Got Bear Spray?

We had two visitors yesterday. Remember the mama bear and her two cubs that came by a lot a few years back? We didn't see the mama, but her two cubs wandered through our yard yesterday. They're not so little anymore, but it was cool to see them both again. If you're on my Facebook page, you probably saw all the pictures already. I also have a short (only 16 seconds) video clip of the female if you want to check that out. Anyway, Rick got this picture of the female. She's the same bear I got some really good pictures of a few years ago. It's cool to see how much she's grown.

I mentioned bear spray yesterday and a lot of people don't know what that it. I guess it sounds funny, but basically it's a non-lethal form of pepper spray like law enforcement uses, but much stronger. It's found all over here in stores. In fact, one of the leading manufactures, Counter Assault, is made right here in Kalispell. Rick used to work next door to their factory. If you visit their website, you'll see a pretty impressive list of customers who use this product. I don't remember how much it costs exactly, but I think it's around $15-$20 for a canister, depending on what size you get. We have two of them right now. We take them on hikes and when we're kayaking. A lot of times we'll kayak out to a remote section of land, so it's pretty important to have the spray. We don't go way into the backcountry, obviously, not with two little boys. But we still see enough bears that we feel the importance of carrying it and keeping it in the house. The Counter Assault website has a really interesting and informative video here.

A lot of times in bear country you'll see bells in stores. People think the bells make enough noise to startle bears when you're coming close. The fact is, bears can't hear that high of a pitch or sound, so the bells are basically worthless. The stores still sell them and people joke and call them bear dinner bells. Making noise by talking is much more effective in alerting a bear of your presence than a tiny "ding, ding, ding" sound. When we were in Grand Teton recently, we stopped at a new visitor center and watched a 20-minute video on the park. There was one part of the film where the rangers were talking about finding a dead animal and how bears will defend it if you come across it. There must have been 4 rangers around this dead elk, along with the camera crew. I didn't notice it at first, but Rick pointed out that they all had bear spray in their hands. It wasn't hanging on their hip, or in a pack -- they each had a canister, open and ready to go, right in their hands as they inspected the carcass. That's with at least 5 people, if not more, standing around. If that many professionals do that, then you know approaching a carcass in bear country is dangerous as hell! This is it ...