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Saw a bear today.
I was coming back west, on route 50, right where the road forks off, to Boone. There's an old gas station there, and I was just fixing to sit down, leaning against the wall. I didn't see anything at first, just noticed the sound of a car slowing way down. I turned to look, and a very young bear was crossing the road, coming straight towards me. I think he smelled my pizza. 😁
Somehow, in the confusion, the bear decided he didn't want anything to do with me, and turned up that other road, towards Boone. The older couple who startled him, just looked at me, like "did you see that?". I was mostly concerned with his mother and/or father, but saw neither. By looking on the web, he was probably a young black bear, even though his hair looked blonde. He wasn't very big, but still counts as running into a bear, in the wild. 😎 |
No pictures. It did not happen. ;)
Kidding very cool. I am envious. |
I have been biking and hiking all over the Rockies this past week in hopes of seeing wildlife and haven't seen much more than mule deer. A few years ago I did encounter a bear while I was riding one morning in Redstone. It was eating some kind of foliage off of fence in between two houses.
https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net...df&oe=5BC92E01 |
Cool. I love seeing bears. Just not too close.
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Come and ride the country roads in British Columbia and you'll commonly see all kinds of wildlife, including black bears.
There's a great many roads of all kinds and for all types for touring cyclists. You do have to be "bear aware" with your camps, especially in the northern regions where it's common to see grizzlies. |
This was from my Icefield Parkway tour last year. Two black bears in total
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/813/4...1527c2df_z.jpg This year on my Jasper - Vancouver tour I saw three black bears. They often are just off the shoulder feeding on young vegetation. I also got chased for a bit by this young elk. I tried to snap his pic as I rode by and I think he thought I was another elk to challenge or something. I got some cardio for a few hundred yards! https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1782/...a8acdfa4_z.jpg |
Likely a variation of the black bear called a cinnamon bear. Common in CO and the SW. I mt. biked near up the ass of a cinnamon bear south of Taos one summer morning, walking on the trail in front of me. With its color I thought it was a cow, then noticed no tail. Oops. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_bear |
I have seen three during my last two tours. One was staring at me from 20' away after raiding the dumpsters at a private campground on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest. I think he was at last 500 lbs. There was a pile of scat about 50' from my tent. The following day I saw one swim across Pine Creek while riding the Pine Creek Trail. Last month, in New Jersey, a very young cub walked across a campground road in front of me as I was riding back from the shower room. I didn't see mom, which made me nervous.
All in all, I have seen 6 bears during bike tours ad one during a day ride. Ravaged dumpster shortly after the bear walked off into the woods. Notice the mural on the left dumpster. Owners don't give a rat's ass about the animals. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d991712dad.jpg After swimming across Pine Creek: https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...eabbcd9829.jpg Day ride in New Jersey. He was along side the road when we first came upon him. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1ffd4946a9.jpg |
Originally Posted by Big Lew
(Post 20448279)
Come and ride the country roads in British Columbia and you'll commonly see all kinds of wildlife, including black bears.
There's a great many roads of all kinds and for all types for touring cyclists. You do have to be "bear aware" with your camps, especially in the northern regions where it's common to see grizzlies. I have driven through BC twice. The amount of wildlife was incredible. I'd love to do it on a bike. Leaving Liard Hot Springs early in the morning I saw the biggest black bear I have ever seen in my life. Your post made me think of this. https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natur...ighway-photos/ |
Originally Posted by Paul Barnard
(Post 20449382)
I have driven through BC twice. The amount of wildlife was incredible. I'd love to do it on a bike. Leaving Liard Hot Springs early in the morning I saw the biggest black bear I have ever seen in my life. Your post made me think of this.
