[pct-l] Bears vs Habituated Bears

[Dan Jacobs]

Fred wrote:

> >
> Do people carry "bear spray" (or whatever it is called).
>

An opinion, nothing more.

As someone that is very comfortable and familiar with firearms, I
always recommend that anyone wanting to carry with them some form of
protection from bears bring with them a can of pepper based bear spray
instead of a firearm. It is cheaper, easier to use (especially when your
adrenal glands are working extra double overtime), probably much lighter
than any "useful against bears" firearm, and will be much more effective
for almost everyone than a firearm will be, and shouldn't cause any undue
alarm in folks you share the trail with. While black bears are normally
very wary of humans, especially outside of national parks and heavily used
areas that bears have learned to prowl for easy calories, there are clear
reasons why some folks would want to feel like they are prepared for the
rare encounter with a bear that doesn't find a human or two anything to be
very concerned about. There are stories out there about bears in areas of
the PCT that are not aggressive against people, but are not easily
convinced that they should be easy to scare away. If you want to have
something to deal with this kind of problem, bear spray is a very good
solution. Use it properly to create a cloud of "hostile environment"
between you and the bear, not to make a direct hit on the animal, and you
will have a cool story with very minimal chances of scars to go with the
story (sorry, hard core mountain men and women. Some folks really don't dig
scars! ;-)

So, if anyone really wants to carry personal protection to use against a
bear, bear spray is, in my opinion, a much better option than a firearm in
almost every case. Even if one was accidentally sprayed with the stuff, the
chances of great harm are significantly lower than a firearm. It can also
be used against two legged problems that you might feel threatened by,
which might help some folks to enjoy their hike even more. Be aware that
using bear spray against a human is not something that has been strictly
legislated against, but if a person was not very well justified to use it
against a two legged problem, they may face assault charges. I am not an
attorney or an expert in legal matters, you should consult your own
attorney for legal advice, ad nausea, etc., forthwith and what-not and so
forth and so on.

Dan Jacobs
Washougal
-- 
"Loud motorcycle stereos save lives"
Motorcycle to hike, hike to motorcycle