Bear Strategy
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It was pitch black. I awoke from a sound sleep, right next to a dead tree by a lake. I was in my sleeping bag, inside my one-man tent, camped next to the lake, eleven miles from my car. All alone.
I couldn’t hear anything.
Then I heard it, again. One breath from something big, about a foot from my face, just outside my tent.
In that situation you have a choice. Do nothing. Or do something. Now, that breath was enough. Adrenaline was pumping – big time – so I really didn’t really even have a choice. I was out of my sleeping bag, indeed, out of my tent, in seconds.
Then, I realized what was happening. A bear was stealing my food, every bit of it. Now I had another choice. Same choice as before, really. Do nothing. Or do something. Maybe even run. I didn’t do that. That bear had my food, after all, and I wasn’t turning back from my trip. So, what to do?
Attack the bear, of course. They used to say, make a lot of noise. Yell a lot. Pound on pots and pans. I didn’t do any of that.
I attacked the bear. With rocks. In the dark. I was camped by an old fire ring with lots of nice-sized rocks, perfect for throwing at a bear you can’t see, in the dark. So that’s what I did. Throw rocks in the dark.
And it worked. The bear only ate half my food. The rest was scattered over about a hundred yards of forest where I was able to pick up in the early morning gloom.
It was still dark, remember, so I didn’t know I’d saved my food until later, at about the same time I saw the bear amble by with a smug look on its face. It was staying just out of rock-throwing range, as it didn’t want to get hit by those perfect sized rocks, again.
How do I know I connected with the bear? When you throw a rock, a pretty big one, even in the dark, it makes a nice thud sound when it hits the ground. Most of the rocks I threw were noisy. Some were silent. Those were the ones I am assuming connected with bear, and saved my bacon, so to speak.
So I learned some lessons. Since this was twenty-five years ago, those lessons have taken some time to sink in. I tried everything to protect my food. Some of the ideas were pretty silly, I’ll tell you.
The simplest solution was invented about five years ago, and it is the solution I recommend. Carry a bear canister, an impenetrable can that bears can’t break into.
Put your food in the canister. No more bears in the dark.
Simple strategies work best, even if they take some time to figure out.
I know from experience.