https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natur...ighway-photos/ My guy was about half that size, and still skinny, in comparison. Which is just fine with me, I don't care about looking brave. 😋 |
The BC government has banned any grizzly bear hunting. As a result, certain areas have had a boom in the grizzly population - to the detriment of the black bears. A wildlife officer for the Creston Valley says that Grizzlies have almost completely displaced black bears in that valley. A kayaker was recently attacked by a defensive mother grizzly on the banks of the Kootenay River. In a normal year I would have run into 10-20 black bears by this time of the year - maybe one grizzly. So far this year I’ve seen 6 black bears. I’m not sure if it has to do with the increased grizzly population (though I haven’t seen any) or if it is due to the extreme snowfall we had this past winter which may have resulted in a number of bears starving to death in their dens. But this is definitely a low population year for black bears in the West Kootenay region. ’Cinnamon Bears’ are just a colour phase of ‘black bears’. Black bears refers to the species, not the colour of the animal. They can be black, brown, cinnamon, blonde or even white (Kermode). Only about 50-60% of them are coloured black. Grizzlies are also highly variable in their colouring. |
Originally Posted by stardognine
(Post 20448127)
I was coming back west, on route 50, right where the road forks off, to Boone. There's an old gas station there, and I was just fixing to sit down, leaning against the wall. I didn't see anything at first, just noticed the sound of a car slowing way down. I turned to look, and a very young bear was crossing the road, coming straight towards me. I think he smelled my pizza. 😁
Somehow, in the confusion, the bear decided he didn't want anything to do with me, and turned up that other road, towards Boone. The older couple who startled him, just looked at me, like "did you see that?". I was mostly concerned with his mother and/or father, but saw neither. By looking on the web, he was probably a young black bear, even though his hair looked blonde. He wasn't very big, but still counts as running into a bear, in the wild. 😎 |
As Mountain Mitch says, out in BC most sows won't immediately attack a human unless their cubs are in direct danger.
Most of my recreational activities are in the back-country of BC and I've encountered 100's of black bears during over 60 years, many with cubs. Having a dog with you is bad! Racing either on foot or bicycle down bushy sided trails is also not a good idea as you can surprise a sow with cubs at close range. As for the Laird Park area, bears killed people for food right in the park years ago. I rode through there a couple of years later, planning on tenting, but the Rangers strongly advised me not to as they still had black bear problems there. Same with the area north of Fort Nelson. There were signs posted not to camp because of problem bears. I have normally rode the north country during the latter weeks of May and early weeks of June which is when the bears leave their dens and are hungry. Touring through there later is likely a lot less worrisome, but then again there are the bugs! |
Great pictures!
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Originally Posted by Mountain Mitch
(Post 20449652)
The BC government has banned any grizzly bear hunting. As a result, certain areas have had a boom in the grizzly population - to the detriment of the black bears. A wildlife officer for the Creston Valley says that Grizzlies have almost completely displaced black bears in that valley. A kayaker was recently attacked by a defensive mother grizzly on the banks of the Kootenay River. In a normal year I would have run into 10-20 black bears by this time of the year - maybe one grizzly. So far this year I’ve seen 6 black bears. I’m not sure if it has to do with the increased grizzly population (though I haven’t seen any) or if it is due to the extreme snowfall we had this past winter which may have resulted in a number of bears starving to death in their dens. But this is definitely a low population year for black bears in the West Kootenay region. ’Cinnamon Bears’ are just a colour phase of ‘black bears’. Black bears refers to the species, not the colour of the animal. They can be black, brown, cinnamon, blonde or even white (Kermode). Only about 50-60% of them are coloured black. Grizzlies are also highly variable in their colouring. I've ridden past them on the road, they have either ignored me or gone off into the woods. Having a dog with you is bad! Racing either on foot or bicycle down bushy sided trails is also not a good idea as you can surprise a sow with cubs at close range. Here is a link to a video of a family of grizzlies chasing a black bear away on the roadsie. https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.4015009 |
Originally Posted by Big Lew
(Post 20449878)
Racing either on foot or bicycle down bushy sided trails is also not a good idea
https://www.greatfallstribune.com/st...nter/98818710/ |
Originally Posted by skookum
(Post 20450831)
Mountain biking is probably the activity where you are most likely to encounter a bear, surprising the animal is never a good strategy whether they have cubs or not. Make lots of noise, be aware of your surrounding and carry bear spray.
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I once observed a distant grizzly sow and two cubs from the Many Glacier, MT parking lot, viewed by binocular for 20". This occurred on a beautiful fall afternoon, two days after I had read Jack Olsen's "The Night of the Grizzlies", and one day after I made record time solo-hiking the 13-mile Piegan Pass trail from Siyeh Bend on the GttS road back to Many Glacier, passing two locations with bear scat along the forest trail.
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I have come across several black bears suddenly while mountain biking in the Rockies. Fortunately the bears ran.
