I don't know if this link will help anyone . . . "words to the wise" and all that. But, they have some wise words perhaps especially apropos for gardeners, including:

* Harvest fruit off trees as soon as it is ripe, and promptly collect fruit that falls.
* Only provide bird feeders outside during November through March and always hang feeders so they are inaccessible to bears.

I especially like this one (may as well try to get some fun out the situation (as long as you can do it safely):

* Get a paintball gun and pop the bear with a barrage of paintballs if he comes into your yard.

There's a lot more.

Here is a link that might be useful: BEAR ALERT!!

I was going to give him one of those 3" long key chain cans of pepper spray, then I saw the piece of hog panel, and figured, maybe, if the bear was big enough and strong enough to do that, than likely, that amount of pepper spray would be like those little packets of tobassco sauce at Taco Bell - just enough to spritz up the appetitie.

Those hog panels are just not as sturdy longitudinally as they look, don't be skeered. :-) I have a can of bear mace and it's a big old 12 oz can that I keep in my truck (in case 'the most dangerous prey' ever attacks).

My looming problem is the neighbor's herd of goats that runs loose. They are a half mile away, but the goats are ranging up to my house. Maybe your bears and my goats should meat meet.

Cheers,
Michelle

This part of the country was apple orchard from 1880's to the 1950's, then they took out the narrow gauge railroad and without that form of transportation, the business slowly collapsed. There are still a few 100 yr old orchards around, with Wolf River apples, old fashioned Johnathans, Winesaps, and some other varieties. About a mile away, they have 80 acres of orchard, and sell their apples in October for $8 a bushel.

I missed last year, but ran into one of the sons yesterday. He said there are 8 bears in the orchard, and there isn't much left. This morning, a huge pile of bear 'leavings' right in front of the gate.

Two months to go.

Just now, 7:30 am, the sound of a pack of hounds baying away, in the canyon to the east.

I think the paintball sounds fun! Well, as long as you have safe shelter nearby to duck into! I'd thought of popping a few deer with that stuff when they used to eat my laurels. But by the time I gave in and decided "live and let live" was my new motto, the deer stopped coming, because development around me had scared most away.

But anyway, here in Utah, we're all taking bears a lot more seriously after a male black bear sliced through a tent on Father's Day, took an 11-year old boy out of his parents' tent at 4 AM, and carried him off and killed him. They killed the bear the next day and the news very carefully said they had to "do an autopsy" on the bear to be sure he was the right one, which was a polite way of saying the poor kid was partially eaten.

When that story broke, another guy said he had been attacked by the same bear the night before and alerted state authorities, but they didn't think it was really that dangerous. It had knocked him in the head through the wall of his tent twice with its paw, but it ran away when he yelled for help and other campers got up and started yelling.

I have a neighbor to the south who hunts, or just 'trees' depending on if he gets his licenses, mountain lion. I think those are his hounds. I hope he finds them, eventually. A few years ago, they ran a bear 15 miles.

I just found out that a black powder hunter shot a 675 lb male bear one mile directly south of here two evenings ago. Thats big - most of what we see are 2 yr olds that weigh in the 200's.

Will a paint ball gun even sting a bear with that coat on it?

Before I left on my vacation, I didnÂt really have anything to add to this thread-----but I do now! Oh, boy, do I now!

I have DEFINITELY "reconsidered" bears!

Last Sunday nite I got stranded in Capitol Reef Natl. Park and wound up spending the nite on a rock, under a rock. (Lions and tigers and bears! Oh, my!) I was wearing short shorts, a very short sleeve blouse, and my standard hiking boots: soft sole moccasins! I also had with me a 35mm camera, a pedometer (wound up walking 14,500 steps), my watchÂwhich I couldnÂt see, and a chapstick! I was at something called The Tanks, which are deep natural "tanks" in the rock that hold water even when everything else is dry (the pioneers used to use them on their trips thru Utah), and once I got there I couldnÂt find the rock cairns marking the trail back downÂplus, some "very funny" person had added their own cairns that led to dead ends!

When it became obvious I wouldnÂt find the trail down before dark I considered what to do and decided that any "wildlife" in the area would be looking for the water, so I found a rock overhang that wasnÂt too close to the waterÂand collected a pile of small rocks to use for "ammunition" during the nite! DidnÂt have any paintball guns or bear mace!!! I "bedded down" under the rock and the last time I could even see my watch, much less read it, was at 8:00. The next time I could see it well enough to read it again was at 6:30! I couldnÂt believe how TOTALLY BLACK it was out there! Once I got my pile of rocks together, I tried to not think about WILDlife, because there really wasnÂt anything else I could do about it anywayÂand I was VERY busy trying to not freeze to death! It got down into the low 40's overnite (39 at the nearby cabins where I was "staying"), and rained 4 times! All 113 lbs. of me somehow survived to see the sunrise! Gratefully I didnÂt hear anything during the niteÂtho IÂm not sure how much I would have heard anyway since everything around me was sand.

