Bears and parks

We just got back from an epic national parks adventure to Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park where we camped for 4 nights. Both parks are home to grizzly and black bears and prior to the trip I prepared for possible bear encounters by researching on the internet and scaring myself thoroughly.

First off bears are not human hunters and will most likely not attack humans unless otherwise provoked such as you surprise them on the trail or they feel either their cubs or food source is threatened.  Actually most of their food source is omnivorous.  They eat nuts, berries, grasses, and tree bark.  One of their main meat source is moths....really can you be but so scared of an animal that feasts on moths? They will eat smaller animals such as marmots, squirrels, and fish.   They will prey on larger animals but mostly going for weaker older animals or young (but only if the mother is not around).  In general they don't want to expend much energy so they avoid having to attack. The best thing to do when hiking in bear country is to make a lot of noise to basically alert the bear you are there and they will get off the trail or out of the way. You don't want to surprise the bear by walking up on it. So doing things such as yelling or clapping.  Most of the websites say to call out 'Hey bear' and clapping your hands but the ranger said to not do that because it could scare other hikers into thinking you actually see a bear.  I did not know this until after our hikes but while hiking and calling out 'hey bear' I felt that the other animals might feel left out so I started calling out 'hey moose, hey squirrel' and any other animal I could think of.  I also made noise by belting out my favorite songs ranging from Disney classics to 80's pop tunes.  Now all that said and done what do you do if the noise doesn't work and you do walk upon a bear? The thought of an angry bear charging me in an attack mode did not sound fun. I found a website they went through tips of what to do but can't find it now so sorry can't share. First off DO NOT RUN!!!!!!!!!  Bears can run at 40 miles an hour while the fastest human has been clocked at 26 or so. I'm pretty sure I can only run maybe 4-5 miles an hour. Also if you run the bear will most likely chase after you as this triggers its attack mode. One site said you can try climbing a tree but beware as bears can also climb trees.  In reality that is not even a valid option for you since if a bear decides to charge you have less than a minute to a) find a good tree to climb and b) climb the tree. The site said if you are not capable of climbing trees this is not an option for you.  Also bears have been know to pull people down from the tree.  Another option is to play dead. This is what you always see in movies or on cartoons.  I learned though that this may be more terrifying than being chased by a bear. The site says if you play dead the bear does not just smell you and walk away. It will pick you up and turn you around even bite you before it may leave you alone. So if you cannot remain calm this is not an option for you.  So what do you do? You do the most unnatural thing you can image...stand still and don't look them in the eye. The ranger says most bear charges are bluff charges anyways but the one thing that has proven to be most effective even more so than guns is bear spray which is high powered pepper spray.  You just spray it on an oncoming bear and it usually scares them away. Its 92% effective and yes we purchased some before our trip and carried it at all times.  After reading all this I was feeling pretty hesitant to even go out on a trail but I also read that there have been only 10 fatal bear attacks in Glacier in the past 100 years. Most attacks are from photographers getting too close to mother bears with cubs to protect. Once on the trails it became apparent we were not going to see any bears as the trials were full of hikers in groups making lots of noise.  We only saw one black bear in the entire trip which ran across the road when we were driving into the park before I can get my camera out.  We did see some bear scat in Yellowstone but no bears.  The views were amazing and worth venturing out in bear country: