Animal defense - Appalachian Trail

imported
#21

In all honesty, your experience with a bear on the trail really depends on how much experience that bear has had with a human.

In most states where hunting was allowed, bears will run from humans on sight. My first 2 sightings were such as this.

In the Shenandoahs, they equivilate people with food, and can be more agressive. I know of 2 or 3 people that were mock-charged in the Shenandoahs, cub or no cub.

In New Jersey, hunting bears just started up this past season, so bears do not think of humans as harmful to them. I ran across several bears here that did absolutely nothing when I yelled at them, jumped up and down, made all kinds of noise, and tried to be intimidating. I eventually had to just wait until they decided to amble on.

In New York, a huge bear started following behind me on the trail, as I was singing, clacking my poles, and making noise. The bear only stopped following me when another hiker, not far behind me, yelled at the bear. It then turned around and started walking toward him - he hid, the bear sat down in the middle of the trail, looking and sniffing around for both of us, then eventually walked off.

Some bear encounters will greatly differ from others, so this is why it is always best to be prepared with a secondary defense, such as a long hiking pole to tag his nose with (bears are very sensitive in the nose, and a whack on the nose WILL almost guarantee his retreat), or some kind of pepper spray, which also hits them in their sensitive zone.

Good luck!

bearbait

#22

I truly enjoy reading stories about how to defend against bears that are written by people who have only seen a few bears in their entire lifetimes and who have never even come close to having to defend against them. In other words people talking about something they no less than nothing about. As The Wookie said, and you all ignored, BE AFRAID OF PEOPLE, they are clearly the most dangerous animal. Also if you are always afraid of nothing go where there are the least number of people. But lets face it, it’s fun being afraid of lions and tigers and bears, so keep telling your stories.

Blue Jay

#23

than wild animals. Agreed. But so what? We live around people and we’ve factored the danger that they represent into our daily lives. We’re educated about them from an early age (“don’t talk to strangers”), and we take precautions against them as a matter of course.

When a person is planning to go out and spend 6 months in the wilderness he has to ask himself, what are the dangers that I’m going to face? Animal attacks are one of them, even if we all agree that the risk is slight. The risk is lowered even more if he learns all he can about the danger and takes the necessary precautions. The more good information he has and the more prepared he is, the more confidence he will have in his ability to deal with the danger.

That’s all anyone wants is to be able to walk out into the woods with confidence, so is it really necessary to deride their concerns about animal attacks? They do happen. It’s not imaginary. Putting the risk in perspective may be helpful, but being dismissive isn’t.

Ardsgaine

#24

Animal attacks (other than humans and their dogs) on the trail is close to imaginary. Tripping on rocks or roots is millions of times a more common injury. Drinking water downstream from some idiot washing is more common. Lightening strikes are by far more common and they almost never happen. Complications from an insect bite are by far a more resonable fear. About the only thing that has less odds of happening is getting picked up by a UFO or Sasquatch, and I’m not so sure about that.

Blue Jay

#25

Drop fear like the 50-megaton bowling ball it is, and you’ll not be attacked by anything. Common sense will get you in trouble, because the pro quo is fear, instilled by advertisers, parents, and teachers. If you want to learn precautions, then google a reputable research-driven site, like LNT.org that will report objective information about animals instead of listening to bear stories by the trail forum club. You could also find some good information from nps.gov. The people selling poles and bear spray inject fear and the suggestions above. Do yourself a favor and go to the professionals if you’re that concerned. I will tell this- being a gear consumer will not put fear in any bear or mt. lion. It only takes some of the fear out of you.

Ekaphoto’s advise to carry a gun is false and foolish. First of all, it’s illegal for many miles on the trail (like national parks). Secondly, that raises the risks of you or another hiker being killed dramatically. Thirdly, and most importantly, they’re way too heavy! I admit there are exceptions, like in North Alaskan kayaking expeditions, where grizzlies can be very aggressive, but this is an APPALACHIAN TRAIL discussion forum, and guns do not belong on the AT. Unless, that is, you like to have everyone laughing at you. :lol

Tha Wookie

#26

It’s very possible that people are giving advice on animal defense rather than human defense because THIS IS A TOPIC ON ANIMAL DEFENSE. Just because some of us are not talking about human defense does not mean that we are completely ignoring it.

The main reason I carried pepper spray with me was for that. I didn’t even think about it being a defense against animals until well into the trail. Yes, the chances are very small that you will actually have to defend yourself against a wild animal, and it’s good to know what others have done during animal encounters to ensure this doesn’t happen. Face it, there have been bear attacks, albeit very few, but if these people attacked had done something differently than what they did, then they could have managed a good encounter with a bear than a negative one.

bearbait

#27

The reason for carrying bear bells is to alert the bear to you. Why is this? So that you don’t walk around a rock or tree and end up face to face with a big griz at the range of about two feet. If the bear hears you, he may investigate, for sure, or he may walk away . 50/50 chance. if you walk up to him without making a sound and end up face to face with him, your dinner. If he starts investigating the noise and comes toward you, chances are you will hear him at some point walking on leaves or rolling rocks as he steps on them. Or even better and most likely, he will “woof” at the noise as his way of investigating (making a challenge). That is what most bears do when they hear something strange. When you hear that deep bear “woof” of blowing his breath out as a challenge, thats when you start backtracking. That is the entire purpose of bear bells. Not to scare the bears, but to get him to make noise or move so you can hear him and turn around before coming face to face. As for anyone who thinks little bitty bells or humans scare grizzlies, remember the old joke about where 2000 lb grizzly bears sleep…any phreaking where he wants to!!!

Big Dee

#28

all u guys have happy trails.i,ve seen a couple of bears in my trail adventures and both times it was a mother and her young.i,ll never forget the moments as long as i live.i stayed away and admired. they were not a problem.:girl :girl

sunraven