Blue View - How to Use Bear Spray

When we were researching our foray to the north, we came across lots of recommendations on what to bring and how to prepare for the trip. At least one, and preferably two, full-sized spare tires: check; tire repair kit: check; tire inflator: check; windshield repair kit: check; tool kit including metric socket and spanners: check; bug spray: double check; sunscreen: check; bear spray: check. Wait… bear spray?

Yup - several guides we read highly recommended having canisters of bear spray, especially if you expect to do any hiking. Since we do plan on hiking in this beautiful part of the world, we bought a two pack, one for each of us, from REI. They weren’t cheap - just under $100 for the two.

For most of our trip, they were packed away in a bin in the back with the other emergency stuff, like the tire repair kit and inflator. Once we got to the less traveled areas deep in the heart of bear country, I thought it was time to dig them out and figure out how to use them. It’d be much better to read the directions and familiarize myself with their use before we encountered an angry bear.

That evening we were in a quiet little campground in BC, and I thought that it would be a great time to try it out. The canister comes with a small holster that attaches to your belt, and has a Velcro strap to hold it in place. If you need to use it, you pull up on the strap, and remove the canister. Then you put your forefinger into the trigger guard, use your thumb to pop the safety off and it’s ready to fire. Pretty simple.

The directions suggest actually practicing with it. The evening was quite calm in the campground and since Marcie was busy making dinner, I decided that this would be a good time give it a try.

I practiced my quick draw for a few minutes, then made sure I could flip the safety off and back on, and I was ready to try firing it. The canister only holds seven seconds worth of spray, so to avoid wasting it, the directions suggest only firing a half second blast. I walked about 20 feet from the table and fired a half second burst into the trees.

Well, it turns out that it wasn’t quite as calm as I thought… a few seconds later, the cloud of spray wafted back to me. It is really nasty stuff! I was soon coughing, and my eyes and throat were burning. A second or two later it reached Marcie, who also started coughing and gasping.  The only positive was that I had only fired it for a half second, and didn’t get several seconds worth of spray in our faces.

We climbed into Blanche, washed our hands and faces, then daubed our eyes with a wet paper towel. Eventually, most of the pain and respiratory distress dissipated.

Rule #1 (not in the instructions):

Don’t spray into the wind - even a slight breeze will blow the spray back into your face. If an upwind  bear charges us, I guess the choices are to politely ask the bear to charge from a different direction, spray both the bear and ourselves, or not spray and hope for the best. After getting just a small dose of bear spray, for me anyway, it’ll be a tough call. I guess that if I did spray myself, I’d hope that after the bear finished mauling me, hopefully, the pepper will taste bad enough that he won’t eat me. Always a bright side to things.

About half an hour later, when we had pretty much recovered, and I had stowed the canisters where they would be handy, I happened to touch my right eye. Big mistake! Once again, my eye immediately turned red, and began burning and watering. Another trip to Blanche and a second round of hand washing and wet compresses

Rule #2 (not in the instructions):

After using the spray, wash your hands and the canister. This might be difficult out in the wilderness with no camper van handy unless you’re carrying water with you or there’s a stream or lake nearby, so alternatively, try hard not to touch your eyes until you can wash up, which leads to…

Rule #3 (not in the instructions):

Bring a bottle or two of water with you on hikes in bear country, not only to keep hydrated, but to rinse off hands and eyes.

Now, whenever we venture out on a hike, I try to remember to grab both the bottle of water and the bear spray. I wondered whether the old sourdoughs here also took bear spray with them into the wilds or was it only us dorky tourists that carry it. I asked a ranger at one of the territorial parks in the Yukon, and she said that she always carried hers with her whenever she was hiking. She’d had a couple of benign encounters with bears and never needed to use it, but it was reassuring having it. I no doubt still look dorky, but it’s good to know that even the cool people wear their bear spray. As I get more comfortable with it, I find that I’m even developing a little John Wayne swagger.

Finally, an old dad joke about bears. A tourist asks a ranger how to tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly. “Well,” he says, “first off, a grizzly is more aggressive than a black bear. Either will try to avoid humans if they can, but you never want to surprise one. Most people try to make noise as they walk so any nearby bear can hear them coming. They do this by talking, and many carry small bells or whistles to make noise as they walk. A grizzly is brown, has a hump between its shoulders and a round face with a short snout. A black, despite its name, might be black, brown or grey, is smaller and has a longer snout. You can also tell the difference by looking at their scat.  Black bear scat might have berry seeds or the bones of small mammals in it. Grizzly bear scat often has larger bones and the occasional bell, whistle or button in it.”

See you next week…