Just a couple of months ago we had a "once in a lifetime" experience in Glacier NP. In 40+ years of hiking in Grizzly country we never saw any bear while actually hiking. But this time, while on the high line trail, just minutes from the parking lot, 2 very large(to us anyway) grizzly appeared just down the trail a few feet off to the side 40-60 yards ahead of us. We and several with us backed up a bit and moved off the trail thinking they were going to use the trail. Fortunately, they paid no attention to us a ran away when a ranger on the other side yelled. Didn't even get my bear spray out. Would never get this close on purpose but it does happen. Carry bear spray.

Good advice. We had a near-bear experience in Yellowstone while sleeping in a tent (which you should never do).After that, I always have my spray on me in the woods.

In Sequoia Nat'l Park three of us were sitting around a campfire. My wife sensed something beside her, when she looked to her right there was a brown bear just a few feet away from her. All three of us got to our feet and move to put the fire between us and the bear. I yelled and clapped my hands and the bear took off running right towards the open door of our trailer. Luckily the bear turned and headed down the road.In Yosemite we were sleeping in a tent and we could hear a bear walk right by our tent over to the metal food box. It tried the lid on the box to see if it would open and then went on to the next campsite.

If you ever come across this again and there is a church close, climb a tree instead of going in the church. Moral of the story: Never run in a church with a bear behind. Have a great day

I was pulling into a OHV staging area at the East end of the famous Rubicon Trail one morning. There were a few rigs there, mostly trucks with empty trailers. But there was this one van. Next to the passenger door was a man in a heavy coat and hood trying to break into the van through the vent window. As I got closer, I could see it wasn't a man at all, but a bear! I drove over for a closer look and the bear took off and climbed a tree in the lot. I pulled over to the tree and the bear had climbed maybe 5 feet or so higher than my window. I rolled down my window and started taking pictures. The bear must have freaked out about this time because it starting pissing and crapping itself right there in the tree. Suddenly it dropped to the ground and ran. It ran in a straight line. Along that line was an enclosed trailer. One of those thin aluminum jobs that some folks will haul their OHV's in. The bear it the side of that trailer, maybe 25' long, and went right though it and out the other side! I couldn't believe my own eyes! This bear, running full tilt, didn't even slow down when he hit that trailer. BAM! Punched quite a hole in it. I later wrote a note and placed it on the truck's windshield so the guy would know what happened when he got back. I left another on the van where I first spotted the bear, so the guy would know how close his rig came to being pried open as well.

Many, many years ago as a young boyscout, our troop went on a back pack trip in Yosemite. First night we slept in a campground in the valley in sleeping bags on the ground. In the middle of the night, I woke up, peaked out of my sleeping bag and saw a bear sniffing the face of my dad sleeping about 10 feet from me. I froze and seconds later the bear just wandered off into the woods. Scared me to death! My dad couldn't believe it when I woke him and told the story. None of us got much sleep the rest of the night!

Bears | Good Sam Community

myredracer
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2017
If there's one thing we have in Canada, it's lots of bears - all 3 species of them, brown, black and polar. Grizzlies are a sub-species of brown bear. Black or brown bears generally aren't considered that dangerous but Grizzlies are more likely to attack if surprised and/or have cubs. One study (see Dr. Herrero) showed that black bears have killed only 63 people in the US and Canada over the last 109 years. Grizzlies have killed a comparable number of people in the same period but while there are close to 1 million black bears in NA there's only about 70,000 grizzlies and their range is much smaller (Alaska, northern Canada & northern BC). The chances of being attacked by a black bear is extremely small as long as you follow some basic do's and don'ts.

In Alaska they have bear watching tours by experienced professional guides and you get really close to them like in the photo below. Here's a video of one group with a mama bear and cubs walking calmly past all the humans gawking at them: Mama bear and her cute 'lil babies Freakin' amazing! There was a recent episode on CNN's The Wonder List with Bill Weir about an up close "meet and great" encounter with the Alaskan brown bears and an interesting short clip from the episode is here. The guide talks about how to treat them and what he would use if attacked.

25+ years ago we built a house on forested acreage on Vancouver Island and lived in a fifth wheel in the beginning. Got woken up one night from noise just outside the trailer. Went out to investigate and found a black bear about 20-30' away tearing into a garbage bag (one rule - never interrupt a bear that is eating). Oh sh_t!... I carefully backed away and phoned 911 and a conservation officer came out. He tried to shoot it with a rifle (which I thought was going to tranquilize it) but even with an almost point blank shot, he missed. Turned out he was trying to kill it. So unnecessary IMO. They set a bear trap or two the next day but didn't catch it.

Nature is a wonderful and awe-inspiring thing.
Ralph_Cramden
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2017
rockhillmanor wrote:
One better.

Buy a winter home in Florida only to find out there are 3 bears 'LIVING' on your property.

Fishing on my dock, I was chased by a huge 400+ huge black bear who came out of the woods and jumped into the water at me and chased me all the way to the house!:E BTW, Not an easy task for an aging RV'er.

Went out to my RV carport and met up with the other one blocking me against the wall.

And then this, late at night I heard a huge crash against the window in the bedroom. thank god I stayed up late watching TV in the living room. Found this paw print on the window above bed the next morning.

The next day I put the house up for sale after only 2 months of owning it. Me nor the dogs could not go outside or even out into the screened lanai.

I could not use my BBQ grill because they all would come out to see what I was cooking. We became prisoners in what was to be my dream Florida winter house.

