OT - My trip to Gates of the Arctic National Park

Buckwoody Egger · February 14

he said he did the research! so yes not to distract. botch needs to continue to spill the tea on his story and make a bear spray thread “names were changed to protect the village idiots” and maybe any spray vs pew-pew debates can go there

Legume · February 14

I carry bear spray when I go fishing or hiking in some places around here, but we don't have brown bears. That would be enough for me to get a carry permit.

Moose scare the crap out of me.

JohnInCarolina · February 14

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

ColbyLang · February 14

Problem with bear spray is effective range. It’s like wasp spray’s cousin. I carry a can in North LA where I hunt. We’ve got 27 black bears on property at last count. I also carry a 10mm Glock loaded with protection rounds

DoubleEgger · February 14

After a close encounter with a grizzly (literally 10 steps away) with no spray or weapon, I currently own a Ruger Alaskan in .454 Casull.

alaskanassasin · February 14

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

JohnInCarolina · February 14

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

That whooshing sound...

alaskanassasin · February 14

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

Sarcasm, how does it work?

If you don't have a gun, or pepper spray, I suppose you could try sarcasm.

lkapigian · February 14

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

Sarcasm, how does it work?

If you don't have a gun, or pepper spray, I suppose you could try sarcasm.

It’s how I roll in Mexico

fishlessman · February 14

https://youtu.be/ZjOB6sF5xtI

JohnInCarolina · February 14

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

Sarcasm, how does it work?

If you don't have a gun, or pepper spray, I suppose you could try sarcasm.

Haha you still think this is about the pepper spray. You can't make this sh!t up.

alaskanassasin · February 14

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

Sarcasm, how does it work?

If you don't have a gun, or pepper spray, I suppose you could try sarcasm.

Haha you still think this is about the pepper spray. You can't make this sh!t up.

U sure bro? Pretty sure I nailed sarcasm in my reply… everyone else got it I am sure.

JohnInCarolina · February 14

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

Sarcasm, how does it work?

If you don't have a gun, or pepper spray, I suppose you could try sarcasm.

Haha you still think this is about the pepper spray. You can't make this sh!t up.

U sure bro? Pretty sure I nailed sarcasm in my reply… everyone else got it I am sure.

Yes, it’s quite clear you never got the joke. It’s ok, it happens.

Have a blessed day.

alaskanassasin · February 14

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

Sarcasm, how does it work?

If you don't have a gun, or pepper spray, I suppose you could try sarcasm.

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

That whooshing sound...

I dunked on you so hard you had to go back and edit your post lol.

Legume · February 14

I am hopeful we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming before @Sea2Ski goes submerged again.

By my read, the joke was always about the extinguishers as the videos about them showed failure, even with small fires, but bear spray does work in some situations, some types of bears, yada yada.

Sea2Ski · February 14

Before we left we came up with some ground rules. We wanted to be fairly consistent to keep up with the loose schedule and we wanted to be as safe as possible. Here were some of the commandments:

Waking up. We decided that we would not wake the other person up until at least 6:30 AM despite being on East Coast time and it being light 24 hours a day. This is what we set our alarms for so if someone, or we were both sleeping, we would both wake at the same time and/or the one person did not have to worry about waking up the other. This was also to give ourselves a break from each other and have the true solitude we were looking for. Like with most people, when you were around them 24/7 that can get old no matter who they are.(… don’t tell my wife I said that).

Under no circumstances where you to keep any type of food, food related utensils, or clothing that you cooked in, near or in one’s tent.

Absolutely. No. Exceptions.

No granola bars, no hot tea, no knives we used for cleaning fish, no anything. Even our pee bottles (quart Gatorade plastic bottles) we kept in the tent for nighttime use were cleaned with baking soda and aired out in our backyards for a month before we left in an effort to make them as sent free as possible.

We had a satellite phone. This was the only piece of equipment which we did not have redundancy. We agreed we will call or text our wives between 7:00 and 7:30 AM PST. As our wives called it before we left, this was our daily “proof of life” check-in.

After that call and most of our gear was packed into our dry bags and backpack, whoever was ready first would go get the food cans. Every night we stashed all of our food, utensils and the clothes that we cooked food in (which was packed in a dry bag) no less than 200 yards away from the tents and were in a straight line of site from our tents. This was part of our bear safety protocol. Whoever did not get the food, was responsible for getting the water.

Water: Despite being told that this water was safe to drink and did not need filtering, we did not want to risk anything. Anything could take a dump upstream like a moose, bear, caribou, or even a bird, so we did filter all water. It was 5 mins to eliminate a risk. In the mornings for breakfast, we would come back and cook closer to our gear, but no closer than 50 yards, so that we could pack up and keep moving.

