN, which is also black bear land. The thing is, the article of course did not give any of the extenuating circumstances, so we don't really know exactly WHY the bear reacted this way...Not to pass judgement on the involved family, god bless the little girl and may she R.I.P., but I've seen people doing some very ignorant and dangerous things around bears. Respect 'em and keep your dog with you!

 

Yeah I just read that too. It said the bear picked up and mauled her 2 yr old brother first, and I guess the mother was mauled while fighting off the bear, or something. The mother and brother are in critical condition. Now, how it got the little girl, I dont know.
Yeah the details were vague. Its very sad though...

 

I'm going to have to firmly disagree with you on this one, as will most sources on the subject. You saying that they 'hate' thier sent is really hearsay in my opinion, they likely don't 'hate' the scent of dogs anymore then they do our own scent and we still run into them from time to time, both as startled to realise so as the other.

Throw in the factors of being downwind and near a surging creek or river and it becomes entirely possible the three of you will meet up on the trail, and unless your dog is extremely well trained it is at this point that they become a real dangerous element in the situation. As has been said the best way to deal with a bear if you do in fact meet up with it is to keep quiet and VERY slowly backaway without turning away. Now try doing this with a dog who at that point has likely gone completely instinctual and is barking up a strom, staking claim to his ground. The bear may scamper off scared shitless but it's more likely it will be provoked by the act and become agressive.

 

I hiked the AT once and my brother twice. Neither of us or the hundreds of hikers I've met over the years have had much trouble with bears. If you see a bear you'll usually just see its butt as its running away.


Hang your food bag either over a branch or in the hangers provided in the shelters. You could allways piss around your tent as the smell may help to deter bears

Due to the increase in grizzly bear attacks in some National Parks the Park service has issued the following advice:

Wear little bells on your boots and carry bear pepper spray to deter grizzlies.

Now,do you know how to tell the difference between blackbear scat(droppings) and grizzly scat?
Black bear scat has bits of nuts and berries and bark in it. Grizzly scat contains little bells and smells like pepper spray.

 

I've camped around bears hundreds of times, never had a problem, except once I laid some not fully dried fresh bud on a picnic table and went down to the stream to splash, and when I got back a bear had raided my camp. It ripped open a can of chili and punctured and lapped up a can of soda.

It also "mouthed" the buds (and didn't like them and spit them out). So now my buds are crushed and covered with bear spit.

I've been in my tent and had bears walk by so close I could hear them breathing.

Bears are after your food, not you. Be sure to HANG your food at night.

Sporting goods stores sell bear repellent (pepper spray).
Some campers have made the mistake of spraying it around their tent. Not a good idea. For while a snootful of pepper spray point-blank will send a bear scurrying, a light aroma of pepper wafting on the breeze tells bears people are cooking nearby and it tends to ATTRACT bears.

I've had a problem with bears also at several guerilla grow sites. One time it was nearing dusk. I was in bear terroritory and it was mating season.
I didn't expect any trouble because I had my dog with me.
But then a bear came charging down the trail right at me, stopped about 20 feet in front of me, stood up on it's hind legs and roared.
I immediently pissed my pants and my dog was going fucking ballistic, practically turning sommersaults. I was frozen in fear.
Then the bear went back on all 4's and ambled off.
It was a male and what it had just done was a warning.

The next time I went out I was with a friend, we were both armed and it was broad daylight. We didn't see the bear but when we got to our garden we found out that some bear had utterly destroyed 12 of our 25 plants.
It was smart enough to figure out that the plants had something to do with why we were "intruding".
We harvested the remaining plants and crossed THAT area off our list of grow site's.

 

There is no one rule about what to do with bears. How you react involves whether the bear is stalking you (predator type behaviour), whether it is protecting cubs/a kill, what time of year it is, etc.

If you are planning on taking a long hike with an encounter possible, read up on it, preferably from several sources - don't take any advice you hear here as fact.

 

Thats so sad about the little girl that just got killed in TN by a bear!

