[pct-l] Black Bear

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

I'm sure all the scary bear stories are true and that certainly,  
bears can potentially hurt people. But I saw lots of bears on the PCT  
and not a single one of them tried to hurt me. All the bears I saw  
ran away from me in terror. Only one bear took my food and that bear  
was IN TOWN in the campground in Mammoth. All he got for his efforts  
was to put a few trophy scratches in my bear canister.

The trouble I have with scary bear stories is that the idiots out  
there hear them and say stupid stuff like "I'm going to bring a 44  
magnum with me if I go into the woods." I have a guy who says that to  
me every weekend when I go hiking with the Sierra Club. The stupid  
thing about this is that the thing you need to protect yourself from  
bears isn't a sexy gun, it's a boring bear canister. But after  
hearing so many scary bear stories, the only thing this guy is  
wanting to do is carry a gun.

So if there are any newbies on this list reading these stories, THE  
MOST YOU NEED to protect yourself from bears is A BEAR CANISTER.

Keep on walking...

Diane

On Oct 29, 2009, at 10:19 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> As far as black Bears being 'Safe'  I personaly  know of two  
> victims of
> Black Bear attack.
> The first is my friend's uncle who was killed by a BB while hunting  
> deer, he
> managed to get a shot off from his 30-30 but apparently missed as  
> the bear
> was never located.
> The second victim was a local school girl who was killed after she  
> exited a
> school bus with in sight of my house and only yards from her home.