>>Probably should have taught them what to do when they encounter a mama grizzly and her cubs, Lesson 1.<<
I feel badly for the hurt kids but how could that NOT be lesson #1? When I was in the Boy Scouts and went on my first overnight hike in the San Gabriel Mountains over LOS ANGELES, CA, they taught us about bears — especially to give cubs a wide berth and let a scoutmaster know if we see cubs, as well as to string food on a high line to keep bears away and other strategies I don’t remember since it was so long ago.
Why didn’t these kids in wilderness Alaska given similar instruction as city kids from L.A.?
I might be jumping to conclusions but the article seems pretty clear...
I remember years ago when I took my six year-old son on his first camping trip. Just the two of us. I had just started the ‘ol Coleman stove when I heard him say “Look Daddy, bears!” It was a mamma black bear and her two cubs about 20 yards away. I scooped my son up and dove into my pickup truck, slammed the doors, rolled up the windows and I pulled out my .45, just in case, as she started to approch us. They soon left, but it was a lesson learned; be aware of your surroundings at all times when outdoors.
My son had been warned and lectured ad nauseum about bears by his Scoutmaster and by his parents before his first overnight campout with the Scouts in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The first night out, they were staying overnight at an established campground which provided a safe campfire area and little else. The boys were staying in tube tents. I think it was 2 boys per tent (feet to feet) with the Scoutmaster and his assistent in a separate pup tent. In the middle of the night, my son suddenly woke everybody by calling out “Bear, bear!”
The adults jumped up ready to fight, or flee, and found that my son had awakened from a bad drream and mistook a PICNIC TABLE for a hulking bear in the moonlight. They all had a good laugh at my very embarrassed kid.
That son (in fact both sons) have grown up to be quite the outdoorsmen — hunting, fishing, etc. thanks to their scouting experiences — and are passing those skills on to their sons. I don’t think either of them would seek out a bear on purpose.