A flare makes a lot of sense, and it obviously has other uses too (firestarting, signaling.) I wouldn't want to use one in a tent though! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I have some out in my truck. I'll have to check on how they ignite.

My Grandparents camped in Yosemite in the 1930s with my Mom and her four brothers and sisters. Even back then the bears knew what the campers had to offer in the campgrounds. My Grandfather would tie about 10 feet of fishing line to a piece of bacon, and the other end to a bunch of empty tin cans. The story has been passed down in the family, that you could hear the bear being chased by the tin cans for quite a while. You may wake up the neighbors if you tried that now.

I always look forward to new bear attack threads, so I can read Chris Kavanaugh's latest level-headed, yet hilarious response...

I don't think it's possible to adequately prepare for a bear attack... especialy if you are sleeping in your tent and a bear decides to make you his lunch !

An attack survivor described hearing the bear chewing on a bone realizing the bone was her skull ! She fought back and survived.

The best You can do is equip yourself with knowledge (and you fav. gear) and not worry too much ...

"I don't think it's possible to adequately prepare for a bear attack..."

I agree that with bears being unpredictable it is difficult to prepare for an anticipated moment in a bad situation and to thereby have a sure way out of injury, but preparation would consist of be aware of the possibility of a curious or hungry bear becoming aggresive, not leaving food scents nearby, having AT LEAST a pepperspray device, and even a first aid kit. There are many things one can do to adequately prepare for bears, although there is no guarantee that even the best equipment will not fail you despite your skill level with them.

The cap on a road flare has a cap on it where the scrapper is. First remove the outermost cap, then the flare cap itslef, and a quick srike against it will ignite the flare.

I saw a young adult black bear on the side of a mountain road once, in the wilderness, not in any kind of park setting, leaning on a car window. I pulled over and watched. It didn't seem quite fully grown, but I am no expert. It began to push on the window with its body weight, and that's when the "sightseers" in the car drove away. I imagined that if this bear got much bigger, the next window would probably break. Well, maybe not the best move, but I wanted a photo of that bear, and so I got out of my truck and went around to the back where I had left my camera. Anyway the bear noticed at once, and came immediately at me. Apparently, people were in the habit of feeding this particular bear by throwing food out of their windows. Well it immediately thought that either I would give it food or that I was food. It was strange how cute and harmlessly hungry it looked at me with those eyes, it made me think of trying to pat its fuzzy head, until it was about 1 foot away, then I thought that it would bite me so I yelled loud and strong at it while stomping my foot angrily on the ground. It was startled and hesitated. I was frightened that it had become to used to being fed by people that I couldn't scare it off, so I put more energy into my intimidation and scare-off attempts, and it then scampered off to the nearest tree with was only about 10 feet away, and climbed about 10 feet up that tree and just stared at me. Again I thought, how cute, a big bear acting like a cub. So, instead of getting back into my truck, I continued to look for my camera, then the bear backed down the tree and I yelled some more and made aggressive motions toward it. It backed all the way down to the ground despite my attempts to scare it away or at least into submission, but it just lay down at the base of the tree and watched me. It was like it was telling me that it wasn't going away no matter how much I yelled, and that if I stayed where I was it was going to find out what I tasted like. I felt sad that people had "trained" this bear to the side of the road. It was pathetic, and dangerous. I got back into my truck and it came up to my truck, I honked and honked my horn and it had no fear of man. I pulled forward and backed up, honking and yelling, but it had no fear. Then another car pulled up and these two women were throwing Doritos cornchips out to it like it was their pet. I tried to explain the dangers to both man, property and bear, in feeding these animals. They did not understand, and thought I was crazy in telling them not to feed the wild bear. I tried to explain to them that bears like these usually end up dead because they will eventually hurt someone or damage a vehicle or something like being shot by someone who sees an opportunity for easy meat. But those women did not seem to care. They just scoffed and mocked me. I only hope it was live-captured and transported deep into the wilderness where it would have to learn to rely on wilds foods instead of fritos tossed from car windows.

If that bear was a grizzly, I would NOT have gotten out and "played" with it.

<img src="/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

Well now, fighting bears is quight a subject, there are after all, Bear's...and..there BEARS...
But the bottom line....why wouldent you fight???

How does the saying go? I think it's "a fed bear is a dead bear". It's a shame people think wildlife is like nature's big zoo to throw peanuts and food at the critters.

Here's a neat photo from Yellowstone years ago:

http://www.airstream.net/images/bear.jpg