Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Vulnerable

I have experience, but no advice for anyone. A Bear, cougar, or wolf attack on a human is a relatively small risk but really bad if it happens to you. I've slept about two years of my life on the ground in the West, rarely in a tent. Most of that has been in western Canada but lots in WA, ID, CA and a few other states as well. Have only had one grizzly come into camp, no black bears other than a couple in transit, just passing through. In bear country during hunting season I sleep with a magazine loaded rifle beside me, nothing in the chamber. It�s usually a fly rod in summer because I don�t want to carry the rifle weight.

Cougars check out humans all the time, as routinely as sunrise, and so rarely attack the people that they follow and sneak up on that I don�t worry about them any more than a lightning strike, which I do take some care to avoid. A lion walked a half circle around my sleeping bag one night, but I never saw it. They have followed me many times (some of those when I�m leaving a calling stand) but I�ve yet to see one doing that.

When the grizz came into camp and hung around casually for hours as close as 40 feet, we decided our options were to kill it or move. We were tenting with a vehicle and moved camp. On a backpack hunt in Northern BC I watched a grizzly feed on berries in the alpine about 500 yards from my intended bivvy in a scrub bush. When it got too dark to see the bear I ate a fireless supper and sacked out. The bear came by in the night and I woke up but heard not a single sound after I woke. His tracks circled on the downwind side of me as close at 60 feet and left.

Wolves? They also killed a Canadian woman 20 years ago I think it was in Saskatchewan. I hope one does come in to camp. I�ve yet to kill one!

Added: GuyM, I've hiked, camped and hunted on the east side and the west sides of the Paysayten, plus several places close to it on the Canadian side of the line, depending on which side I was a legal resident over the years. We've seen moose and ptarmigan in the Paysayten, and seen tracks of a lynx. Good country. Your camp looks like it is toward the east side of it.

That teacher was at a landing strip a mile away from a remote village nowhere near anchorage.

The story this winter that bothers me is the trapper that a wolf followed and pulled off his snow machine while he was running his line. I would say chased but that makes it sound lime the trapper was trying to get away, in this case the trapper didn't know the wolf was there.

If I'm going to worry, it seems to be at home while I'm planning. What if this, what if that, what crap do I need to take to account for it?

By the time I'm 5-10 miles from the trailhead, its gotten dark, I've had dinner, already set up camp, maybe jumped in the lake to rinse the trail skuzz off, I have no energy left for worry, all I want is sleep.

So ... don't over-think it.

Tom

I stand corrected. I confused the fatality with the near fatality. Two chikas from Anchorage out running near a subdivision. IIRC, they got their dog.

I can tell you in Kalifornia we have Black Bear, Wild Pigs and lots of Mtn. Lions. I've got friends that have run into them when walking in the late afternoons with their dogs, etc. One of my neighbors just up slope from me about 200 yds. bumped into a lion in his back yard when he took out his garbage.
In spite of few injuries and a couple deaths, they kill far fewer people over the years than do deer. The DFG people tell me that deer kill about four people a year in Kalifornia.
I can also tell you that you are in far more danger in the inner city areas of our large cities than you will ever be in the mountains. Assuming, of course that you take precautions concerning the weather and any steep ground.
I do take the usual precautions, of course. The food, all of it, is hung in a tree 50 plus yards away. I sleep with a loaded gun inside my bag, etc. When I'm sneaking into my hunting area before legal shooting time, I look around regularly which includes looking behind me as well. Frankly, I worry more about stepping on a rattlesnake than I do about running into a large predator. E

In fish camp, just before dark, last September, Alaska:



We were in cabins, not tents, last year. Seeing the brownie in camp sort of discouraged wandering about after dark and made the short walk to and from dinner interesting too.

Mostly I don't worry about it. But now and again, particularly camped out in the high lonesome, I'll get a little bugged about what may or may not be prowling nearby. Funny how much more secure I feel with a thin tent wall between me and the great outdoors!

Looking forward to some more backpacking this summer.

Regards, Guy

You could always just stay home, in the city. I mean, I wouldn't worry about it. After all, you're going into the backcountry to experience all those things, right?

And you always do us all a favor and stay off the computer....

Minnesota Girl Scouts camp in some of the highest wolf densities on the planet. We could maybe loan one to Guy for protection.

That's one option.

What's funny for me, is how today's society seems to want to commune with nature, but yet, they're terrified of it.

