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[RC] Black bears on the trail- California - Cynthia LeDoux-Bloom

As a fish biolgist, married to a game warden, I see way to many dead bears
in the back of my husband's truck each year shot because humans can't be
smart enough to avoid bear interactions: pack up there garbages, cover
compost piles and livestock feeds, etc...  thus humans train them to
associate humans with free, yummy food.  This is their death sentence. 
Just like those parasitic humans we have encountered, bears are just
looking for "life's free lunch" and haven't figured out that there isn't
one.

Here on the north coast of California (way above SF) seeing black bears is
viewed as a "finding a really good prize in the crackerjack box" of life.
As Barb McCray correctly stated that brown bears (aka Grizzlies)have been
extinct in California for over 100 years.

During early spring and late fall when bear food is limited,  we take
extra precautions such as adding noisy martingale rings to our reins or
extras if we are riding horses that we ride with martingales. We sing when
we smell potential bear [think garbage dump], we sing louder when we see
fresh [steaming] bear feces.  When we see each other and they split!  All
that colorful Hought tack, I presume... It's never the bears, mountain
lions, or rattlers that we see that worry us, it's the ones that we don't.
It's just all part of our endurance training and conditioning
experiences.

As far as our horses attitudes, I gotta quote Jaime Kerr, DVM, "Your
attitude goes right thru your anus into your horse."  Okay, he uses
another word, but this is PG-13.  If you freak, they freak.  When we see
bears walking toward us, we walk toward them, and over ~10 years, 100% of
the time, they have yielded. Would I try this with brown bears in WY,
MT,Alberta, heck no. In 2002, when my then 8 year old daughter and I were
invited by the Boden Light Horse Club in Alberta to ride from Papke Camp
to Baniff, we had a one hour lecture by Park officials on how we should
avoid interactions on the trail.  Canadians have the wildlife education
thing very together.

Frankly, I fear dirt bikers, downhill mountain bikers or runners "on
IPOD", pit bulls off leash (sorry Daisy), far more than any black bears. 
A black bear is yet another training experience, in like, "Hello, You Are
Training In Their Back Yard"-

Please try to be smarter than the bears and plan ahead, or you could be
signing the next Fish and Game deprevation (death) permit for the bear
whose trail you just crossed and weren't prepared to share.

BTW, there are numerous educational websites to help understand and avoid
bad interactions with bears...  google away. If you'd like more info how
we enjoy and also avoid seeing black bears while riding in NorCal, please
email me at cledouxatcwodotcom.
















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