We would not continue to move to find a place to camp past 6:30 pm so that we would not tire ourselves out too much. With the 24 hour sunlight it was easy to stay up at 10 and think it was five or 6 PM. We needed to regulate and keep track of our sleep. It was tough early in the trip, but as we progressed through it, it became easier because we were adjusting to the time difference and we were just so tired from all the physical exertion. Getting camp set up, eating and changing clothing took about 1.5 hours. A little longer if we wanted to catch, clean and cook fish.

And there was holiest of all commandments: We agreed, like in scuba diving, any person has the right to call off what we were thinking of doing next, for any reason. Whether it was a little too rough of water to raft, the path was too loose to climb, thought there wasn’t enough wind break to set up the tents, thought it was a little too late or too tired to go another mile, or they just had “a bad feeling about this”. If one person didn’t want to do it, the other person had to respect that.

Not once did we break these commandments.

Yes we had other smaller rules we agreed to, but they were negotiable. The commandments were sacred.

So our trip continues.

At this point we waked/rafted about 10 miles.

Despite sounding like we were way behind, we were right on schedule. The toughest and slowest part of the trip were the first 23.5. miles. At mile 23.6 we knew there was a class III and IV rapids which we were going to portage around. After those rapids the river becomes flat and becomes similar to a lazy river. Everyone we spoke to that did this trip (3 people and our float plane outfitter) echoed that statement. In those first 23 miles we were going to and did have everything. The river could be 100 feet wide and 2 inches shallow or it could be 10 feet wide and who knows how deep. The average speed of the river was approximately 4 1/2 mph, but in narrow areas, the speed was 15+ and hauling a$$. The water was a very consistent 34 to 36°F as measured by my keychain thermopen. The slight variation occurred when it rained. The water level, however, varied drastically. While I would not call it flash flooding, if there was a weather system up the valley and there was heavy rain, we could see the river rise a foot in a matter of 30 minutes. Class I riffles became class II rapids. We were very cognizant of this when we were setting up camp. The worst possible thing that could happen would be to set up and then have the water rise overnight and jeopardize our camp.

Here was the thermometer that I brought with me. The top picture was not taken in Alaska, but on one of our practice trips. I took the temperature every morning and when I thought it was the warmest part of the day. These measurements made my daily journal entry so I could remember what the weather was like every day.

This was the coldest morning there. It was 70F the afternoon before, but frost in the morning.

So we continued down the river, rafting and walking where needed. Sometimes there were strainers and sweepers (living or downed brush ) which crossed the entire width which caused us to either bushwhack through it or walk around. This was all part of our practice of scouting the river before rafting. There were also wide open areas. Here was a short run …

And all is good - until it isn’t…..

lousubcap · February 14

This thread wins the internet. Just amazing.

JohnInCarolina · February 14

alaskanassasin said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

Sarcasm, how does it work?

If you don't have a gun, or pepper spray, I suppose you could try sarcasm.

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

JohnInCarolina said:

alaskanassasin said:

I know this isn’t my thread yet I keep commenting on it, but…. having a can of pepper spray for bear protection is like using an Element extinguisher stick when your car in engulfed in flames, if you will @RRP

I’m not sure this holds up, because there are YouTube videos where the pepper spray seems to work.

Something to think about after a brownie peels your scull cap off with his teeth and buries you alive (because at this point your only option is to play dead if you haven’t passed out) so he can come back and eat you for supper.

Just google bear attacks Alaska, here’s a guy who was literally just attacked and accounting it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbmx3_RH5YY

That whooshing sound...

I dunked on you so hard you had to go back and edit your post lol.

Really bro? You own some kind of time machine? Because I don’t.

lkapigian · February 14

Oy Vey

JohnInCarolina · February 14

Yes I will stand down now that the dunking has ended, and let @Sea2Ski get back to his awesome updates.

Buckwoody Egger · February 14

love the update! appreciate the detail with the ways of working, team moderation stuff. that is key to a high performing expedition.

staying tuned for the good stuff!!!

Sea2Ski · February 14

A mile or two downstream from where those last pictures were taken, we stopped and took a break. We had a snack and we were looking downstream at a nice run. Everything looked perfect.

The way we entered the water since it was moving so quickly the procedure we followed was always the same. We took turns who went first. The first thing we did was make sure that we were both ready to get in the water and prepare to hop in our rafts. The first person would hop in the raft and get settled. By the time they got situated they would be approximately 20 to 30 yards from the other person who was standing watching. The second person would then get in their raft and start going down. We wanted to keep close to each other, but we also need to keep a safe distance in case something happened.

