oh, I know the danger, as with any big predator. Still, I've been backpacking in bear habitat for many years and have studied bear danger a lot, and the chance I took was not that great. Black bears are most dangerous if they are in your camp looking for your food or if you come too close to a mom who has cubs. There are very few accounts of them harming people unless it is in one of those situations. Grizzlies are a different story, they are far more dangerous and will hunt people, but alas, the California Golden Grizzly is extinct, only black bears here now. :(
The scariest bear experience I had was years ago in Yosemite (where the bears know people have food :P) and one came into camp at night and, despite a lot of commotion and yelling (and all the smelly things being in bear boxes), kept coming back. The one I followed here made it very clear that he would tolerate me within a certain distance (the photo was at my camera's highest zoom) and then he was running.
So yes, it was a risk, but I'm not willing to live my life without risk, and following the bear into the woods was probably a lot safer than the drive I took to get there.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-06-25 09:05 pm (UTC)The scariest bear experience I had was years ago in Yosemite (where the bears know people have food :P) and one came into camp at night and, despite a lot of commotion and yelling (and all the smelly things being in bear boxes), kept coming back. The one I followed here made it very clear that he would tolerate me within a certain distance (the photo was at my camera's highest zoom) and then he was running.
So yes, it was a risk, but I'm not willing to live my life without risk, and following the bear into the woods was probably a lot safer than the drive I took to get there.