avoiding bears while hiking alone

[Phil]

It's the thin bonds of humanity that stops me from attacking people on the trail playing music through a speaker.

DON'T DO IT!!!

I find groups of people talking loudly on the trail annoying, but, it's their wilderness as well and it is what it is.

But playing music from a speaker? It's as unacceptable as spitting in my face as you walk by.

You can buy headphones that leave your ears open (or use bone conduction headphones) if you must.

David

Here's one that should get your hackles up, David. It starts out with something sort of related, it morphs, then digresses badly. No shortage of opinions on the subject:

http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... =9&t=16877

[dgilman]

As long as I can't see or here your camp, it's okay with me.

I don't really care what *you* do in the wilderness - as long as it doesn't impact me.

One of the best trips I've ever had was six days in the Grand Canyon - the first three days my wife and I saw three people total going down the Hermit Trail and traversing on the Tonto. Of course then we hit Bright Angel and it was a madhouse...but those first three days of solitude were amazing.

I know getting that sort of space in Yosemite isn't practical - which it why I will continue to push the winter camping.

David

[robow8]

It's the thin bonds of humanity that stops me from attacking people on the trail playing music through a speaker.

DON'T DO IT!!!

I find groups of people talking loudly on the trail annoying, but, it's their wilderness as well and it is what it is.

But playing music from a speaker? It's as unacceptable as spitting in my face as you walk by.

You can buy headphones that leave your ears open (or use bone conduction headphones) if you must.

David

Here's one that should get your hackles up, David. It starts out with something sort of related, it morphs, then digresses badly. No shortage of opinions on the subject:

http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... =9&t=16877

I KNEW what thread that was before I even clicked on it!

[Justin-T]

Bear spray is illegal in Yosemite. It’s also not necessary, make some noise and they will run away.

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/weapons.htm

[Phil]

You don't even have to make deliberate noise most of the time beyond just the sound of walking or being there. The discussion of bear spray and Yosemite's black bears in the same thread really pisses me off. I even get upset when I see it being sold at REIs as though it's something to even consider for your "outdoor adventure". It's cruel and mean-spirited, not to mention, illegal for good reason and completely unnecessary. I've had more close encounters with bears in the last 40 years than I can count, many literally face to face, and I've always won and managed to emerge completely unscathed, and never because of blasting them in the face with chemicals.

[AlmostThere]

People will ask me why it's illegal in Yosemite to have bear spray. Just imagine a hundred people standing on a trail photographing a bear that is foraging and completely ignoring those people. That is Yosemite front country, ie the valley floor and campgrounds. The bear gets bored and walks off eventually. Idiots will sort of follow along taking more pictures until it goes somewhere they cannot.

In the backcountry, you drive them off and they go. Unless you are an idiot and ignore safe food storage regulations, and then you get to watch the bear take your food. And if the ranger comes along and fines you that $5000 you deserve to pay every single penny of it, because it's completely, absolutely, unquestionably unnecessary for you to be storing food carelessly or illegally to create that situation in the first place, when they will rent you a bear canister for next to nothing. The bears in Yosemite, when they get food, become bolder, and eventually more aggressive. And because that is the case, they are micro-managed, and if they are aggressive toward people to get food, they are shot, dead, done. And THAT is why food storage is so very critical. You let them get food, you train them to be unafraid, they become aggressive, they die. So bear spray is totally unnecessary.

And if you are dumb enough to tote around bear spray, try to use it, have it backfire on you because you were panicked and send people to the hospital? Guess what, you get tossed in Yosemite's jail, or fined for having a weapon, or both, because yes, it is illegal and yes, it should be.