Backpacking in Bear Country

being alert is a necessity
safeguard food and keep a clean camp
big bear country

This is the time of year I start reading and re-reading all the literature I can find about bear behavior and what to do while hiking and camping in grizzly country.

There is a heck of a lot of advice about how to act around bears, both in books and on the internet (search for 'bear attack' in www.deja.com, a google product that has archives containing 700 million usenet messages. Some of the better backpacking discussions are in rec.backcountry, or rec.outdoors. The online newspaper from Billings Montana - billingsgazette.com, has all the local news from the greater yellowstone region. Searching their archives for bears gives you all the Wyoming and Montanta bear news. )

Some of the advice about backpacking in bear country in the usenet groups is very good and some is not so good. A backpacker wrote in rec.outdoors.camping that:

'since most bear authorities state that groups of four or more people are rarely attacked by grizzly bears, all you have to do to be safe is bring three full size inflatable dolls with you.'

(read the original message thread here).

The best bear country advice I have found can be summarized as follows:

Be aware of wind direction. Wind in your face means you have a greater chance of surprising a bear, which is trouble. Make noise while in thick cover. Metallic noise may be the best since that is a very unnatural sound. Have your pepper spray ready to use within a second's notice, since in most bear attacks the victim first noticed the bear at about 14 feet away (often on a dead run). Bears do not like loud noises, so most bears will run at the sound of an air horn or personal alarm. The exception may be human-habituated bears (those used to finding food at campgrounds), and mother bears with cubs.

A loose dog is trouble in bear country. More than once loose dogs have harassed bears, and when they get scared as the bear turns on them they run to their human for protection, with the bear close behind. Dogs on leash can keep a hiker safer in bear country - by alerting you of nearby bears, and by making more noise, scent, and movement, causing the bear to notice you. It is believed that bears do not like being barked at by dogs, and will often leave when this occurs. (read about how Karelian bear dogs are being used to keep bears out of campground throughout the West by both the Forest Service and the National Park Service - at an article by smithsonian.org and at the wind river bear dog institute web page.) It may be wise though to muzzle your dogs at night, so they don't bark at a bear that is just investigating your camp area, which will likely leave when it doesn't find food. )

Being a little nervous about backpacking in bear country is a good thing - it will cause you to be more careful about keeping a clean camp, which includes not sleeping in the clothes you cook your dinner in, and hanging all food and smelly items up in a tree (including stove and camp fuel). I have had good luck using the counterbalance method of hanging food , in which you load one bag with food, pull it up as high as you can, then load a second bag and push it up with a branch, thereby bringing the first bag down somewhat. If you have done this right, both bags will end up at least ten feet of the ground, hanging free, without any ropes tied to trees that bears can bite into. I have found this technique works best if you have lightweight bags, weighing no more than ten pounds each, that you can hang from the end of a small pine or spruce branch. I plan to bring four bags, and hang two sets so that I can keep each set as light as possible.

It also is a good idea to bring several plastic bags, and double or triple bag your food to hide the scent from nearby bears. Hiding human and food scent can be taken a step further by smoking your clothes, bear bags, pack, etc., over burning leaves or needles in a pot with your camp stove. ( a bit of aluminum foil in the pot or lining the bottom of the pot with stones will keep you from staining it with burned plant material).

Campsite selection is very important if you wish to avoid a 2am visitor wandering into your camp. Traditional good backcountry campsites - in meadows near the edges of the woods, near trails, on the banks of lakes, along a stream, should be avoided, as these are just the kinds of places bears like to visit. (especially grizzlies). It is best to set up camp in the middle of a huge meadow, or deep in the woods, where the chance of a grizzly happening by are much lower. I guarantee that if the choice is between a grizzly walking along a ridgetop right through my camp, and the grizzly walking along the ridgetop and missing my camp set on a secluded knob 400 yards from the ridgetop, I definitely would chose the later, even if it means my view is not as good.

I am of the belief that backpacking into grizzly bear and wolf habitat is the ultimate wilderness experience, and an extreme privilege. I plan to keep my dogs on leash, (so I return with as many as I go up with), maintain a light impact, and enjoy the increased attention one has in a true wilderness, which has been defined by Doug Peacock as a place where there are still things out there big enough to eat you.