[Cdt-l] The Grizz

[Moynihan]

I never thought about yelling out Cold Beer! Thats awesome and hey, it just
might get you some trail magic!


On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 4:54 AM, thomas hogeboom <thogeboom at fairpoint.net>wrote:

> My hiking partner sustained a leg injury halfway through Glacier Nat.
> Park and had to get off the trail, leaving me to hike alone through the
> southern half of the park and the Bob Marshall/Scapegoat wilderness.
>
> I started off carried bear bells, but those drove me nuts so I sent them
> home and relied on yelling Hey, bear! or Cold beer! every time I got into
> heavy brush or came around a corner.  At one point the trail went over a
> little rise, so I yelled hey bear and then heard a commotion ahead.  When
> I gingerly moved ahead and peered over the rise, there was a bear partway
> up a tree, with paws draped over a branch. It chuffed and snapped its
> jaws and I could clearly hear the clacking of teeth (at a distance of
> perhaps 25 yards). It had a hump behind the head, so I took it to be
> grizzly.
>
> I moved on and hiked the next two miles at record pace.
>
> Nighttime was the worst, I worried constantly about a bear coming into my
> camp at night, and I slept with the spray can at the ready. An attack
> never came, but if it did, I figured a blast of spray would just send the
> bear into a rage and might even make things worse. But it was all I had,
> so I hung my hat on it.
>
> Much later, I got picked up hitchhiking by a former Yellowstone park
> ranger who gave me his 2 cents worth on bear spray. He told me he was
> leading a group in the park when a large griz mounted a direct charge. He
> aimed his (large size) canister and sent out a steady spray as the bear
> came up, and it veered off at the last second. He was not enthusiastic
> about the smaller backpacker-sized canisters, as the charge is only good
> for about 7 seconds.
>
> I figure that there are times when I carried a lot of extra water (like
> in the Great Divide Basin) and put up with the extra weight. Why not bite
> the bullet in GNP and YNP and carry the larger canister?  But I have to
> admit, I never did carry the big canister and never had to use the little
> one.  It's an individual decision for sure.
>
> The Hog
>
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-- 
*Three trails, one woman. To find about more about Mary and her recent
completion of the Triple Crown visit* http://www.marriedtothetrail.com/
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