In this instance, my buddy Keith went first. We looked at each other and acknowledged we were both ready. It was an easy entry. We are on the downstream edge just outside the current of 2 foot deep eddy. Very simple to get in the raft, and once in you would go downstream. I was holding my raft and I watched Keith get in his raft. As he was getting in his foot slipped, and he pushed himself into the raft but pushed too hard and capsized out the other side and his raft flipped. Immediately he was separated from his raft and because of the depth of water and the speed, he could not stand up. He was swimming after his raft and was trying to get a hold of the leash we had on the back of it.

I immediately pulled my raft onto the shore and started running down after him to try and get ahead to help. I quickly realized I was losing ground and I could not catch up. There were too many rocks and uneven ground, and I had to be careful as I was running after him. At this point, I knew there was nothing I could do other than not become a victim myself. I quickly got back up to my raft and got in it. At this point, Keith was approximately 400-500 feet downstream from me. I took a deep breath and got in my raft. I paddled and I saw him go around a curve in the river. I got to that curve and I saw another run and I saw he was further separated from his raft. I kept paddling to try and catch up and was making minimal progress, but I was getting closer. He was kicking and swimming for his raft, but the current was separating the both of them further. He also had to at times flip on his back and keep his feet downstream to prevent from hitting rocks as we were taught in our white water class. While this was a safety procedure, it was also making the separation worse.

I knew eventually this accident would come to an end. The question was how? Was there a slow pool coming up? Was it going to get shallow? Was Keith going to be able to stand up but the raft keep going? There were so many things that could happen. Then there was the thought of what he had if I never caught up to him. He carried the satellite phone in his raft. How could I reach out to someone? What happened if he somehow got snagged and pulled underwater despite wearing an PFD. The only thing I could do is try and keep eyes on him. The raft would be secondary, but almost just as important because of the satellite phone. This was truly a worst case scenario for us beyond some sort of major medical emergency.

After going approximately a quarter mile Keith went around the bend and I lost sight of both him and the raft. I continued to paddle taking extreme care not to make any risky moves or take any unnecessary risky lines down the river. When I got to the bend, I saw there were a series of large boulders in the middle, but I saw Keith and his raft further downstream. Normally, I would not have rafted this little section of the river, however I was moving so fast and I could not get to the edge. There was approximately a 2 foot bank on either side and I would not be able to stop. I went down, bounced off of one of the rocks, leaned into it and made it through without incident. Once I looked downstream I saw Keith standing in a bunch of brush and he was only a couple feet away from his raft.

A quickly paddled in his direction found a safe exit point and beached my raft. I went running down to him to assist. He was waist deep in water and shivering. His raft still inflated was bent around some willows. We quickly grabbed his raft and got out of the river. We immediately knew what we had to do….

I scouted for an area where we would be able to set up camp. There was nothing visibly nearby. I helped Keith get out of his PFD and his rain gear and got his waders off. There was not much water in them, maybe 2 gallons, but he was wet. We pulled our equipment away from the river further and I quickly scouted for a spot to set up camp for the night. He started to go through his equipment to find his sleeping bag, tent and clothes. I found a spot downstream a couple hundred yards. I ditched my PFD there, grabbed my bear spray and attached it to my waiters. I went running back up to Keith and told him that I found a spot. I looked at him and will never forget the look on his face. His lips were blue, his legs and hands shaking uncontrollably. He was talking, but his voice was quivering. He had his tent and his sleeping bag out and ready to go but was talking about something he needed to fix on his car. HIS CAR??!!
I grabbed those few pieces of equipment and his raft and I told him to follow me. We left all the other stuff where we were standing. We got down to where I chose, and I started setting up his tent. He started undressing and getting out of his wet clothes. I unrolled his sleeping bag and he got in it. I went running back up to get my backpack which had my stove and other items that we needed. I got all my necessary equipment down to where Keith was as quickly as I could. I found the thermometer and he started taking his temperature. In the meantime, I was setting up my stove to make warm tea for him. He was in his sleeping bag, moving and shaking to generate heat. While the water was heating, I went up to get his backpack. By the time I got back, the water was boiling so I cooled it down to 105F so he could quickly drink it. (Thank God for that thermopen). His body temperature was 95.5 F. Mild hypothermia. He drank the warm water and was generating heat by doing pushups. As I found dry, appropriate clothes, he would stop and put them on.
Over the next two hours I got our camp set up. I had to go get all of our equipment and carry them to where our camp was. This all happened approximately 3 in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time to get settled before it was time to have dinner and eventually get to sleep. Over the next few hours we monitored his temperature every 15 minutes and it rose pretty quickly. Also during that time we evaluated all of his gear. The dry bags worked - everything was dry. Everything strapped to his raft was present. Nothing appeared to have fallen out of his backpack. We thought we were set. After a while, we hung up his clothes in some brush to dry and we made dinner and went to sleep. This is where we spent the night and next day.

fishlessman · February 14

this is more typical of how my trips have been in my younger years........

