The Outdoor Line Forum

Listened to the pod cast of last week’s show. That bear encounter story was unbelievable. Reminded me of a close encounter we had with a young brown bear while fly fishing in Katmai National Park in the Summer of 2013.

My father and I and our guide were flying fishing Margot Creek, which is about 11 miles from the famed Brook Falls. The float plane drops you off in the morning then picks you up later.

No guns allowed in Katmai NP, just bear spray – which is really just Binaca for the bear before he eats you. Bear spray is second only to the bear “whistle” which is actually the dinner bell for the bears to find you.

Fishing was unbelievable as we caught and let go more than 50 trout. We saw 4-5 bears, but from the acceptable distance.

Then as we were waiting for our late inbound float plane, I filmed the following video of a juvenile brown bear, which our guide just got done telling us where the most dangerous because they were still learning to hunt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMwN0uSUNAI

Never so happy to see the float plane. Does anyone else have any stories?
-Troy

Bears are an important part of life here and you need to learn how to deal with them and have the equipment and skills to do so. Bottom line is all bears are also individuals and will react according to there personalities. It is legal to have a firearm in a National Park (Katmai included) in Alaska. If you discharge a firearm in a NP you will have to go through an inquisition of paper work. The only place where we haven't been able to have firearms was floating the Alsek River because the trip originates in the Yukon Territory in the Kluane Bear Reserve. We have had quite a few encounters over the years and all have had good endings for us and the bears.
On one kayak trip we were camped on a long open bench above the beach during a storm. In the middle of the night a bear walked into one of my wind guys and started pushing on it. I told the bear to move and he walked into the guy on the other corner. Told him to move again, and my buddy in the tent next to me asked if I was talking to him? When I said no I was Just talking to the bear, there was just dead silence for a minute.
On another trip I woke up with the sound of a moose chewing grass next to my tent. The only problem was that when I opened the tent door there was a large sow and yearling brown bear. You have no idea how big a sows head is at 5 feet when you're laying down. My tent has two doors so I was able to exit the other door without confronting the bear. We had a shotgun (in a NP) and bear spray with us and slowly gave the bears some space. The downside was that when I left the tent all I had on was long johns and extra tuffs. After the adrenaline rush ended the wind off the glacial ice got pretty cold. That encounter lasted a little over an hour before we could get back to our tents, so I now sleep with with wind breaker clothes .
Linda had a large Black bear charge 3 times when we were exploring up by Red Bay. She was by herself and yelled at the bear. The first charge stopped at 50 yards and the second at 25. On the last charge she popped the umbrella that she uses to keep the camera dry open in it's face and yelled bad bear. It spun around and left a trail of scat all the way back up the mountain. She said later that the bear probably figured it encountered Mary Poppins evil grandmother.
We carry a Mossberg Marine and use Bernnake Black Max Slugs. They are the only ones I know of made for browns. (don't use slugs made for deer hunting). The Bear spray we carry is more effective than a gun if the wind is blowing in the right direction. Get a inert training can and try it, you will be surprised at how close the bear has to be. We don't use bear bells but do say a lot of “hey bear” when going through the bear tunnels in the alder brush. We don't eat where we camp and keep food several hundred yards from camp. At home we also put all of our wet garbage down on the beach when the tide goes out, the ravens, eagles and crabs love it. Electric bear fences are also very effective, We don't rely on any one tool but use them all.
Ever year there are encounters where the person has no chance to even use there gun, just remember to keep calm and react accordingly.
The University of Montana put out a bear video that was really good some years ago. We also got information from Kluane Park on what plants the browns were feeding on at different times of the year so we didn't camp in the food isle.
Remember to be safe and enjoy bear country.

Gary

Gary, good stuff!

According to the attached link, looks like Katmai just allowed guns into the park starting in 2013 and, as you mentioned, discharging a gun would have to be done under very particular circumstances and that could even bring consequences. Maybe our guide was not informed of the rule change or just opted not to go that route.

http://www.newsminer.com/features/tim_m ... l?mode=jqm

Perhaps in my youngers years I would sleep out in the open, but now I will live vicariously through folks like yourself and hopefully watch bears from a good distance. Be safe out there.

-Troy