Guest wild eyed willy Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 I'm right there with you about the ticks. I've never had lyme fever but I hate anything blood sucking. As for having the presence of mind to shoot a bear if it was stalking, you bet I would!!! I might shoot my foot off in the process but the bear would get a few bullets too after having Lyme 2 times, I can tell you it is really bad. In a few days it will make you so sick you won't be able to get out of bed. It is the sickest I have ever been...You don't want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 (edited) I have just a few things to add. If you're a woman hiker, don't hike in a bear or cougar area while in your menstruation cycle. Even if you practice great hygiene and you're a clean person you're taking a risk. Bears have the most amazing noses. Their ability to smell supersedes almost all other species. If your backpacking in bear country you really have to go overboard with bear caution. I put all my hiking clients through a pretty radical routine while setting camp. A tooth brush, candy wrapper, crumbs, or anything sweet can trigger an un-wanted visitor. Little things that you'd think wouldn't matter do matter. All food stuffs, wrappers, toothpaste and sweet smelling stuff should be hung 200 to 300 yard away from your tent site. Most people take precautions but very few take the time involved to do it right. Making noise while you hike is always a good idea. Encountering a sow with cubs is far and away the most dangerous event. If you find yourself between mom and kids try to back out slowly and put some distance between yourself and cubs. This has happened to me twice in the last 25 years. During a single bear encounter, keep direct eye contact, place your arms above your head to make yourself look as large as possible and scream at the top of your lungs. 98% of the time this will work. It's the 2% of time that's scary. You can never accurately predict what a wild animal will do. Here in the PNW we always have to be on the look out for cougars as well. To date, I've encountered seven, three from a vehicle and four in the timber. Same rule apply's. Never run from a cat. They will chase you, and you will not outrun them. If you come across one make yourself look as large as possible and scream at them. When hiking in a rocky area with steep side cliffs ALWAYS protect your neck. Archers will take their bows and place them behind their heads. A thick jacket also works well wrapped around the back side of your neck. Don't play dead with a cat, ever. If one takes you to the ground you need to turn into Rocky Balboa. Fight fight fight. A lot of people have avoided death by fighting with a cat. Sometimes a pop to the nose will send them running. What about scratching the eyes out if the nose strike does not work? My soldier son is always mountain climbing with friends and spending time hiking and camping. I'm *Printing* this entire topic and taking it with me when we go to our son's ceremony for his Captain graduation pining.. Thank you all for this ***Need To Know***info for all hiking people. BTW, This is the son in my avatar just before he graduated from West Point that I'm getting this info for. Edited June 26, 2011 by SweetSusiq Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBeaton Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 What is a ghost pepper? wild eyed willy, A ghost pepper is one of...if not the...hottest peppers in the world ! Pat... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CaptainMorgan Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Scratching a bears eyes out? Throwing a pepper? You might as well use profanity. I read an independent study about the effectiveness of bear sprays and in most cases it detered an attack. http://www.udap.com/Bearspecifications.htm If it costs $60 to save my life, I will be laughing all the way to the bank instead of the mortuary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBeaton Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Scratching a bears eyes out? Throwing a pepper? You might as well use profanity. I read an independent study about the effectiveness of bear sprays and in most cases it detered an attack. http://www.udap.com/Bearspecifications.htm If it costs $60 to save my life, I will be laughing all the way to the bank instead of the mortuary. CaptainMorgan, If you're laughin' on the way to mortuary...you're a little early. An profanity at the top of ones lungs couldn't hurt. Cheers ! Pat... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CaptainMorgan Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 I think the root word here today is "hurt" Even bear spray isnt a solid guarantee, and like someone told me, if I see a bear heading towards me at full speed, be sure and spray myself in the eys, that way I will less notice the pain of being eaten alive. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Melodramatix Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 after having Lyme 2 times, I can tell you it is really bad. In a few days it will make you so sick you won't be able to get out of bed. It is the sickest I have ever been...You don't want it. Yup, it is a horrible sickness. The incubation time varies and for me it took nearly a month to get sick. 3-4 weeks after I was bitten I suddenly got migraine. A migraine so severe I wanted to chop my head off. And it lasted 24/7 until I got medecin. After the migraine came it all went down hill. It took nearly 3 months to recover from that little tick's bite. And Lyme Fever is not even the worst horror these little bastards carry around. TBE is worse and can ultimately kill humans (fairly high death rates as well) and if I have to choose between months of pain before death of minutes of pain before death.......well, I'll go with a bear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagniAesir Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 good info here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norseman Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I was a bit confused about black bears and brown bears but after reading posts neither is something I want to mess with. Of course I had to look up the difference ursus americanus and ursus arctos. When hiking I've been taking pepper spray but may also take an airhorn. At least I can send out morse code if injured. Yes, we in our area have brown or cinnamon colored black bears. What some people call brown bears we call griz. Although "coastal" brown bears are much larger than grizzly and most record books such as Boone and Crockett recognize the distinction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17x7 Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 If you didn't see the bear how did you know it was there and hunting you, can you give more details of this encounter? My family was camping. While dinner was cooking on the fire, we took a walk down the road to a logging landing that looked out over a bit of a cliff and toward the setting sun. We sat there, watching the sunset and threw rocks off the edge. When it was time to go back to camp, we found good sized bear tracks in the dust just a few feet behind us. It had paced back and forth in the middle of the landing right behind where we were sitting faced the other way. You could even see the drops in the dust where the bear had drooled while it paced back and forth. The tracks showed it had come out of the woods a couple hundred yards up the road, crossing where we had walked down from camp. Where the bear crossed our tracks, it turned and followed our tracks down to the landing where it had paced behind us. It then left and went back into the trees across the road from us. We never knew it was there. Had it wanted we would have been dinner. Apparently, since there were 4 of us we must have looked like too much work so it left to try an easier meal. 17x7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wild eyed willy Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 My family was camping. While dinner was cooking on the fire, we took a walk down the road to a logging landing that looked out over a bit of a cliff and toward the setting sun. We sat there, watching the sunset and threw rocks off the edge. When it was time to go back to camp, we found good sized bear tracks in the dust just a few feet behind us. It had paced back and forth in the middle of the landing right behind where we were sitting faced the other way. You could even see the drops in the dust where the bear had drooled while it paced back and forth. The tracks showed it had come out of the woods a couple hundred yards up the road, crossing where we had walked down from camp. Where the bear crossed our tracks, it turned and followed our tracks down to the landing where it had paced behind us. It then left and went back into the trees across the road from us. We never knew it was there. Had it wanted we would have been dinner. Apparently, since there were 4 of us we must have looked like too much work so it left to try an easier meal. 17x7 Thats amazing, what an awsome tale.. thank you for shareing it.I just can't help thinking how this could have potentionally turned out... OMG.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Even bear spray isnt a solid guarantee, and like someone told me, if I see a bear heading towards me at full speed, be sure and spray myself in the eys, that way I will less notice the pain of being eaten alive. This thread is the perfect excuse to post this oddly appropriate long lost 70's gem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CaptainMorgan Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 That's better than 90% of todays music videos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CaptainMorgan Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 (edited) Meh changed my mind on the original post. Enjoy some bear spray propaganda instead. . Edited July 1, 2011 by CaptainMorgan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagniAesir Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Fatal bear attack this week here in BC http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/02/bc-lillooet-bear-death.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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