We have a vacation place in the mountains......I have read a book written by a guy who has interviewed many bear attack victims......According to him, attacks are rare, but that is no consolation if you are the victim. The majority of the attacks he documents involve Grizzlies. But some were black bears. He highly recommends bear pepper spray. I bought some from UDAP which is a company founded by a bear attack survivor.
I recently had my first bear encounter but I didn't have it with me. I was not too concerned under the circumstances involved. Looking back though, it may have been prudent to have it just as insurance.
We heard from a local that if we wanted to see a bear just go behind the local cafe about 9pm as there is a bear who dives the dumpster nightly. Reportedly a timid bear as they chase him away when they hear him in the garbage.
My wife really wanted to see a bear so we drove our Explorer down there at nine and parked in the dark in the back. We scanned around with a night vision scope and saw no trace. Nevertheless we were stubborn. After 2 hours of sitting there we decided we got skunked.
Just as I was about to start the car, I caught something in the dark out of the corner of my eye. It was a big a** bear moseying along real slow and silent about ten feet from our car headed toward the dumpster. It was bigger than I expected a black bear to be. I guess he is well fed.
He arrived at the dumpster, placed a paw on the side of it, and effortlessly shoved it about 4 ft. and half turned it to get to the lid( He had the routine down pat it appeared.) He was about 30-40ft in front of us. I turned on the headlights for a better look. He didn't even flinch. He had his back to us and was standing up. It looked like he was slowly sorting the garbage.
At this point, another car started to come in from our left. I signaled them with my hand to stop for fear they would spook him off. They stopped. I snapped a couple of photos of the dumpster diver and then hand signaled the car to proceed.
They proceeded a little faster than I expected which startled the bear. He dropped down out of the dumpster and turned to face us and the other car which was still moving, albeit slower. The bear's back was to the restaurant and I sensed that he was not sure what he should do.
At this point he did a couple things that I believe the book I read said is not what you want to see. He lowered his head and slowly swung it from side to side and he had his mouth open. I started the car and put it in gear just in case I needed to make a hasty exit. The other car at this point stopped. The bear at this point decided to leave. He turned and started walking up the side of the restaurant towards the front (where the bar patrons were hanging out on the porch.) I remember when the bear turned to walk away he passed by two side-by-side 55gal drums which he totally eclipsed. He was a big boy.
We enjoyed the sighting, but are saddened by the fact that neither the restaurant nor the garbage company have done what is necessary to keep the bears out of the garbage. I got the very distinct impression from this encounter that this particular bear would prefer to leave than have a confrontation with a human, however, with his back to the wall, being startled at close quarters and/or feeling cornered without a clear escape route he appeared he would attack out of fear.
Unfortunately for the bear and whoever stumbles into him, it is probably just a matter of time before some drunk who has parked in the back comes stumbling back there in the dark and bumps into this poor creature and receives a very major ass whoopin.
Also, for what it's worth, based on what I read in that book and the size of the bear I saw, I would be hesitant to employ a handgun at close range for defense. Although the shot might eventually prove deadly to the bear, I'm not so sure he wouldn't dismantle me before biting the dust.
The other thing I like about the spray is that it not only spares the bear's life, but it also likely gives the bear a strong incentive to stay away from humans which is in the best interest of the bear and us humans.
Goes by the alias "Smokey". Suspected to be armed and dangerous.