And, how today's society is so fixated on gadgetry in order to be able to "enjoy" nature and the natural world.

It just boggles my mind how today's "hunting" society (hunters) have become so detached from the natural world.

I agree with all that 100% and have opined the same for a long time.

I'm not implying AT ALL that the original poster (Guy) falls into that category though...

I think that the original poster should do/carry whatever makes HIM feel comfortable in the area(s) where HE camps/hikes or whatever.

I have a lot of wilderness experience, here in BC and in Alberta and some time in Canada's northern territories; I have had some bear experiences and had a Grizzly in camp.

I very seldom carry one of the dozens of guns I own when backpacking, fishing or engaging in "naturalist" activities, but, will not go into a few areas at certain times of the year unarmed. This, is how I feel about it and many others here I know DO carry whenever they go into the bush...and, some of these are middle-aged men with a great deal of wilderness experience.

I would never completely discount the actual danger here from bear, especially Grizzly attacks, but, some knowledge of how to avoid encounters and also carrying and using a warning device are, IMHO, more likely to keep you "safe" than is packing a "hawglaig".

Wolves, are increasing here as Cougars (the Felidae type ) and predators in general; I have encountered a few Wolves in the bush and they quickly buggered off, so, I don't worry too much.

All in all, tho', do whatever YOU feel makes YOU safe, you are not there to meet the expectations of anyone else.

An example: In 1972, before the construction of the "Stewart-Cassiar" highway in northwestern BC, I was stationed on Bell L/O, at that time, one of the two most remote fire lookouts in very wild BC. I did 86 days, no breaks and with one heli-supply trip and this is in major Grizzly country; a couple of years before, the "L/Oman" was forced to shoot two yearling Grizz, attempting to get into the tiny plywood prefab cabin and I had NO gun, sold all mine for college money.

I did as I had been taught and had taught others in respect of keeping a CLEAN camp and I like to make lots of harsh, metallic noises during the day. I found huge tracks outside the L/O one morning and a helo-pilot told me on my grub run about seeing Grizz in the vicinity, while airborne.....BUT, I had NO visits and only that one set of tracks.....

So, maybe spray, a freon horn and a clean camp and then, Brad's ear plugs?

Smiling here guys. My original post was mostly tongue-in-cheek. Haven't slept behind concertina, claymores and trip wire since my USMC days many years ago.

Have 45 summers of backpacking now and keep on enjoying it, though I'll admit I don't get up the ridges quite as briskly as I did in years/decades past.

Over the years have had a few times when I was concerned about getting some kind of predatory critter in camp.

Up in the Wind Rivers with fresh elk quarters hanging, nine miles or more from the trailhead. My hunting pard and I kept our guns close at hand that night, just in case a grizzly decided he was brave enough for a midnight snack.

Another time, up above the Shoshone River, field dressing, skinning, boning out a mule deer carcass, then backpacking out with the fresh meat & head in our packs. The trail we used also had grizzly sow & cub tracks, gave us a little pucker factor, but never saw her.

I'm used to the bears, take the usual precautions of keeping a clean camp. Have only seen a few mountain lions over all those years and none were ever a threat to me.

The wolves are a new addition to "my" area here in the Cascades, and I know little about them. I've heard them in Alaska & BC, and am now coming across their tracks while rambling the "hills" here in Washington. Just something else to think about a bit, while I'm out there. Hopefully they don't mess up my hunting!

Regards, Guy

I thought I was the only one that used the ear plug trick

I carry ear plugs, but they aren't for me.

thousands of urbanites, hippy types, and complete city-its camp in the BWCA every year with few problems, although I can't say if they sleep soundly or not.

Wolves? Don't worry about them - they run pretty fast from the scent of man. A stinky trapper in the deep of winter could be one exception I could understand.

One thing I've had experience with is a dog in camp.
Be prepared for the dog to bring the trouble to you if the bear is not easily scared.

This ^ brings back a memory.

I was standing in a little pocket 10 feet across in head-high blackberry vines, in a little pocket 30 feet across in 30 foot tall "dog hair" douglas fir reprod, 75 feet off the graveled road, elbows deep in the guts of one of dad's cows I was "slow elking", when a truck stopped and the passenger yells "Hey, have you seen a bear? We wounded one here a little while ago and it ran off into the brush."

Y' want to talk about something makin' y' all jumpy .. that'll do it.

Tom