Bears and bikes

[yabadabapal]

Not far from me in the great state of Oregon off Route 26 on the way to the coast is a little sign that says saddle Mountain. Ive been through it many times and every time I have fun but with acute awareness of bear and mountain lion. Its a 7 mile narrow road through some of the thickest forest Ive seen, beautiful rivers and streams. No forest rangers, or emergency resources. I take a little backup of bear spray and it works. Of course we have the little black bears which are small compared to the bear that attacked this Oregon fella on his way to a motorcycle rally in Wyoming.

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/07/19/top/70st_080719_bear.txt

[Wheels Rollin']

And we thought we had challenges with deer out here <>... As if that wasn't enough, huh?

 

~ Bill

[Shaman97]

WOW!

 

At times I'm worried about bears, other times I'm not.

 

Guess I'm bipolar? :grin:

[BabyCow]

Hooly Dooly.

[wolcott]

yes, it's good to have when you need it. Black bears, in particlular, can be very nasty; everybody thinks it just grizzlies. The news is always reporting on some sort of attack by a black bear, there is so many of them now. They need to extend the hunting season for black bears and deer,elk,etc. I use Counter-Assault bear spray. I just skimmed the article, that bear was definetly acting out predatory behavior.

[AviP]

I was tenting in that campground the night of the attack.

 

We were urgently awakened at 4:30am by the park ranger and asked to hurry to our vehicle due to a "problem" bear. My tent housed 3 adults and 3 kids aged 6,3 and 1. So we promptly moved to the security of my Ram pickup.

 

Earlier at 2:45am, I had woken up to use the toilet. The toilet was located at the edge of a steep drop down to a stream with a mountain on the other side and looked like prime bear territory. Now, I'm never squeamish about bears and wild animals but I was acutely aware of my surroundings and didn't like the picture one bit. I almost decided against using the toilet but changed my mind and continued anyway. I finished my business and spent about 2-3 minutes (a long time) checking out the area for bears with my powerful headlamp. Nothing showed up and I walked back hastily to my tent.

 

Little did I know that about 15-30 minutes later, the hapless biker about 10 campsites down would be a victim. Retrospectively, I strongly feel that my headlamp scan might have caused the bear to leave my area and head for his.

 

But even as the biker was being cared for by the park ranger and campground host, the bear was still lurking around and destroyed another tent in the area. It also pooped behind a third tent in the area but seemed to have left it alone because it had a dog in it. Useful tip I learnt from the park ranger in identifying a bear by it's scat is the diameter of the droppings. Greater than 2" would most likely mean a grizzly. This crap was almost 3". We had a big fella!

 

By now it was 5:30am and there was light, so we feel relaxed and start visiting the campsites that were affected. We also start packing up our tents and talking about the night's adventure. But wait, grizzly decides he wants the whole park to himself. My friends kid sees the bear by the stream just as it disappears back into the underbrush. So we notify the park ranger who orders the entire park to be evacuated.

 

On the way out, I offered the biker's friend any assistance he might need with the other GS, told him about bmwst.com and moved on. The campground and 3 other neighboring campgrounds will be closed until the bear will be captured or there is a lack of bear activity.

 

I'll post a photo of the shattered, blood spattered tent when I download it.

 

I had camped the prior 12 days in grizzly country so I did have bear spray and a camp axe with me. But until I got to this campground, I never kept them at arms reach. It was only in this campground, that I felt the pressing need to be ready. I had kept the spray in position at my left foot and axe by my right foot in the ready to use position. I also practiced using them in the dark just before I went to bed. I think my sixth sense paid off.

 

As a footnote to other concerned bikers+campers, every ranger and official I spoke to said the attack made no sense and was very abnormal. They said the behavior of this grizzly was strange and uncharacteristic and he was quite possibly sick. And the chance of encountering a bear like this again was low to non-existant.

 

And to those wondering what happened to the bear, she was captured on Tue. She was a young adult female grizzly. Here's the article.

 

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/07/25/state/85st_080725_bears.txt

[DaveTheAffable]

I was tenting in that campground the night of the attack....

 

 

I'll post a photo of the shattered, blood spattered tent when I download it.

 

Thanks for your post! A lot of info, and your offer of assistance is what hopefully we are all about.

 

DO remember to give a warning before you post the pics (if you do). Some will want to see them, others here are more blood, accidents, carnage, "sensitive".

[Pilgrim]

The guy must not have seen this warning about bears in the wild.

 

Pilgrim

[bakerzdosen]

I was tenting in that campground the night of the attack.

Interesting... thanks for the post.

[g_frey]

Take anything a Park Ranger says with a large dose of salt. I would say they are more often wrong than right in some of their pronouncements. Weather, bird species, insect ID, road clearing, tree species, tool usage, fixing a chain saw, all have been WRONG Ranger answers. Bear excreta depends on what they have been eating. I have seen diameters over and under that stated from both black and grizzly bears. I used to share (carefully) a large huckleberry patch with both. I once hiked for 6 miles up Slough creek in Yellowstone and noticed dead ground squirrels (maybe 75?) the whole way, all fresh kills. When a park ranger rode up the same way on his horse he not only had not noticed the kills but could not determine the age of the kill we were standing by (fresh). He was from Connecticut!!! and had zero outdoor experience from what I could tell. Another "ranger" I knew was "inexperienced" to such a degree that he once chased an antelope herd around a small hill all morning and never knew they were there. The ranch owner and I had observed this off and on all morning while working. Of course he also had a .300 Weatherby Magnum (his first firearm!!!!) that I had to rotate the scope on so an "up" adjustment actually moved bullet impact up???? I guess that he could have hit a small car fairly often at 100 yards standing ... maybe. When he came back to the ranch house to bum lunch he declared that "there were no antelope in the area at all". When we rode out later the area was covered with hundreds of antelope tracks!!!! He had run a herd of about 10 around the hill so much that the ground was actually churned up! Of course there are good rangers too. By the way I too was camped in the area that day. I camp a lot in this area and it is a very rare occurance to see a bear and much rarer to be attacked by one. That probably isn't much comfort to the biker though.

[AviP]

I was tenting in that campground the night of the attack....

 

 

I'll post a photo of the shattered, blood spattered tent when I download it.

 

Thanks for your post! A lot of info, and your offer of assistance is what hopefully we are all about.

 

DO remember to give a warning before you post the pics (if you do). Some will want to see them, others here are more blood, accidents, carnage, "sensitive".

Here's the tent photo. It's not bad looking at all.

[Woodie]

Ummm. Can't see a click/link for the attachment???

[velomoto]

Here's a completely different kind of altercation between a person (bicyclist) and a bear... with an unlikely hero who saves the injured cyclist from the bear!

Bicyclist Hits Bear at 45mph - OUCH!