When I talked to the owner of the cabin where I was staying the next afternoon (after showering and warming up and eating and sleeping and drinkingÂwater), I found out he was with the Division of Wildlife and I asked him about dangerous animals in the areaÂand he assured me that there were both mountain lions and bears around there!

I have DEFINITELY "reconsidered" bears!

Other than that, I had a great trip!

Skybird

Oh wow, Skybird! That was quite an adventure. I'm glad I didn't hear about you on the news the next day. Was it frightening to realize you had to stay there all night in the cold? Has anything like this ever happened to you before? I sure wish you had a buddy with you on that hike -- it could have turned out pretty bad. Not just bears or mountain lions, but you could have run into rattlesnakes or scorpions under that rock, too.

Wow. I'm glad you made it out OK.

Hehehe! The rattlesnake was on Tuesday, Steve! I was on my way up from a hike down to one of the bridges at Natural Bridges NM (mid-afternoon with LOTS of other people around!) when I almost stepped on a pigmy rattler that crossed the path right in front of me! I wasn't positive that's what it was at the time, but I googled it after I got home---and it was! (Utah is a dangerous place!!!)

I was way beyond frightened! I was terrified---but I was too busy staying alive to really think about it very much!

No, nothing like that has ever happened to me beforeÂand it definitely wonÂt again! But I enjoy hiking by myself, where I can take the time to look at flowers and bark and rocks and such! But I didnÂt really enjoy getting quite as up close and personal with the rocks as I did that nite!

What I posted here is the very, very short version! IÂm sure you know how much I like to write, and the long version is an 8-page Word document that I wrote to send in an email to my brother. If youÂre interested in the "whole story," let me know at SkybirdDEN@gmail.com and IÂll be glad to send it to you. I canÂt post that much here or IÂll wind up getting permanently banned from GW!

But itÂs interesting that youÂd make the comment about hearing it on the news, Âcause thatÂs how I started the letter to my brother: "I came dangerously close to making the National News on Monday the 21st!"

Somehow I suspect a 64 year old, little old lady who died of hypothermia in a National Park would probably have made the National news! But, anyway, I didnÂt, so IÂm still just plain old anonymous me!

When I stopped to let my next door neighbor who was watering my plants while I was gone know I was back home, I told her what had happened, and she brought up the fact that Indian boys used to have to spend a nite out in the woods all by themselves, and after that they were considered menÂso I decided IÂm a MAN now! ;-)

Gotta go to bed againÂeven tho I donÂt sleep anymore!

Skybird

We like (anonymous) you, Skybird. I'm very glad you made it out of the rocks! Some vacation!

It was not just the Indian boys who went on spirit quests. Amongst the Kootenai, girls would go out by themselves, sometimes for months.

You could just as well decide, "I'm a WOMAN now!"

Steve

David52 - where are these apple orchards? I would LOVE to get a bushel. We used to go to Oak Glen in California twice a year and get apple pies to take home. My neighbor was telling me about a lady who came into the auto shop where he works wondering if anybody wanted apples and he said no. I had to get mad at him and told him next time say YES and I'd take all of them...apple jam, apple butter, apple dumplings, applesauce, apple pie...yummy.

Dafy

Good grief, Skybird! You are one tough lady. What an adventure, though.

I wouldn't have thought about the big critters, it's the thought of scorpions, spiders, and snakes that would have kept me awake all night!

Glad you lived to tell the tale.

Cheers,
Michelle

That is some adventure you went on Skybird! I am sorry that the experience is still haunting you, and hope that you will soon be slumbering peacefully.

You remind me of one of my sisters. She weighs all of about 90 lbs. soaking wet, and goes hiking alone every summer. She's been all over the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Canada, etc. One year she met up face to face with a mother bear and her cubs. She backed away slowly, then when the bear was out of site, she ran away as fast as she could. After it was over, she kept going on and on about how irritated she was that she dropped a roll of film and a camera lens when the bear startled her. I was thinking, "Hello, you could have died!!!"

Skybird! No more hiking alone! I used to do that all the time, every single day, morning hike, late morning roller skate, noon bicycle ride for about 40 miles and then an evening hike. The weekends brought on 16 mile hikes, on my favourite route, in the heat of a california summer which is all about 95 degrees. We had lions and bears and rattle snakes and nothing scared me. Nothing. I'd heard cubs, I'd seen cats, I'd even seen a bear, but I had my confidence, my tiny bottle of water and my trusty four inch buck knife. Then, one normal day, hiking alone, I was stricken with heat stroke. Luckily it was mild. I had to lay down (or is it Lie down?) for quite some time and my normally 7 hour hike turned into an eleven hour "thing." I must say, I would have preferred not being alone on that day. Well, you are one tough Lady!! Just try to be careful, and maybe you can find a hiking partner? Sounds as if you have very good survival skills!