Bear Pepper Spray Repellent?

rw wrote:

Another thing to be careful about is securing your raft when you beach
it. That may seem obvious, and the raft might seem securely beached, but
if the wind comes up or the water rises overnight you could lose it.
Last year one of Steve's parties called in on the sat phone that they'd
lost both of their rafts. Steve's response was, "You mean that you lost
both of MY rafts."

I think I know those guys. LOL! It rained pretty much the whole trip.
The river rose overnight, and sure enough, BOTH rafts were gone. They
did find both rafts quite a bit downstream. Some had left their rods
rigged in the raft. They were one big, tangled mess.

In the meantime they were stranded in the wilderness. I don't know how
it played out. I'm going to ask Steve in August.

They finished the float, and had some great stories to tell. BTW, I know
for a fact at least one shotgun, and one 44 mag was along on the float.
It's a good possibility more guns were along.

FWIW, I had a bear encounter worth mentioning. We were lined up on
gravel bar fishing for silvers. A bear comes out of the brush behind us,
and the only one that saw it was my buddy next to me. He said nothing,
and continued fishing. A few minutes later I hear somebody say, "bear".
I turn complete around and see it about 150 yards off to my left. It's
just standing there looking around. We all start the "hey bear" chatter.
It looks right at me and starts coming directly towards me(I'm the last
guy in the lineup). I get louder, as do the guides, but the bear keeps
coming at a very casual pace. I look over at the guides, and fully
expect them to get between me and the bear............yeah right! The
guides are now nervous, and they are asking each other if they have the
shotgun. Neither took it with them that morning. If I wasn't nervous
before that tid bit of info, I AM NOW! Anyway, the bear keeps coming,
and the commotion gets louder, and the guides are doing their best to
shoo the bear away. It finally veers off to it's left, and disappears
into the bush....but not after it grabbed a salmon carcass and carried
it into the bush. You could hear the bones cracking as it ate the fish.
I could only think how loud my bones would've been.

Was I in any danger. I thought so. The bear was about 75 yards before it
veered off. The guides were shook up, and one said, "I didn't like that
bear. It was acting squirrely". I got the distinct impression that if
they had a gun, they would've used it. Maybe not to kill the bear, but
to chase it off. Not all the guides carried a gun. I think a little over
1/2 did, and the ones that did, were the guides who were there for the
whole season. We stayed at a riverside camp(tents, electricity, hot
showers ect...). No lodge for this cheapskate.

b

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:12:29 GMT, briansfly
wrote:

It finally veers off to it's left, and disappears
into the bush....but not after it grabbed a salmon carcass and carried
it into the bush. You could hear the bones cracking as it ate the fish.
I could only think how loud my bones would've been.

What time of the year were you there, Brian? During the spawn, the
bears generally eat only the brains and skin - high protein areas -
and leave the flesh alone. It isn't until later in the season, late
September, early November, that they start eating the entire fish.

Still, 75 yards is quite a distance. I'll post some more pix of a
bear that swam across the river because we were catching lots of
silvers. He walked towards us while we backed away,shouting and
waving our arms. I made sure the pilot of the aircraft was between me
and the bear. The guide was up-river with a man and woman from
England. Mr. Bruin continued to advance, only to completely ignore us
about 30 feet distance when he changed course and went up a trail.

The same bear approached a small sow with two or three cubs. She
gathered the cubs and stood in front of them, but the big male ignored
her and started his swim across the Big River (upstream about a 1/4
mile from Cooks Inlet.) Salmon don't offer as much fight as a sow
with cubs. d;o)

Dave

wrote:

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:12:29 GMT, briansfly
wrote:


It finally veers off to it's left, and disappears
into the bush....but not after it grabbed a salmon carcass and carried
it into the bush. You could hear the bones cracking as it ate the fish.
I could only think how loud my bones would've been.


What time of the year were you there, Brian? During the spawn, the
bears generally eat only the brains and skin - high protein areas -
and leave the flesh alone. It isn't until later in the season, late
September, early November, that they start eating the entire fish.

Hi Dave. We were there mid to late Sept. for the Silver run.

Still, 75 yards is quite a distance. I'll post some more pix of a
bear that swam across the river because we were catching lots of
silvers. He walked towards us while we backed away,shouting and
waving our arms. I made sure the pilot of the aircraft was between me
and the bear. The guide was up-river with a man and woman from
England. Mr. Bruin continued to advance, only to completely ignore us
about 30 feet distance when he changed course and went up a trail.

