" But clearly some folks, here and down south, seem quite paranoid and obsessed about bears, way out of of proportion to their actual odds of getting mauled. "

Obsessed? Like how knives are talked about on equipped ad nauseam? I like a good knife (or a good value knife), but rarely hear much here about fire extinguishers or life jackets.

In the Sierra Nevada of CA bear precautions consisted of hanging our food at night and piling up rocks by our pillow to pelt the bears that came sniffing around camp. Big Effing chipmunks we called them. However when by myself I was followed by a bear down Bubb's creek for 5 miles and he wouldn't leave until I got to the trail head, despite tossing rocks at him, it got me thinking I wanted more of a deterrent.

In the Selkirks, they shut areas of the forest down when the Grizzly start getting into campers packs. Most everyone carries some kind of deterrent and bear canisters are required. Just like snowmobilers carry avi gear, being equipped for predators is just part of going out in some places.

Last weekend we heard wolves both at our base camp and at a trailhead several miles away when we started to hike in to retrieve the rest of a deer. Saw bear tracks in the snow a couple of hundred yards away from the carcass too.

One of our group had a wolf pair stair him down and approach him earlier in the month. He was by the side of the road and they followed him to his truck.

This fellow is the uncle of one of our scouts.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/oct/25/after-montana-grizzly-mauling-hayden-man-attacked-/
Getting death threats. He might need some sort of deterrent for the vegans.

Seems lame to call people paranoid.