OliverB

I don't recall but I'm pretty certain it was a grizzly attack and if memory serves, the poor hiker was partially eaten. The fact that it took place only 15 minutes or so from where I had been hiking, and that I had been warned of the danger by a ranger in hiking solo, really affected me. I didn't sleep much that night and I've since always packed pepper spray in bear country around Wyoming, Montana and the Canadian Rockies. I would probably do the same in the Great Smokies as well, where there's an abundance of black bears. I've thankfully never encountered an aggressive black bear though I did accidentally startle a large mama while foraging for berries near my grandfather's summer cottage in New Hampshire as a teenager, and there was a split second where I thought the bear might charge but I was able to back away from the situation without escalation. We used to go fishing a lot around the Connecticut Lakes and I think he had a house somewhere near Pittsburgh, NH along the state highway that's often referred to as "Moose Alley". There were a lot of black bears in the area and I've always felt comfortable with them at a distance. When we would spend summers up in NH as a kid, my dad would often drive me to the local dump in the evenings to watch the bears digging through the trash. My memory is a bit foggy but I seem to recall one other incident where we'd been fishing in a salmon river and walking back through the woods with our catch slung over my dad's shoulders. It was during the height of summer on an uncompromisingly hot afternoon and the fish were dripping blood on my dad's sweaty back. We were swatting away horse flies while cutting through the bush when all of a sudden we heard some grunting noises and rustling of leaves. I seem to remember feeling as though we were being followed and my dad dropping the fish and rushing back to the car, but it might've been my impressionable thinking and imagination coupled with an old childhood memory. Anyhow, my rule of thumb now is to always have protection for a worst case scenario as it's always better to be prepared. Given that I've yet to meet a bear in California though, I assumed that it would be unnecessary and you've all reassured me of this.