SGH · February 14

DoubleEgger said:

I currently own a Ruger Alaskan in .454 Casull.

Awesome choice. I have 3 of them. One with a 2” barrel, one with a 5” barrel and one with a 7.5” barrel. The 5” one is the Toklat edition. Especially like that one.

SGH · February 14

As far as the bear spray. What do you do if the wind is blowing in your direction? Or even crosswind. Spray has very limited use in real life. However it works perfect at staged demonstrations.

JohnInCarolina · February 14

I guess @Sea2Ski got killed by a bear, and that's why we haven't heard from him in some time. Everyone keep an eye on the papers out of Alaska, maybe we'll see something.

Sea2Ski · February 14

We woke up the next morning and it just so happened that was the cold morning of the trip. The 6:30 alarm went off, I yelled to Keith and he responded so I knew we were in good shape. He opted to stay in our sleeping bags a little bit longer than normal that day. After a while, we got moving. made breakfast, made our Proof of Life call, and got organized. After a final review of everything we realized we were missing one piece of equipment. We looked all over. Did we lay it down somewhere? Did I miss it when we pulled everything from the river? We are looking all over. After about an hour searching, we realized we were up the creek without a paddle. Keith’s was missing.

What do we do? Do I give him half of my paddle? Let’s try that! We walked upstream with our rafts got an area that was a little tricky and we tried navigating it with just 1/2 of a kayak paddle. No go. We could not move our rafts quickly enough. We did not have enough control. We knew we could not do this for a long period of time. Not to mention, we would have to get out and walk a lot more. Maybe once we got past the big rapids it would work, but we were only halfway there. What was our next option? Make something of course! So that is what we did. We pulled out our little hand wire saw and chopped down different size willows and made a paddle.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/27/a9tc1qsfo8b8.jpeg

Testing to make sure the knots were strong enough.

Eventually we made a blade on the other side. By the end of the day we had something like a paddle.

We did this with the following scenery.

There was also a rock formation on top of a local ridge. We first called it “the watcher”. Somewhat ominous and eerie but at the same time we decided to make it into something positive. See, the whole reason I was doing this trip was because Keith‘s father was supposed to do it with him but end up passing away five years earlier. Keith really wanted to do this trip and he said I was the only person he knew that had the skills to do it and he would trust his life with. The year before this trip, my father passed away. We made jokes that day how “The Watcher”kept watching us. Then one time I said it felt like my father was on that ridge watching over us. Keith stopped, looked at me, eyes opened wide as they could get and he stopped moving. He said he was thinking the same thing, but did not want to say it out loud. From that point on we, perhaps naïvely, felt as though our fathers were still watching over and taking care of us.

That afternoon/evening we caught some fish and we had a little bit larger of a meal than normal that night. We knew the next day was going to be a challenging one for us, so we needed the rest.

(Stay tuned… more coming later or tomorrow.)

alaskanassasin · February 14

That is insane @Sea2Ski all your hard work and survival training kicked in and prevented a scary situation from turning deadly. Alaska is such an unforgiving place, one wrong step in the bush can cost you all your gear or worse. I get the feeling he wasn’t so bad off you were willing to jump in the sack with him but I’m sure you were prepared to do anything.

Sea2Ski · February 14

I knew as soon as I brought up our bear protection that would be a discussion point. I just knew it.

Like I said, watched videos, spoke to Rangers, other people that did similar trips, spoke to guides, and after careful consideration we made our final decision. We took every precaution we needed to take. They say you should make a bear triangle: sleep 100 yards from where you cook, store your food 100 yards from where you sleep and from where you cook. We did at least double that. As I said earlier, we had strict rules of what we kept in our camp. If we were out walking, we made lots of noise. Bear spray was always on our person. In my tent, I had one can on each side of me in the side pockets and one hanging from the roof of my tent. Yes the only downside is wind. That IS the biggest downside. But when you factor in the odds of 1) running into a bear, 2) having it be aggressive to you, 3) having it actually attack you, the odds are relatively low of all that happening. How many people go into bear territory and never see one? Millions of times a year. But how many times do you hear about those - rarely if ever. How many bear attacks take place? But you hear of every one of those. And how many end with a fatality? Very few. Yes, if he does make contact with you, you are in bad shape but at the same time if you are being mulled odds are you are not going to be able to reach your handgun and get a lethal shot off in that situation.
We made our decision, and it worked for us. And not once did I need to use our spray.

@JohnInCarolina Ha ha ha. I am very much alive and kicking!!

JohnInCarolina · February 14

@Sea2Ski - the pictures are just incredible, never mind the stories that accompany them. Thanks again for posting all about this.

OT - My trip to Gates of the Arctic National Park

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