Bears? Well the best thing to do is to avoid them. How? You can hang bells on your bike and that usually scares them off. If they should get too close, you can zap them with pepper spray. But the best thing to do is to recognize their scat, so you know they are in the area. How do you know it is bear scat? You taste it. If it tastes like pepper and there are bells in it, you will know it is bear.

This was posted by another member but it is so goo it bears repeating.