Packing for Alaska: Bear Strategy

/ March 8, 2018

3209282.largeTalk about being prepared! I have packed and repacked my car, Alice, a dozen times. I could leave today, but I still have 3 weeks before I can head north. I will, however, leave today or tomorrow for a trial camping trip to the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona just to be sure I have everything and to see how things work out.

Because of my recent experience with overland trips to isolated settings (and otherwise), I knew what I needed for Alaska without much thought. I already mentioned my new roomy, rain-resistant tent and screen house. Ah, but I have so much more packed into the little Honda Civic. A full list might be overwhelming so decided to start with how camping in bear country affected my packing list and strategy.

Safe camping in bear country begins with knowledge. The most basic and fundamental fact is that bears prefer to avoid people. They are backcountry critters and try to avoid people. The other basic fact is that they are always hungry, especially in the fall before hibernating. Oh, and they protect their young.  So, an effective bear strategy involves a simple trick: don’t give the bears a reason to come at you. Do not surprise them in their own space, especially when they have cubs. Do not emit food odors from your campsite or your body.

Based on these facts, I am packing the following”

  1. A fresh can of bear spray if I do surprise a bear or one comes into my camp. However, I don’t expect to be out in their territory alone. Any outings away from the highway that I take will be ranger-led.
  2. Odor-free shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, etc. Scented toiletries have food smells that attract bears I cannot find odor-free Sensodyne toothpaste, which points to the fact that my packing is not ever going to be perfect, so I am doing the best I can
  3. Odor-free dish soaps and detergents.

Furthermore, I will cook up wind from my tent and pack cooking utensils, stoves, and my food in the trunk. After cooking and eating, I will change into camp clothes and store all this food-related stuff in the car. If I get spooked for some reason, I will also sleep in the car.

As I explained bear-strategy to folks at the potluck last week, one woman stated, “Yeah, but bears can get into cars”. Wham. This ancient little sprite articulated something I try not to dwell on. Bears can open a tiny car with about as much effort as it takes for a human to open a Pringles can. Seriously. If there is something in my car that Griz wants, he/she will help themselves. I guess I take comfort knowing that if I am in the car, I might have at least some time to honk the horn, flash the lights and start the engine. Perhaps Tango would bark before the bear broke in? In any event, the presence of Grizzly Bears in Alaska is something I have to live with if I want to travel in the outdoors and not between hotel rooms.

I also take comfort know that attacks of any kind, including fatal ones, are rare. For a surprisingly short list of bear fatalities (black and brown bears) check out this link. As you read the description of what happened you will see that usually the human did something stupid, like hang around a fresh kill site while hunting. So, I also take comfort knowing that almost no visitors to Alaska get eaten by bears. How many stories did you read about gray-haired ladies in tents getting eaten by a bear? How many tourists succumb? The answer is zero. Zilch Yes, each year humans encounter grizzlies in the wild, but these encounters rarely end in an attack. Here are some details of actual attacks where the person survived. The bears, of course, were killed by authorities.

  1. An Alaska resident survived a Brown Bear attack in 2017. He was riding his bicycle near a sow and her cubs.
  2. A hiker in Denali, in 2015, survived being bitten and scratched in Denali National Park. Her group had seen the bear all day and thought they could kike in it’s territory anyway
  3. Here is a story of a man who survived another attack.
  4. And more stories

Should I be afraid? Not with preparation and planning  Not when armed with bear spray and knowledge. Besides, consider the odds, which are extremely low compared to things that really could get me, like heart disease. An outdoor adventure blog tells me all about the odds: 

  1. in the 2000’s black bears killed 15 people in NORTH AMERICA (including Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.) Grizzlies killed 12 people during that same period, for a total of 27. For the 90’s Wikipedia lists 23 fatal attacks. Dr. Stephen Herrero, a leading authority on human/bear conflicts, says 29 people were killed by bears in North America in the 1990s. In other words, less than three people are killed in North America by bears each year over the last 20 years. And that includes all the countless people in all of the most theoretically dangerous places: Yellowstone, Denali, BC, Alberta, the Yukon, Glacier.
  1. To put things in perspective, about 2 3/4 MILLION people die each year of all causes in the U.S. and Canada.That’s well over 7,000 people every day. Other causes are about ONE MILLION TIMES more likely to kill you than bears. So why are people scared of bears? Partly because every fatal bear attack gets huge news coverage. Partly because people are instinctively afraid of bears and the unknown and the unfamiliar.

Death rates in the U.S. (2007)

4, With about 16,929 murders a year in the US and Canada combined out of a total population of about 334,000,000, about 1 out of 19,625 people will be a murderer in a given year. With about 3 fatal bear attacks per year in the US and Canada combined, and about 660,000 bears in the US and Canada total, about 1 out of 220,000 bears will be “murderers” in a given year.

My conclusion: sitting at home because I am afraid of a bear attack in Alaska is probably more deadly -thanks to a sedentary lifestyle-than camping in Alaska. However, I will plan and not invite a bear encounter! In fact, I hope to see bears from a safe distance while out and about! 

 

Related posts