Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Have you taken a great hike or want to? Post a note here about the various trails and hikes in the park.

Moderators: teapot57, Tara

For bear protection I hike with:

bear bell(s)
0
No votes
bear spray
17
94%
bear horn
0
No votes
no bear protection
1
6%
 
Total votes: 18

krieser
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Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by krieser »

This summer my wife and I are excited to make our first trip to glacier. It is something we've always talked about. Now we have plans / reservations to go on this "bucket list" vacation. Living in the Midwest we don't deal with bears, so any advice you can provide us would be greatly appreciated. I've heard of bear bells, spray and horns. Should one or all three be available while hiking? We'll just be day hiking. How about camping? Would we need protection there? We have camping reservations at St. Mary and Fish Creek. Thanks in advance and thanks for this great site. Love'n it.
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by al_in_al »

Definitely carry bear spray while hiking, none of the other stuff. Keep it at hand on your belt, not in your pack. Make some noise while you hike (your voice is most effective) to alert bears to your presence, and always watch for signs that bears are in the area.
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by PeteE »

krieser wrote:
Welcome to the GNP chat :)

This summer my wife and I are excited to make our first trip to glacier. It is something we've always talked about. Now we have plans / reservations to go on this "bucket list" vacation. Living in the Midwest we don't deal with bears, so any advice you can provide us would be greatly appreciated. I've heard of bear bells, spray and horns. Should one or all three be available while hiking?

As al_in_al said, all you need is bear spray. You can carry your bear spray on your waist belt as al_in_al suggested, or on your pack's sternum strap which is what I prefer. The important thing is to carry it where you will have immediate access to it if you need it.
Bear bells and those air horns serve mostly to annoy other hikers...in my opinion anyway 8)

We'll just be day hiking. How about camping? Would we need protection there? We have camping reservations at St. Mary and Fish Creek.

Bears do occasionally wander through the campgrounds. St Mary seems to have more of a problem with bears than Fish Creek, Apgar, or Many Glacier. However, bears can show up virtually anywhere at any time in the park.
My advice is to keep your camp site as clean as possible. Don't leave anything lying around the campsite that might attract bears. Store all your food in your vehicle or in the lockers provided in the campground.

Thanks in advance and thanks for this great site. Love'n it.
2015 was a good year for seeing bears for me.
I saw these two, a grizzly sow and her "adult" cub, on September 24th on the Piegan Pass trail.

2minutes


3 days later I saw the same two bears about a 1/4 mile farther up the trail in this video.
I watched them for about 20 minutes before turning back. Turns out they were digging roots of a plant called "sweet vetch".

8 minutes


This was August 8. This is probably a little closer than most people want to get to a grizzly sow and cubs. As it happened, there wasan't much I could do in this situation. Just stand still and let them pass by me--at about 20 feet.

1 minute


pete :wink:
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And when you're born in America, you're given a front row seat."

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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by Sue Z »

On the off chance that you haven't already checked this out, here's the GNP bear safety page, including video: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/bears.htm

I carry bear spray and I sing (repels humans as well).
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by tibber »

and if you get tired of saying "heh bear" you can make up a name. This summer on our hike to Boulder Pass it was said there was a sow and two cubs. We decided to name her Molly in name of my hiking partner's dec'd mother as they had two kids. Good thing too as if the sow had three little ones, we would have to name her Meradel :) after my dec'd mother. We never did see Molly.

And on our hike back to goat haunt, we were trying to think of every bear reference we could just for a change of pace. So the invisible bear got called all sorts of names like Whinnie, Fuzzy, Hairy... etc

FYI we each carried bear spray and I have for the last several years.
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by daschmit »

Krieser, will you be tent-camping or will you employ a hard-sided vehicle (e.g. RV)? As a newcomer to griz country, if you want to exercise all due caution for peace of mind, you might want to give consideration to camping in a hard-sided vehicle. The advice others have given you is sound wisdom and bear attacks in Glacier, let alone serious ones, are QUITE RARE.

However, for the sake of factual accuracy, it should be noted that a woman was fatally mauled in the Many Glacier campground in late September, 1976. I did not know it at the time, but this incident occurred on the day of my arrival, or immediately before it, for my first visit to Glacier. For the remainder of the season, camping at Many Glacier was restricted to hard-sided vehicles.
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by llholmes1948 »

There is some great advice in these posts. I think bear bells are considered pretty ineffective because they are small and really don't make much noise. I have seen people hike with a cowbell tied to their pack which is probably better as it makes more noise but it reminds me of being on a farm whenever I meet these hikers. I have never seen (or more importantly heard) anyone in Glacier using an air horn while hiking. I would consider that pretty obnoxious and a bit over the top. On the other hand I might consider carrying an air horn for emergency use only if I were doing some camping in a remote backcountry campground but otherwise I think it would be unnecessary.

Bear spray and making a reasonable amount of noise is the way to go. As Pete says you need to have the spray accessible because in the rare event of an attack you just wouldn't have time to stop and dig it out of your backpack. You need to take care when hiking around blind corners and especailly around blind corners near a waterfall which might limit bears from sensing your approach.

Hope you have a great trip and hope you will post a report of your trip.

Lyman
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by krieser »

A big THANKS to all of you for your insightful responses. The advice is consistent and overwhelming ... bear spray is what we need and what we'll get. Thanks for those of you that participated in the poll. PeteE, I particularly enjoyed the videos. Your calm demeanor was very impressive when those bears walking along the trail were within 20'. I only hope I'm that calm, should I be in that situation. daschmit, fortunately we'll be camping in a hard-side camper. Again, THANKS to all.
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by daschmit »

Krieser, for evidence of just how effective bear spray truly is, see this first-hand account of a wildlife-landscape photographer in the Tetons who got a little too close to two grizzlies: http://daryl-hunter.net/bear-spray-really-works/.
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by llholmes1948 »

Article on bear spray in the Flathead Beacon:

http://flatheadbeacon.com/2018/04/07/be ... rethought/
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by thorn726 »

great thread thanks for the info- i have a related question.. while obviously we must be able to eat lunch along the trail, and advice regarding cooking a meal on a day hike? we would only boil water and eat a mtn house, but assuming it is even allowed, is doing that along a trail for lunch very dangerous? i feel like maybe we should plan to bring cold snacks for day hiking// any advice?
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by PeteE »

thorn726 wrote:great thread thanks for the info- i have a related question.. while obviously we must be able to eat lunch along the trail, and advice regarding cooking a meal on a day hike? we would only boil water and eat a mtn house, but assuming it is even allowed, is doing that along a trail for lunch very dangerous? i feel like maybe we should plan to bring cold snacks for day hiking// any advice?
I've seen people boiling water on stoves out on the trail a few times---always above tree line.
"Cooking" on the trail in the woods is stupid imo.
Even a Mountain House meal can be smelled a long way off by a bear after you open the package to eat it. Yes, a bear's nose IS that good.
So preparing hot food in the woods, where visibility is very limited, is just asking for trouble imo.

I don't know for certain about the park's regs.
I looked just now through the park's website and didn't see anything answering the question of "cooking on the trail".

However, I'm pretty certain it's illegal, and I'm positive it's highly discouraged if not.
Good policy too.
Otherwise there'd be too many yahoos littering up the landscape with "leftovers" which will indeed attract all sorts of attention from the critters.

And frankly, not worth the hassle imo---and nasty looks you might get from other hikers. 8)

pete :wink:
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by llholmes1948 »

I don't recall ever seeing anyone cooking on a trail and I agree with Pete that it would not be recommended. Most people on day hikes just pack a sandwich and snacks and leave any cooking until the evening meal. Carry plenty of water.

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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by thorn726 »

thanks of the responses i kinda thought this might be this case... makes sense, even the hydrating period of a mtn house would be a strong enough smell. We'll plan to have some cold food for day hikes and on trail and only cook in the cooking areas. // we're only hiking along creeks and lakes and we'll have our filter so water will be a little easier than what we are used to very excited thanks for the info!! //oh ps regarding bear noses, yeah// Yosemite they tell of a collared bear that was tracked going 3 miles upwind in a straight line to a deer carcass// it is usually safe to cook and move on there (but of course cook well away from camp)// but i guess in grizzly country you dont take any chances at all.. we prefer not to get eaten ...
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Re: Recommended Bear Protection While Hiking in Glacier

Post by mattB »

Why is cooking on the trail any different than cooking at a backcountry campsite?
Smells aren't any different out on the trail than they are in a camp?
I've seen plenty of campsite cooking area's with almost NO visibility...

I've never done it in Glacier, but I've hiked with several people who like a hot lunch on the trail. They carry a small stove, and then can have a cup of hot soup for lunch and some hot coffee or tea.. Its never anything complicated, really just boiling water.
I've never done it just because I don't want to carry the extra weight of a stove, fuel, and pot; although there have been a lot of days when a cup of hot soup or some hot coffee would have been nice at lunch time..
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