Forget dogs: When bikes and bears collide
05-21-23, 08:28 PM
#26
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this black bear was about 20 yards in front of me coming out of my deer stand after dark. it took a few "Go away bear" to get him moving along and he went the other way at the tee in the trail. I was carrying a loaded 30-06 but still looked over my shoulder the 1/2 mile or so back to camp.
It's currently morel season here and I've been picking.
It's currently morel season here and I've been picking.
05-21-23, 08:33 PM
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05-22-23, 04:50 AM
#28
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I have seen quite a few bears when I was on bike tours, but never came close to colliding with one. I have ridden by some that were right next to the road, so they were within 12 or 15 feet, but there wasn't any danger of colision.
One of my companions on the TA had an Elk suddenly appeal in the middle of the road in Yellowstone that required sudden braking to miss. There was also a near miss with some deer in Virginia. I have had lots of close calls with deer when mountain biking and when I used to race off road motorcycles I recall a guy hitting a bear while preriding the course for the Blackwater 100. If memory serves the guy had a separated shoulder and the bear scampered off.
Venomous snakes are fairly common on my daily ride here on the Florida Panhandle.
One of my companions on the TA had an Elk suddenly appeal in the middle of the road in Yellowstone that required sudden braking to miss. There was also a near miss with some deer in Virginia. I have had lots of close calls with deer when mountain biking and when I used to race off road motorcycles I recall a guy hitting a bear while preriding the course for the Blackwater 100. If memory serves the guy had a separated shoulder and the bear scampered off.
Venomous snakes are fairly common on my daily ride here on the Florida Panhandle.
05-22-23, 05:56 AM
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they are a mushroom often found in Montana especially after a forest fire has passed through. they are delicious and lots of people come to Montana to hunt them and they sell them at farmers markets and to restaurants. Me loves some morel mushrooms but freaking china ones apparently are not so good.....
05-22-23, 06:58 AM
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I've seen bear but not had a problem. Lots of close calls with deer, I am vigilant around sunrise/sunset and one disadvantage of StVZO is not being able to see them as well in fields. An 340 class elk jumped right across the road as I was descending at 45 mph, I can still feel my heart in my throat 35 years later. I don't bother with a G20 or 220gr hardcast on a bike, hopefully, a bear hears me and I smell so bad, they run away
05-22-23, 07:50 AM
#31
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this black bear was about 20 yards in front of me coming out of my deer stand after dark. it took a few "Go away bear" to get him moving along and he went the other way at the tee in the trail. I was carrying a loaded 30-06 but still looked over my shoulder the 1/2 mile or so back to camp.
It's currently morel season here and I've been picking.
It's currently morel season here and I've been picking.
For brown bears (that is, grizzlies), the 30-06 is considered a bare* minimum size for a round. And grizzlies don't speak English. So you could use a .416 Remington round. The Grizzly will end up dead, but will have the last laugh as you undergo reconstructive shoulder surgery due to the recoil.
I'm jealous about the morels. Enjoy them!
* It is a pun: not sorry.
Last edited by WizardOfBoz; 05-22-23 at 07:53 AM.
05-23-23, 09:59 AM
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they are a mushroom often found in Montana especially after a forest fire has passed through. they are delicious and lots of people come to Montana to hunt them and they sell them at farmers markets and to restaurants. Me loves some morel mushrooms but freaking china ones apparently are not so good.....
Just an FYI. Don't eat them raw. They are poisonous raw.
05-23-23, 01:37 PM
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Only time I encountered a Black Bear was on the Mammoth Scenic Byway exiting Mammoth Lake, CA. He was sitting on a bluff maybe 10 yards off Hwy 203 waiting for my brother and I to pass on our road bikes at 0700. Never seen such a burly animal like that in nature. I would estimate this boar was in the 300+ lbs range. He showed no interest in us. Now, if we had bells like mountain bikers, that could be a different story. 
05-23-23, 06:58 PM
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05-26-23, 06:35 AM
#35
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My only experience seeing a bear in the wild was while fishing. I thought it was a big fluffy dog. There was a point during the trip where I was beside a big growth of honeysuckle vine pretty nearby where we had seen the bear. Something started shaking the vine, I reached over to pull the vine aside and 'scream at' whatever it was....no idea what I would really have done otherwise, and here is a deer staring at me. Scared me good enough to get about halfway across the creek before I got wet. My dad about peed on himself.
Fast forward 6 or 7 years and bear is no big deal. 5 year old, the youngest, is out on the back porch playing in her sandbox when I get home from work. "Dad, you just missed the bear!" Really, where? She points towards the pool which is 22 foot round and only 5 feet from the porch, "right there, he walked around the pool, then looked at me." Nothing doing, no concern at all. Mom on the other side of the door cooking. By that time, bear walking through the yard was common.
Grandma lived in their old hunting cabin in the edge of the Allegheny National Forest. Bear were in their yard every day. They didn't have running water and she washed clothes with a wringer washer outside where she could fill it from the creek. She reached back to grab another handful of clothes from the clothes basket and instead grabbed a handful of fur that was walking behind her.
She also had a picture of a black bear on it's hind legs and leaning down on top of the 7 foot brick fireplace that was in the yard.
Last edited by mrodgers; 05-26-23 at 06:39 AM.