30' is way past my comfort zone, but at least you had someone in between
you and those teeth. :-)

brians

The same bear approached a small sow with two or three cubs. She
gathered the cubs and stood in front of them, but the big male ignored
her and started his swim across the Big River (upstream about a 1/4
mile from Cooks Inlet.) Salmon don't offer as much fight as a sow
with cubs. d;o)

Dave

briansfly wrote:
rw wrote:


Another thing to be careful about is securing your raft when you beach
it. That may seem obvious, and the raft might seem securely beached,
but if the wind comes up or the water rises overnight you could lose
it. Last year one of Steve's parties called in on the sat phone that
they'd lost both of their rafts. Steve's response was, "You mean that
you lost both of MY rafts."


I think I know those guys. LOL! It rained pretty much the whole trip.

That was the same as our weather. Must have been the same guys. Small world.

The water came up so much one evening that Chas and Andy had to move
their tent in the middle of the night.

We almost lost one raft during the day, while fishing. We beached when
it was calm, and while everyone was off fishing the wind came up and
blew the raft into the current. That was a few minutes of panic.

The way the Kanektok and the Kwethluk work, and the way all of Papa
Bear's floats probably work, is that you fly into the headwaters by
landing a float plane on a lake, one flight per raft more-or-less.
Suitable lakes are few and far between. If you get stranded somewhere
you have two options: someone can fly in somewhere upstream and pick you
up in a raft; or, you ride a helicopter. Either one is going to be
expensive, in addition to paying Steve for his lost rafts (and enduring
his wrath and ridicule).

The river rose overnight, and sure enough, BOTH rafts were gone.

I'm trying to imagine the mental state of the first guy who went to
check on the rafts that morning. It must have been something like when I
came home one night to find my stereo gone. It just didn't make sense. I
was dumbfounded, until the awful truth slowly dawned.

They
did find both rafts quite a bit downstream. Some had left their rods
rigged in the raft. They were one big, tangled mess.

If that was the worst they suffered, the angels were on their side. I'll
bet it makes a great story.

FWIW, I had a bear encounter worth mentioning.

snip

Was I in any danger. I thought so.

What are you, Brian? Some kind of wussy gay faux cowboy putz? Don't you
know those brown bears are just big cuddle bunnies? They're so
interested in eating fish that they couldn't couldn't care less about
your skinny liberal ass. :-)

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 23:39:30 GMT, rw
wrote:

What are you, Brian? Some kind of wussy gay faux cowboy putz?

Nah, only one allowed per newsgroup.

He did say 75 yards, I believe. That's quite a distance. Could it
have been his first encounter with an Alaskan brown? I was taken
aback with my first sighting of one less than 100 feet from us in the
water while we floated towards him. He moved.

Question: How many bear did you see on your float last year? Not
bear *sign*, but actual animals. And, what did they do when they
saw/smelled/heard you?

wrote:

Question: How many bear did you see on your float last year? Not
bear *sign*, but actual animals. And, what did they do when they
saw/smelled/heard you?

We saw several hundred bears per river mile -- had to slalom the rafts
around them. That was tricky. They told us the sweepers were going to be
treacherous, but nothing like that.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

wrote:
On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 23:39:30 GMT, rw
wrote:


What are you, Brian? Some kind of wussy gay faux cowboy putz?


Nah, only one allowed per newsgroup.

He did say 75 yards, I believe. That's quite a distance. Could it
have been his first encounter with an Alaskan brown? I was taken
aback with my first sighting of one less than 100 feet from us in the
water while we floated towards him. He moved.

I'll add, I was concerned when the bear didn't run off after the initial
"hey bear" routine. It didn't appear the bear was going to change
course(walking directly towards me)after repeated, LOUD attempts to
discourage it. What most concerned me was the way the guides reacted.
They were visibly concerned, and I do believe they would've fired a
warning shot(later, I overheard them talking about firing a gun)had they
brought the shotgun. The chatter about, "did you bring a gun...no do you
have one", changed my sense of well being a LOT. :-) The bear didn't
move off right away. It hung around and showed itself again. The guides
kept a keen eye till they felt it had moved on. After talking with the
guides, the overall feeling I got was this was a young, rogue bear, and
there was reason to be concerned.

brians