Camping in the Bighorns first week of July!

[StarrySkiesAbove]

:d !!!

[StarrySkiesAbove]

Ok that was supposed to be the big grin smiley face.

[WyoNewk]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

And then there is the old story about "Know your Environment, know what kind of bears are in the area."

You should always wear bells on your shoe laces so bears know you are coming.

To identify what type of bears are in your area, you simply look at the feces when you find it. Black Bears will have berrys and grub worms in their feces, because they eat lots of grubs, and berrys off the trees. Grizzly's will have little bells and shoe laces in their feces.

You forgot to add, "and it smells like pepper spray."


Before moving to Wyoming I lived in Anchorage for a few years. I was a pilot, and during the summer I'd fly friends across Cook Inlet for silver salmon fishing a couple times each week. There were a couple black bears that liked to fish in our favorite hole. We ignored them and they avoided us.

Once I took a different friend with us that didn't get out into the wilderness much. He'd waded out in the river as far as he could go in his hip boots, then a blackie waded out behind him. Friend couldn't go out any further and the bear was between him and the shore. When he turned and saw the bear you'd have thought he saw a ghost. He called my name, "Dooooooooooooooooooonnnnnn...." And with that the bear saw him and scampered away.

But even blacks can and will kill. I was reading on the Alaska board awhile back about a big black that had knocked down a couple's cabin door and chased them to their rooftop. Eventually the husband was able to make it to the car and go for help, but when he and the help returned his wife was dead and partly eaten. That's VERY unusual, but they're wild, strong animals and should be respected.

[StarrySkiesAbove]

This makes for some pretty interesting reading:

List of fatal bear attacks in North America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia