Originally Posted by
staehpj1
What we don't know is how many of those times the person would have been OK without the spray. Just because someone used the spray and was OK doesn't mean they wouldn't have been OK without it. My point isn't that it didn't help, but just that there is no way to know whether it prevented an unfavorable outcome or not.
Not exactly the kind of thing anyone is going to sign up to test now are they?
There's seriously a lot of stupid things being said in this thread. Just like 350htrr mentioned everything is fine until it's not, and then you better be prepared. It's great when you and a bear see each other coming and neither party is startled, and 99.999% of the time encounters are peaceful but that's not always the case.
It is very easy to get between a mother and her cubs, or a male and a female who is in heat or surprise a bear by approaching from downwind or without a clear sight line just like this Provincial Park employee a week or so ago:
Man injured after surprising a bear in Kananaskis Country | Calgary Herald
FWIW I grew up visiting the Yukon territory during summers as a kid (father is a geologist), weekends at our cabin near Golden, BC and just generally spend a lot of time in the bush and while having encountered a hundred or more black and grizzly bears in my life I've never had a bad experience. That being said I always carry bear spray on hikes in populated areas plus there's always been a very large bore rifle around at geology camps, our cabin or while camping in the back country.