Bears

Bears are part of life in the North woods. These sparsely populated regions have large wildlife populations including both Grizzly and black bears. We were constantly warned by signs, Park rangers, and scary newspaper stories to be vigilant and follow proper protocol. There are several rules we had to adhere to to avoid what the authorities refer to as a ” negative human/bear encounter”.

#1. NEVER cook inside tent or other soft sided camper ( pop up trailer etc). Certain campgrounds even forbid tents, and pop ups. Cooking fish is asking for a bear visit, we never dared to.

#2. Don’t hike alone.

#3. Make noise while hiking, you don’t won’t to surprise a bear. Worst case scenario is meeting a mother with cubs and a bear with a fresh kill.

#4. Avoid dawn and dusk in the woods, it’s feeding time.

#5. Carry bear spray or a firearm. It says on the bear spray can you should be 15 feet from the bear to be effective, yikes .

I often fished along river banks with both bear and wolf tracks, it keep me looking over my shoulder. My shotgun was heavy and cumbersome slung across my shoulder while fishing but it did bring a sense of security.

We had several bear encounters, in all but one occasion, the bears either ran away or ignored us. One bear in British Columbia expressed interest in me and was walking towards me, I hopped in my truck and left.

British Columbia has adopted new facilities at some high risk Parks with a history of negative encounters. I found the concept of sleeping in a flimsy tent protected by an electric fence a little unnerving. I also found it paradoxical that we human use electric fence to both keep people in and out, animals too, it was an odd sight.

The included newspaper story took place in an Anchorage suburb while we were in a nearby town. A man went out for a quick run before dinner up a nearby ridge he’d hiked many times. It was his last jog. Last year a bear killed a 16 year old runner in a race in the Anchorage area. A 27 year old female employee at a commercial gold mine in Central Alaska was killed the same week.

We always played it safe and avoided trouble. I especially liked the Tundra where you could see great distances and knew you weren’t about to be eaten for dinner. After a while we became accustomed to the threat but it never went completely away. It’s part of the package in the in the Last Frontier .