Thank God the sellers disclosure does not have a line for "do bears live on your property?" and still wondering when uncle sam will catch up to me for the capital gains selling before 2 years.

Be thank full you'all are only meeting them on your weekend camping trips! :B

Probably should of called Florida's version of our PA DCNR? They would of trapped and relocated them most likely. Personally I would of deferred to Mr Weatherby.
rockhillmanor
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2017
JimBollman wrote:
When be bought our house
in NE TN, that has the Cherokee National Forest about 40' from our back door, we didn't think about bears
. The weekend after our offer was accepted we saw a news report of a state campgrounds being closed because of bear problems. Out of curiosity we looked on a map to see where it was. Turned out to be a little over 5 miles from the soon to be our house.
Looked further and discovered this part of the National Forest is a bear preserve. ...

LOL :B

X2!
Only for me it was AFTER I bought the house is when I starting reading all about them in hopes of living among them peacefully, not.

I too found out I was right on the boundary of where the most concentration of black bears are found in Florida.:(
JimBollman
Explorer
Dec 12, 2017
When be bought our house in NE TN, that has the Cherokee National Forest about 40' from our back door, we didn't think about bears. The weekend after our offer was accepted we saw a news report of a state campgrounds being closed because of bear problems. Out of curiosity we looked on a map to see where it was. Turned out to be a little over 5 miles from the soon to be our house. Looked further and discovered this part of the National Forest is a bear preserve.

The first week or so after we moved in I was on high alert every time I went outside. Was almost a year before I saw my first bear. I've seen in person one other bear and we pick them up on the trail cam wandering around sometimes, mostly in the middle of the night. We try to make a bit of noise when we go outside but I pretty much forget that there are bears around. Does make friends a bit nervous when they visit. We exchange bear sitings with neighbors but no one is very concerned. We do keep the garbage inside the garage.
01tundra
Explorer
Dec 12, 2017
This thread prompted me to do some research, this is some interesting reading. Most of the accounts are tragic, especially the ones involving children.....but some of them leave me scratching my head.

Back in the day it seems that it was common to have a bear caged up in your place of business or tied up to a post outside.....can't say I blame the bears for being slightly grumpy in that case.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America
Boon_Docker
Explorer III
Dec 11, 2017
Grit_dog
Navigator
Dec 11, 2017
rockhillmanor wrote:
One better.

Buy a winter home in Florida only to find out there are 3 bears 'LIVING' on your property.

Fishing on my dock, I was chased by a huge 400+ huge black bear who came out of the woods and jumped into the water at me and chased me all the way to the house!:E BTW, Not an easy task for an aging RV'er.

Went out to my RV carport and met up with the other one blocking me against the wall.

And then this, late at night I heard a huge crash against the window in the bedroom. thank god I stayed up late watching TV in the living room. Found this paw print on the window above bed the next morning.

The next day I put the house up for sale after only 2 months of owning it. Me nor the dogs could not go outside or even out into the screened lanai.

I could not use my BBQ grill because they all would come out to see what I was cooking. We became prisoners in what was to be my dream Florida winter house.

Thank God the sellers disclosure does not have a line for "do bears live on your property?" and still wondering when uncle sam will catch up to me for the capital gains selling before 2 years.

Be thank full you'all are only meeting them on your weekend camping trips! :B

Sounds like paradise....seriously. I’d have a rug or 3 if they were that much of a nuisance.
drsteve
Explorer
Dec 11, 2017
Black bears are all over the northern parts of Michigan, and the people who live and visit there deal with it. You keep your garbage can in the garage, and bring in your bird feeders at night. If you're boondocking, be mindful of food storage.

Black bear-human encounters are frequent, while attacks are very rare. They are a nuisance to farmers, beekeepers, and others who live around them. But you're more likely to be struck by lightning than killed or seriously harmed by a black bear.
Padlin
Explorer
Dec 11, 2017
packnrat wrote:
Padlin wrote:
Speak of the devil. Day before yesterday, after 40+ years of hiking and not seeing a bear while hiking, we came around a curve and had a Black bear coming towards us on the trail, followed by at least 1 smaller bear which we took to be her not so small cub, also 40-50 yards off.

Being our 1st encounter we did not do like we were supposed to, we turned tail and kind of fast walked away. It stayed on the trail at least as far as we could still see it behind us. We left. This was in thick woods in Northern CT where no one carries bear spray.

you should carry spray, and a gun. but be happy as here in ca we ( by a democrat law) can only have a spray contaner that fits in the palm of your hand. something like 1/4 oz.
need a far larger
if you try to "fight" a bear you will lose.

It's only a black bear, but it still gets the heart pounding.

I was in a game sanctuary in CT, the cops tend to frown on carrying a gun.
packnrat
Explorer
Dec 11, 2017
Padlin wrote:
Speak of the devil. Day before yesterday, after 40+ years of hiking and not seeing a bear while hiking, we came around a curve and had a Black bear coming towards us on the trail, followed by at least 1 smaller bear which we took to be her not so small cub, also 40-50 yards off.

Being our 1st encounter we did not do like we were supposed to, we turned tail and kind of fast walked away. It stayed on the trail at least as far as we could still see it behind us. We left. This was in thick woods in Northern CT where no one carries bear spray.

you should carry spray, and a gun. but be happy as here in ca we ( by a democrat law) can only have a spray contaner that fits in the palm of your hand. something like 1/4 oz.
need a far larger one for bears.
if you try to "fight" a bear you will lose.

It's only a black bear, but it still gets the heart pounding.

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