When visiting Yellowstone, pack bear spray

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 4/30/2019 | Vincent Del Giudice

[dfwgator]

And remember in the ocean these are all the things you must not do in order to avoid a Sea Bear:

•Playing the clarinet badly (They might hate the sound or it upsets them.)
•Waving a flashlight around (It's their natural prey.)
•Eating or holding cubed cheese or possibly cheese in general (Perhaps they hate it or the smell might set it off.)
•Stomping around (They take it as a challenge.)
•Wearing a hoop skirt (It might disgust them.)
•Wearing clown shoes (Ridiculous.)
•Wearing a sombrero in a goofy fashion (Offensive, perhaps.)

[Squantos]

I don’t go where I have to use bear spray..... hope yer well Bub !

[21twelve]

I was up in Alaska doing some work - carried bear spray and a shotgun. I was working my way up a small creek through some thick brush and smelled what to me smelled like a barn full of old, musty hay. I thought that was odd and didn’t seem right - and figured I had collected enough data and headed back.

Got back to where the bear watcher (with a rifle) was watching the other guys and told him.

“That was a bear. They killed an elk up the creek aways. The elk’s stomach smells like that with the grass they eat. But the elk is another thousand feet up the creek, so I doubt you smelled him. The bears will get pretty covered in it though when eating.”

[Viking2002]

PEEK-A-BOO! LOLOL I’m from the Maryland mountains. Black bears treat our garbage cans like buffet tables up there. *chuckle*

[Viking2002]

Sweet jumpin’ Jeebus. I bought an H&R Pardner home defense boom stick and put twice the cost into a tactical conversion, and that was on the market as-is?

[Equine1952]

After you find out how close then you sweat a little and smell it in your mind. Get the smell again you’ll think. It the big leagues up there and else where. Best gun fight, man or beast is the one you never have. IMO

[21twelve]

“Best gun fight, man or beast is the one you never have.”

Yeah - sometimes you can only see 5 feet in any direction through the brush. I guess one would hear them (or smell them!) before you could see them.

I followed the philosophy that I could get the bear spray out faster and not need an accurate shot and to use that first. They say that will often stop them if they are bluffing. If they aren’t bluffing - it will stop them long enough for you to get the shotgun pointed in the right direction. Another older guy carried a large pistol (.4XX Casul something) that was on a chest harness that would be just as fast as bear spray.

For the few times I worked in bear country I can’t justify that expense. But that might be the better option. But still - in thick brush you have to be quick on your aim.

At one site I worked at the Indians were concerned about the bears, but were REALLY worried about the packs of wild dogs.

“Sure - bears will attack you given a reason. The dogs will just do it for fun if they think they can get away with it.”

The bear watcher shot two dogs in a week.

[PIF]

What would a small short faced bear call a big grizzly?

Lunch.

Just be glad there are no more short faced bears.

[BBB333]

“The Gros Ventre campground is not very far from Jackson and has plenty of visitors, they are even seen in the campground.”

If you want a very nice campground in the same area look for ‘Slide Lake’ campground (actually Atherton Creek Campground). It’s on a very nice lake and just 20 miles from Jackson Hole.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/btnf/recarea/?recid=71623

Give it a try.

[minnesota_bound]

Looks like the bear fed on the squirrel.

[MeganC]

When visiting Yellowstone I pack a .45 just like I do every day. Haven’t been up there this year but we’ll probably get up there for some hiking sometime in June.

[jimwatx]

While tent camping in the Adirondacks last summer we saw a black bear 75 yards away munching on vegetation. He saw us but totally ignored us and went on his way. I foolishly never concerned myself with black bears thinking they were not inclined to attack people and would only go for your food. Anyway got home and watched youtube videos that document quite a few attacks from black bears including a number of people killed. One commenter even mentioned he was forced to shoot a large black bear that came after him when he was in the Adirondacks. Pepper spray is illegal in the nanny state of NY, so when my buddy asked me 2 weeks ago about going up there camping this summer, I told him I was just getting too old to be sleeping on the ground anymore lol.

[PLMerite]

["And John McClane."]

"Yippy Ki Yay, Yogi M-F!"

[ctdonath2]

Well, just getting on the waiting list is $250...