Bears are often the scariest wild animal that you will ever come across while hiking. I often see one in the trail or in the streets whenever I go on an outdoor trip. Bears can kill you if they wanted to. They can run faster than you and are very stronger than you. If you have ever seen Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie called, The Revenant, a bear attack can definitely hurt you very bad. They can injure you and overpower you rather easily. So it is very important to know what to do when it comes to hiking or backpacking in a bear country or bear state.
How To Avoid Bears Whenever You Are Hiking
Here are a couple of things that I do in order to avoid making contact with bears whenever I am hiking. You want to avoid bears as much as possible. You may look at them and see fur, they may look cuddly and lovable but in reality, they can maul your face pretty badly in a second. So it is best to avoid them rather than have a memorable encounter with them. An encounter with a bear may look good on Instagram, or we may end up reading your mishap in the newspapers in the next day.
Hike In A Group Of Four Or More – One of the best ways to avoid bears is to hike with a lot of people. Bears are often scared of a group of people compared to a single person. Hiking with more people will also mean that you will make more noise which will alert the bear that a bunch of people are getting near it. A group of people can be terrifying to a wild animal. They will often avoid a group of people if they can. If you are hiking alone, chances are that the bear is not going to be scared of you. A bear can hurt you rather easily so it may even approach you if they become curious. It is always better to hike with more people.
Plan B – Plan B is easy to explain. If the bear is not scared of your group then it may attack your group. If you are going to get attacked by a bear, all you have to do is run faster than your companions hahahahha. I am just kidding. This reminded me of a friend of mine, and he would leave people behind to save himself. So he is the reason that I came up with Plan B.
Make Some Noise – A lot of black bears and bears in general will not attack you. They would rather avoid human beings. If you startle a bear, the bear may attack especially if it is a mother bear. So it is best to make some noise so that you don’t startle a bear. You can clap your hands and start singing a song. It is not recommended that you yell, use a whistle, or scream because these sounds can make you seem like a prey that is hurt. The bear may end up attacking you more.
Carry A Bear Bell – a lot of websites say that bear bells are not that noisy enough. However, a friend of mine wears a bear bell, I could hear him even though I could not see him anymore. To me, bear bells work. They make enough noise that they can let the bear know that a human is approaching. Bear bells are lightweight also so it is not a big of a deal to carry one on your backpack.
Carry A Bear Spray – Bear spray works very well. I have seen them in action. They are like pepper sprays for humans but meant for bears. The bear spray can sting the eyes and create some sort of discomfort in their breathing or respiratory system. The stinging sensation is good enough to make the bear think twice before attacking you. They may even retreat if they are attacking you already. Bear spray is the best thing I can recommend that you get if you are in a place that has a lot of bears. However, bear sprays are pretty heavy. They can weigh around 1 to 2 pounds. This is very heavy if you are hiking a lot of miles or the route that you are taking has a big elevation gain. This is something you have to consider since carrying a bear spray can make you become more fatigue or tired.
Avoid Hiking At Dawn Or Dusk – Bears are often very active at first light and when the sun is slowly sinking. A lot of animals are like this. They prefer the morning light and sun set when they are looking for food. I notice this a lot whenever I go fishing. I catch more fish at dawn and at sunset than any other time. It is the same for bears and other wild animals. They are very active during these times. You can avoid bears better if you don’t hike very early in the morning and you go back to the parking lot before dusk. So planning your time and hike is very important.
Camping And Deterring Bears From Going To Your Campsite
Use bear proof food storage containers – The use of food storage containers for bears are often required by some states if you are planning on backpacking in their national parks. The container that I use is this backpacking food container. It is pretty expensive though but works very well. These containers are great because they often trap in odor and make it very difficult for bears to open them. Having these containers with you will mean that wild animals will not be able to eat the foods that you brought to your backpacking trip. The only problem with these types of containers is that they are often very big. They take a lot of backpack space and these containers can weigh around 2+ pounds as well. So if you are backpacking for lots of miles for multiple days, these things will often take a lot of your energy.
Hanging Food Container – instead of buying bags that have ropes around them, you can just get a paracord and tie this to your backpack. You can then flung your backpack up on a branch to prevent bears from getting the food. This is a much cheaper and often a better way than buying a bag with rope. Those bags are often very flimsy as well. A paracord tied to your backpack will be more durable and more reliable. You can save money as well.
Never leave food and food scraps lying around – Do not leave any type of food behind or at your campsite. I remember, I was camping at this lean-to and this guy ate a banana and threw the skin at the bushes. You shouldn’t do that. Any type of food can attract wild animals. Make sure that you clean your stove rather well also. Use a scraping tool and scrape food scraps out of your stove and put the scraps into a trash bag. Store the stove properly as well.
Minimize the scent of food – A way to minimize the scent of food is to get odor trapping trash bags. Trash bags that do not leak odor at all. This is the trash bag that I often use and bring whenever I go backpacking. If the bear cannot smell the food that is coming from your campsite, there is a good possibility that the bear will not visit you while you are sleeping. You can use this to store your stove and other cookware as well so that the bear will not smell the food that is stuck on them. Also, a good habit is to cook food away from your intended campsite so that you will not attract any bear while you are sleeping.
What To Do If You Encounter A Black Bear
Most of the bears that I have encountered are black bears. They are actually very docile and I scare them away easily. They are most of the time scared of me rather than me scared of them. Death from bears hardly ever happen. I think the statistic is around 2 every year. You are more likely to die from crashing into a deer with your car than getting killed by a black bear. Having said that, here are still some precautions in case you find yourself in an encounter with a black bear.
- If the bear has not seen or detected you then back away slowly. Do not attempt to bypass the bear and hope that it will not attack you. I know it may be tempting because you took your car 5 hours on a road trip to get to this backpacking trail, and you spent one of your day offs with it. You may be tempted to keep going. Do not do it. Retreat. Back away slowly. Your life is much more important than a hike.
- If a bear sees you, and approaches you, you need to make some noise. Raise your arms with your jacket. Try to look big. Try to scare it away.
- Do not run away. This may trigger the predatory instincts of the bear. The bear may chase you because of it. Bears can run a lot faster than you can. Running will just make you more of a target. Slowly back away.
- Keep your children and dog very close. Your child may run away which will trigger the bear to chase. Your dog may bark and attack the bear. This may agitate the bear and it may try kill your dog.
- If the bear attacks you and you have no bear spray, then fight back. Use your arms to hit its nose, use your fingers to gouge its eyes, use your hiking sticks to hit the bear, do anything you can think of to survive the fight.
References:
- https://www.greenmountainclub.org/be-bear-aware/
- https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/backpacking-in-bear-country.html
- https://www.orvis.com/what-to-do-in-a-bear-encounter-with-your-dog
- http://www.bearsmart.com/about-bears/behaviour/
- https://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/bears-a-humans/119-how-dangerous-are-black-bears.html