 

No problem bro, we agree to disagree. Here's some points-
a)My dog is very well trained, and I wouldn't put HIM in danger...we'd get out of an encounter much as you said..slowly. But the bear will not attack outright if you've got your dog at your side, as it might if you did NOT. Dig? Do you think that woman in TN wouldn't have wanted a 110 pound German Shepherd who's extremely loyal to his family at HER side while her infant was being mauled?
b) I've grown up hiking in NH, ME, and VT and have heard from many, many old timers and Maineiacs that they've never had a problem when they've had their dogs with them because of the scent issue. It's all been just my experience (which is different than "hearsay" mind you), not claiming anyone should take it as law. There are too many variables (is the bear sick or physically perturbed in some way, is it being protective of cubs, etc.) for anything to be more than just a rule of thumb. A bear is a wild animal after all, prone to as many different behaviors as our own homo sapien kindred. But I am curious to know who the experts ("most sources on the subject") are whom you're quoting. Maybe I can incorporate what they know with what I've learned through experience.


Just my 2cents...hopefully none of us here will ever have to find out for absolute sure what to do in a bear attack. Peace.

 

Bears arent attacking you because of your food. They attack you because people have picked on wildlife to long and something must be done!

 

i am also so sorry for the little girl in tennessee ........but i do not know all the details of what transpired there but for once the news has the story partly right calling it a rogue black bear .......in other words atypical behavior for that type of bear

 

i feel worse for the bear than the little girl....i mean sometimes people get eaten by bears....just so happens this was a little girl. but do they have to hunt down the bear, kill it, and perform an autopsy to confirm it? then accuse the bear of being a hazzard to the community? its a fuckin bear! its supposed to eat small children! got dang let bears eat people....either that or watch your chilluns better.....y'know fence the yard, dont let chilluns run on out into woods knowing bears are abound.....

either way, bears arent anything to really worry bout when your out hiking....i stated before rattlesnakes and copperheads should be more of a concern. very poisonous and not easy to see until youre right on top of them. only grace with rattlesnakes is theyll shout a holler if you get too close....not like those bitch copperheads that blend in with everything and coil up tight when youre about to step on em.

 

I have to agree with most people above. For the most part black bears are not a problem and are often skiddish around people. There really are no hard a fast rules here as every encounter is different.

However, if you do HAPPEN to come across one there are some things to keep in mind.

1) How you react is important. Don’t run. Respect the fact that you are in the bears home and slowly and quietly back away. If you run then you change the dynamic and turn from a potential threat (from the bears point of view) to prey. Running may trigger the bears prey response and my well cause him/her to chase you down. (No, you can not out run a bear)

2) make noise- Black Bears want to avoid you as much as you want to avoid them (in general). It will help avoid a chance/surprise encounter. BTW- this is good for snakes too. I do not know about the bell idea though, I hear that bears are actually attracted to “interesting” sounds.

3) Carry pepper spray (like someone above said)- If a bear does charge at you DO NOT RUN! Use the pepper spray. This is not likely to happen especially with black bears but on the very rare occasion that it does happen it is important that you stand your ground.

4) I have heard some people say that if you stumble across a bear and the bear does not notice you, then make sure the bear knows you are there without startling it . I am not sure about that though. If it were me and the bear did not notice me, I would just quietly back away.

Dealing with bear encounters is really a big subject because there are just too many variables you have to take into consideration.

 

...and whatever you do, dont try to walk up and hug them...

Sowwy... just a little early morning stupidity .... ... (yah, shut the hell up and go sleep, Jamie...)

 

I've encountered black bears in eastern Tenn. and had no issue, they totally ignored me. The worst times to encounter bears are spring and fall they are at their most aggressiveness at spring and fall, summer they are at their most chill. In the winter if they come out on a nice day in a nice spell during the winter, they usually wont have the energy to attack something like a human.

Bears love marijuana, they will seek it out of your tent in Yellowstone Nat Park, happens to campers and backpackers every summer in Yellowstone, bears will raid tents and cars for a bag of weed and take nothing else.

Saw grizzzlies in Glacier National Park in July that were just minding their own business. Bears mostly eat fish and berries they usually only attack when provoked or if they feel threatened. You're more likely to get struck by lightning while on the trail than to get attacked by a bear.

Moutain Lions are much more of a threat to life on a trail than bears, I'm not sure if there's any Mountain Lions in the east, but they will stalk humans usually in the winter, or where they normal food supply may have been distrubed by humans moving in.

Not being alone helps, a bear that might would attack is more likely to retreat if there's 2 or more adult humans. Mostly if they hear you coming, they'll shy away. Most bears are encountered near water, rivers with fish.