I’ve spent up to 2 weeks at a time solo in the backcountry in and around the parks. Never had any issues with grizz. I do carry spray and a 10mm even in the parks. The firearm is the absolute last resort. Yellowstone puts backcountry sites in abysmal places for bear safety. I get their point of trying to keep them out of sight, but right inside of treeline off big meadows, marshes, or waterways makes you camp immediately in the path of bears. With a 2 day period at Yellowstone I had 5 black bears feeding or passing right through my camp. Hiking back the one day I could see a big black mass next to my tent. It was a giant boar just sleeping there in the grass. As I got closer he got up and fed around on the grass in the area around my tent and the marsh. Never so much as looked at the tent or went anywhere near the food pole where my food was hanging. I chased him off but the next morning I looked up and he had popped up out of the creek into the long grass and was feeding 40 feet away from me and had no idea I was there.
The only time I almost sprayed one was a morning I saw a blonde ripple in the sun going through some saplings headed towards camp. So I circled out up the hill to watch confident it was a grizzly feeding along the meadow. It stood up against a tree and it was just a black bear. So I went down to haze it away before it reached the camp and it could not care less. Just kept walking along its treeline path towards camp like what is wrong with you, stop yelling at me I’m just walking by minding my own business. It finally got to where we were well inside 30’ of each other where I was like alright one more step and you’re gettin sprayed. It finally stopped and begrudgingly turned around at the perfect time.
Bout had a heart attack the one day near there when I was sitting on a hillside eating a snack and heard some sticks snapping and looked over my and there was a brown colored bear with two brown cubs inside of 100’. Immediately I pulled out my spray and was like welp bout to get into my first bear fist fight today. It cleared a few more trees and stopped to stare at me and I was like oh thank god it’s a black bear.
It is a little disconcerting waking up and walking a few yards up the main trail from your camp spur trail and seeing giant grizz tracks that were not there when you retired to camp the night before.
The only time I almost sprayed one was a morning I saw a blonde ripple in the sun going through some saplings headed towards camp. So I circled out up the hill to watch confident it was a grizzly feeding along the meadow. It stood up against a tree and it was just a black bear. So I went down to haze it away before it reached the camp and it could not care less. Just kept walking along its treeline path towards camp like what is wrong with you, stop yelling at me I’m just walking by minding my own business. It finally got to where we were well inside 30’ of each other where I was like alright one more step and you’re gettin sprayed. It finally stopped and begrudgingly turned around at the perfect time.
Bout had a heart attack the one day near there when I was sitting on a hillside eating a snack and heard some sticks snapping and looked over my and there was a brown colored bear with two brown cubs inside of 100’. Immediately I pulled out my spray and was like welp bout to get into my first bear fist fight today. It cleared a few more trees and stopped to stare at me and I was like oh thank god it’s a black bear.
It is a little disconcerting waking up and walking a few yards up the main trail from your camp spur trail and seeing giant grizz tracks that were not there when you retired to camp the night before.
