Subject: Beware!

The California/Oregon State Department of Fish and Wildlife is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen, and golfers to take extra precautions and be on the alert for bears while in the Truckee, Kirkwood, and Yosemite areas.

They advise people to wear noise-producing devices such as little bells on their clothing to alert but not startle the bears unexpectedly. They also advise you to carry pepper spray in case of an encounter with a bear.

It is also a good idea to watch for signs of bear activity. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain berries and possibly squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have little bells in them and smell like pepper.

That's something new? DOn't mean to shoot down your warning. It's good to know, but bears have always been dangerous in these areas.

It's SOP to wear a bell or something jingly when hiking along.. Or just make lots of noise as you're hiking along.

Bears have a long history of ripping car doors/roofs off.

AND worse.

Never hurts to be reminded to keep a clean camp and leave NO FOOD out. That includes scraps from cleaning up after a meal.

I just got that as an Email and I think it is just a joke about using a bell and pepper spray and then the end line being Grizzly droppings have bells in them and smell of peppers.

Oh man, I totally missed the punch line at the end of that.


That is kind of funny

NO joke about the bell , tho.
YOU don't want to be walking silently through
those areas- or many others- for that matter.

I'm sure there's a "bear strength" pepper spray, tho it's not going to be very effective if you have an enraged Momma grizz trying to get to her cubs through you.

LIttle cubs might be real cute, but momma is gonna be extremely protective of her young- whether a black/brown or griz.

Pepper spray would be a last resort.

There is bear strength pepper spray. Used to carry it regularly at my USFS job in Wyoming.

Hmmm...Ranger Andy..it does have a nice ring to it.Did you ever work at Jellystone?

As a matter of fact....

I did spend a summer clearing burnt trees after the fires of '88 on the North Fork of the Shoshone River, and into Jones Creek. All this skirts the eastern edge of Jelly..er...Yellowstone. Jones Creek at the time had the highest concentration of resident grizzlies in the lower 48. We were around those things a lot.....too much.

Hey Andy........let's go to the Ranger station and get a pik a nik baskettttt.

quote:

Hey Andy........let's go to the Ranger station and get a pik a nik baskettttt.

quote:

Originally posted by Stone:
Hey Andy........let's go to the Ranger station and get a pik a nik baskettttt.

Alright, someone's talking in code.. Around here, we talk about going to the "library to check out a book". Maybe the meaning is the same- just differnt "language".

hey boo boo

I think it's pretty obvious what ol' Yogi wanted from Miss Cindy Bears basket..

quote:

Around here, we talk about going to the "library to check out a book".

Hillbilly, we call it "checking the air in the tires"

quote:

Originally posted by DBAX:
I think it's pretty obvious what ol' Yogi wanted from Miss Cindy Bears basket..

Her honeypot, of course