Bears on Great Divide

[livelife]

Hi Guys
Thinking of doing the GD on my long service leave , as I’m from Australia,we don’t have too many bears over here 😂
Are they a real concern , should you carry a firearm with you ( are you allowed to ) or is bear spray sufficient, sorry if this sounds like a stupid question
Cheers

[AZTtripper]

Pretty sure this was just covered in the planning thread. Yes there are bear's not sure we're I saw it, but a TD rider got in some trouble in Canada last year. Before the race even started camping in bear county without hanging his food and a bear got into it. Apparently they take it pretty serious up there, they also take gun possession seriously.

Anyway I think the answers are here somewhere, best of luck with the big ride.

Tim

Ok I so the discussion was not on this site, maybe the TD Facebook page. Anyway it was a long drawn out back and forth. It's a bit of a hot button topic here in the state's. People pushing sleep deprivation to the point of possible hallucinations was one of the issues that came up. Bear spray and proper storage maybe your only options.

[livelife]

Thanks Tim , I will have a look

[dh024]

There is a lot of academic research to demonstrate that bear spray is far more effective at deterring bears than firearms. Bearspray is a must in the northern reaches of the GD route, particularly in Canada and Montana. And it must be accessible immediately at all times - most bear encounters occur when a person surprises a bear, which is obviously a particular concern for bicyclists who are generally moving fast and relatively quietly.

Here is a past thread with some good info in it:
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/routes/bear-provisions-along-the-great-divide-mountainbike-route/

[AZTtripper]

David thanks for helping I don't follow the TD that close unless a friend of mine is out there. I know John Shilling who started this year had bells and a blue tooth speaker for added noise up that way.

[RonK]

Lovelife, where are you located? Are you on FB? I can put you in contact with a friend living in Grafton who has done the northern section and may be willing to compare notes.

[Iowagriz]

Gun, no.
Bear spray, yes.

Is it sufficient? Only as the last resort.

#1, is common sense. No food in bed, eat in one spot and ride down the road to sleep. Hang your food overnight. Don't bring smelly items, or at least hang those with the food (deodorant, toothpaste, soap, etc).

Just pay attention and don't get lazy. Plenty of opportunity to sleep in safe zones and cities. Enjoy the ride.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[dh024]

David thanks for helping I don't follow the TD that close unless a friend of mine is out there. I know John Shilling who started this year had bells and a blue tooth speaker for added noise up that way.

Bells and a bluetooth speaker are probably less than ideal solutions, IMO. There is a great YouTube video of a NOLS presentation by bear expert Tom Smith of Brigham Young University where he talks about what types of sounds bears react to, plus a wealth of valuable information about safety in bear country:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PExlT-5VU-Y

It seems that bears don't seem to react to unnatural sounds much, such as bear bells. But they will react to the human voice. So you have to yell things like "Hey bear!" a lot as you travel (I have literally spooked a bear out of thick shrubs 20 meters/50 feet down the trail doing this). And you have to be especially loud going through tight cover and around corners where sight lines are poor. Surprising a bear while biking is the most likely reason for a bear encounter.

As others have stated, having a scent-free camp is important, too. Hang your food, pots, toothpaste, chain lube, lip balm, sunscreen, garbage, etc. (ANYTHING with a scent) 100 m downwind of of your campsite, and cook in a different location. Bears have an incredible sense of smell (best of any land animal on the planet), and they are naturally curious, so try to mitigate that risk by ensuring every item with a potential to smell like food or anything novel to bears is away from your camp.

Follow those two general rules, and you should be fine in bear country.

Oh, and make sure you know how to use your bear spray in an emergency - practice getting it out of the holster and ripping off the safety. There have been many stories of people who had bearspray with them, but never used it on a bear for various reasons (inaccessible in their pack, forgot to remove the zip tie on safety after purchase, couldn't get it out of their holster quick enough, etc.). And know the limitations of the spray - you only get about 8 -10 seconds of spray, so you have to use it very wisely. A little research on effective use of bear spray and some practice is very important if you want it to work when needed. Hope that helps.

[offroute]

Some campgrounds can be closed to tent camping during high griz activity. East of Flagg Ranch/Yellowstone was such an area several years ago. The host was cool about it, we had nowhere else to go, uneventful night.

Point being it’s not practical (or possible) to call ahead to every projected campsite or open space agency to ascertain current bear activity that may or may not be actually happening. I/we hung food nightly, kept a clean camp, carried bear spray.

Anecdotal info: I rode 101 days on the route/variations in two different years and did not see a bear at all. Shouting ahead of me in suspect areas might have helped.

Assume they are there, stick to protocols and it should not be something to ruminate over. It’s but one risk of a several on a ride like the GD. I would be more leery of bad humans than bad bears.