Posted on 08/31/2020 5:28:55 AM PDT by marktwain
You’d be a very busy guy in my neighbourhood - a mountain valley in B.C.’s Kootenay region.
Black bears wander through our yard daily at this time of year. We don’t keep attractants around. Every few years, a rogue black acquires a taste for chickens - he will be trapped and relocated 50 miles away. Rarely, one is simply shot.
Some of our neighbours have to cope with grizzlies on an ongoing basis, but somehow we all manage to survive without suffering attacks.
Once we stopped for gas west of Denver and the big news was a mountain lion attacked an adult jogger, he survived but was in serious condition.
Lucky Mountain lion. How did the adult jogger fare?
;-)
I had thought he survived.
How did the adult jogger fare?
Not well.
I looked it up.
In 1991, a young bicycle racer disappeared while on a training run behind his high school in the Rocky Mountain foothills near Denver.
https://www.latimes.com/business/jobs/la-os-cougar2dec02-story.html
No busier then in my neighborhood. Like you I live with them daily.
I have game camera pictures of 8 different black bears with in a mile of my house and have them walk through the yard.
I very familiar with bears having hunted them in 4 states and Canada.
As far as attacks they don’t until they do. Most cause no problems they are respectful bears.
As seen it this case all it takes is the wrong one to ruin you day.
he sprayed the bear with pepper spray, and the bear got more angry.
“every gun must be locked up and unloaded, unless actually in use.”
That is nonsensical. It it is in use, it can’t be locked up and unloaded, can it? Is that the law?
The nearest road appears to be Saskatchewan Highway 955 and it is 60 miles to the west.
57°15'11.0" N / 107°28'50.1" W
How horrific for them all!
THAT one is going with Beau to Bear Camp, LOL! Thanks! :)
"...McKie Lake has nothing around it..."
You are absolutely right, especially with little kids about. In a rural place like that, you just ignore the stupid laws.
or starving, or diseased- had some starving bears around us a few years back, killed some folks- went many years without any attacks, then one summer food was real scarce- bears were starving- and some folks got killed- one woman had a bear follow her back to her car- nipping at her backpack *(probably had food in it)- She claims she had to swat the bear a few times- don’t know if it’s true- but she was with other hikers who backed up the story- she’s lucky the bear didn’t get more aggressive-
This bear was roaming from campsite to campsite looking for garbage.
Give us an idea of some of the odd people in the woods. I’m serious as I consider increasing my hiking later in life.
I’ll give a lighter story, a group of about 6 of us college men camped in a state park a million years ago. We met a middle aged Australian woman who was with a few young women and kept encouraging us all to go sunbathing in the nude. We did no such thing but in a side conference with the girls they told us they’d just met this woman the other day and really didn’t know her.
But I’m more concerned with bushwackers and crazies.
“Give us an idea of some of the odd people in the woods.”
The most prevalent and also some of the nicest, the gold miners, prospectors, panners. Also, the only time I had a gun pulled on me.
On a regular trail following a creek in Colorado, this guy had a couple of gasoline-powered pumps and a fair-sized sluice box between the trail and creek. Hours from the trailhead.
As we approached, I was thinking this is some cool stuff!
Until he turned and unholstered his sidearm and said get out; WE DID, QUICKLY, with full packs and climbing gear.
I do understand his position.
That said, others were more than happy to show us their operation.
4-wheelers way out, not 4-wheeling, and appeared to be striping some of the vehicles. We could hear the parting and shooting at night. Curious we headed in that direction the next day, after a quick look, we found another area to climb.
I have seen a couple of 4-wheel drive it like you stole it, ‘cause you did, events.
Some climbers like to party, some like to climb and party simultaneously.
Because typically there is a limited amount of level ground next to the crags for tents, we mingle. Typically all OK.
Once it was a fraternity, in the early evening that had a repelling contest. Yes, I have participated in a few such events. BUT NOT CHEMICALLY ENHANCED.
In near darkness, one participant did not brake at all the last 50 feet! I’m thinking tibia, fibula compound... and burnt hands.
As he started to move, two of his pals carried him off to his tent.
Late at night a commotion as someone was peeing on someone else’s tent.
We quickly left in the morning.
Hiking out from climbing, my wife and I with our kids, Colorado in the fall about a foot of snow on the ground.
A guy traveling in the opposite direction dressed in ‘street clothes’, no pack nothing, hours in from the campground parking? He ask how far it was to the lake? Hours and the sun is going down.
We had planned to camp on the trail but humped in the dark to the car.
Yes, I was carrying, but that did not make me feel good about anything.
Maybe not anything bad, a previous reply:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3862876/replies?c=1
I wouldn’t necessary tag the gentleman you encountered as a desperado. The fact is a good bunch of people who venture into the wild have more guts than common sense. Every so often, you hear about people who go missing and the associated search parties. But that’s for people who told others where they were headed. What about all those who just went without anyone else knowing?
Enjoy ‘The freedom of the Hills’.
Very interesting stories ty!
99.9% of the time they are not until one is
Agreed...like all wild animals you have to treat them with respect.
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