Excellent thread! Subscribed :sombrero:
A good friend of mine came face to face with Grizzly's at night in AK a few years back while camping in the back country. Apperantly the bears came out of hibernation a few weeks before the salmon were making their run--so they were very hungry and irritatable. Only one of them approached him and his friend, but I still remember our conversation the next day after they drove forever just to get cell phone service. His voice was almost completely gone from screaming and yelling and they said the huge Brown bear was so close that it was taking swings at them.
He told me they made a triangle over 100 yards apart so that their 4x4 and food (that was sealed off and locked in a cooler) was all seperate and away from them, but the bears still found them as they are not dumb. I'll have to see if I can get him to tell his story here because I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of details
I just remember the sound of his voice as he told me they was sure that they were going to die that day :Wow1:
Fast forward to last year while camping near Cooke City MT. a camper no more than 1/2 mile away was drug by a Grizzly from his tent by his head. Luckly there were campers near by that scared the bear away and he was flown to the hospital in Cody... I talked to one of the people that was there at the Miner's Saloon later that day--she was telling me about the initial scream and how he saw the bear on top of the dude--needless to say I didn't sleep well the next night :eatchicke
The danger is real. Bear attacks don't happen too often but when they do I can't imagine what I would even do in the situation. Black Bears typically mind their own business if you don't bother them, but the big Brown bears make me really uncomfortable when they are close :Wow1:
Although I don't anticipate anything like that and I would NEVER want to harm any animal I still feel a little more confortable knowing that I have the air horns, bear sized pepper spray and a tactical 870.