[pct-l] Bears: Risk of becoming a fatality? Statistics of interest here

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

When I was hiking somewhere in Washington a huge rock went crashing  
down the hill between me and the guy I was hiking with. It scared us  
to death. It was at least 2 tons in size. It would have killed us. It  
left a huge gouge in the hill all the way down wherever it bounced.

On Feb 9, 2011, at 6:47 AM, <gwschenk at socal.rr.com> wrote:

> ---- Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes  
> <diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:
>>> Bears: Risk of becoming a fatality? Statistics of interest here
>>
>> The whole scary bear and scary snake thing gets really old after a
>> while. People worry about the wrong thing. Whenever people ask me
>> "what did you use for safety" they always mean did I carry anything
>> to protect me from bears or snakes. Or else they ask me if I was
>> scared and they almost always mean did any bears or snakes frighten
>> me. What they should ask was how scary was the water? Did you have
>> any close calls with water. Water is by far the most dangerous and
>> frightening thing on the trail. Frozen or liquid.
>
> Yes, and rockfall. Spontaneous rockfall is my bugaboo. We were  
> camped at Vidette Meadows and were awakened in the middle of the  
> night by the sound of a block headed our way. I laid there trying  
> to remember where we had pitched the tent relative to the slope.  
> Many times we've seem spontaneous slides, glad we weren't in the  
> vicinity.
>
> Oh, and pine cones. Those big cones would kill you if they hit you  
> in the head. Pine cones scare me way more than bears.
>
> Gary