Every Tuesday without fail, black bears tip over up my neighbours garbage bin and drag the contents around the 'hood, requiring me to make (yet another) angry visit, after they sheepishly clean it all up. Sometimes I have to 'motivate' bears to move out of my back yard, with spray from a garden hose or a hockey stick. Once, the neighbours garbage included a container of hot chocolate powder. The bear dragged this onto my from porch, and then leisurely consumed the whole thing with obvious delight. No amount of my coaxing would get this bear to move... My closest grizzly bear encounter was 30 feet away from a Momma and two cubs. Scary scary stuff. A couple weeks ago I was riding home on my daily commute, and a family of grizzly bears was perched on a rock outcropping at the side of the road at the top of my climb. Probably waiting for a cyclist dinner.... Faced with a tedious 45-minute detour, I decided to make a run for it and sprint past the bears. I'm still here.... |
Since we seem to have hijacked this thread anyway, here’s the latest in the benefits of giving grizzlies full protection: https://globalnews.ca/video/4335131/..._campaign=2018 The bear chases the guy down the river through the rapids. Obviously, cycling/kayaking, all the same to the bears. Seems to be a grizzly attack or attempted attack every day now. We must remember to thank the city folks for pointing out to us the error of our ways in their zeal to ‘Save the Grizzly’! |
Originally Posted by Mountain Mitch
(Post 20449652)
’Cinnamon Bears’ are just a colour phase of ‘black bears’. Black bears refers to the species, not the colour of the animal. They can be black, brown, cinnamon, blonde or even white (Kermode). Only about 50-60% of them are coloured black. Grizzlies are also highly variable in their colouring. https://www.bear.org/website/bear-pa...or-phases.html I know for sure the cinnamon looks a lot like a dun cow, especially from the rear. Excepting no swishing tail of course. |
Originally Posted by Mountain Mitch
(Post 20451767)
The bear chases the guy down the river through the rapids. Obviously, cycling/kayaking, all the same to the bears. |
I should have added that mb cycling along trails in cougar country is a risky business as well.
There have been people attacked In BC while doing that. Running by or away from a predator will trigger their 'chase' instincts. Even fairly seasoned people like me can let their guard down at times though. When I was long distance running, I returned off a high mountain in the Monashees, which has a high population of grizzles, by running flat out with a young friend along the park trails. We were having so much fun jumping low logs and rocks as we sped along...until I jumped over a big bear scat and realized just how foolish we were being. Luck was with us though and we didn't surprise any bears. |
Originally Posted by indyfabz
(Post 20450992)
See the link is my post directly above.
In Jasper, a few years ago, a mountain biker surprised a bear and it bit his pack, puncturing the bear spray that he had on it. The bear hit Cardinal on the side of his back with its paw and knocked him off of his bike. Then it tried to bite him. Instead, the grizzly bit into his backpack and set off the bear spray Cardinal had strapped to its side.“He had a mouthful of it, which is good,” Cardinal said. “I wasn’t realizing what was going on. I was screaming at it just so that it would stop. “I fell on my knees waiting for more blows to come. But nothing came.” The bear took off. Cardinal said the attack lasted about 10 seconds. Most bear attacks result from surprising a bear, getting close to a mother with cubs, or a bear guarding a kill, or a bear that is habituated to people. You are unlikely to have a problem with a bear feeding at the side of the road. But I wouldnt stop and take pics. |
" You are unlikely to have a problem with a bear feeding at the side of the road. But I wouldnt stop and take pics."
True, but as in most situations, there are exceptions. In my 62 years prowling about in the back country, mostly in BC Canada where there are healthy populations of both black bears and grizzlies, I've seen approx 200-250. I've only been really concerned for my safety a couple of times...one when I was cycling uphill to Summit Lake on the Alaskan Hwy. As I made my way slowly up the long grade I noticed a scruffy black bear on a avalanche scar a little ahead of and across the road from me. It wasn't really close to the road so I wasn't worried and kept going. As soon as it saw me it came toward me at a fast walk, and as it got closer, into a trot. As I got off my bike to quickly turn it around I was fortunate that a fellow came onto the scene driving a truck which he used to cut the bear off long enough for me to escape. That driver then accompanied me past the spot to make sure the bear didn't try again. That bear was acting in predatory fashion, and I don't know if I would have been able to hit a high enough speed to get away from him before he reached me had it not been for that fellow with the truck. When I reached the village at Summit lake I learned that the Game Warden was already on his way to dispose of that bear as my incident wasn't the first reported to him within 24 hours. |
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