Finding Wilderness

Archive for October, 2009

As far as I know this is the first verifiable case where coyotes (as opposed to wolves or dogs), have killed an adult human.  There are several incidents where coyotes have attacked children and adults. In one case a child was killed. In this case, singer-songwriter Taylor Mitchell was hiking solo in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia when she was attacked, dying of her wounds in a hospital.   According to this AP report, police officers summoned to the scene by other hikers shot and wounded one of at least two coyotes that were observed.

A bear that had been trained to ice skate as part of a Russian circus has attacked and killed a circus director, while wearing skates.  These types of attacks are sad, for the humans as well as the bears (this one was shot and killed).  And they are not particularly rare, given the relatively small number of people who have trained animals.  We regularly see videos and photos of people who have trained large carnivores, and consider them safe.  They are not.

Not having anything else handy, this women threw her I-Phone at a bear that was following her.  The phone distracted the bear and it stopped following her.  Ruined her I-Phone though.

This report today in which two British Columbia hunters were attacked by a grizzly while in their tent is instructive for several reasons.

Lesson One: This is is another example of the limitations of a rifle during an attack, especially inside a tent.  The hunter had to struggle somewhat to get the bear in a position so that he could shoot it without injuring his friend:

“I closed the bolt on the gun, thinking I have a bullet in and pushed the bear up because I didn’t want to shoot my friend”

Unfortunately, in the dark and the excitement, he only thought he had chambered a round in his rifle.  The gun when click when he pulled the trigger.  Which leads to

Lesson two:  Keep your gun loaded.  (In Canada this may be illegal, I understand.)

Lesson Three:  Resistance can work.  In this case the the bear broke off its attack before the men were able to fire a  rifle.  From a Canadian Press report:

“Then she just hit the tent and levelled both of us and basically started thrashing and biting and she was on my buddy more than she was on me but she was tossing me around in the process of mauling him.”

Hebert and Scown did their best to yell at the grizzly and push it away. Then, just as quickly as it had attacked, the bear ran off.

“We were basically fighting against it and then all of a sudden it just stopped and it just left,” he said.

Lesson Four:  It shows that predatory attacks by bears are not always spur of the moment things.  These hunters followed the bears tracks in the snow and discovered that it had been following them for more than a day.

Lesson Five:  A bite on the arm is better than a bite on the face or the neck, and is survivable:

“I kind of always wondered what it felt like to be bit,” Scown said. “Luckily, it didn’t get a full upper and lower jaw-bite on me, but it didn’t feel as bad as I thought it was going to feel.

Additional note: The female grizzly was not particularly large judging by the photo of the paw print in the linked article.   The photo shows that  the width of bears paw was about twice the length of a cigarette lighter.

This is another reason why it is good to carry pepper spray, and to draw your pepper spray before your gun.

As reported in the Powell Tribune on Tuesday, October 13, 2009

While being mauled by a grizzly bear on Saturday morning, a hunter also was shot by a fellow hunter who was attempting to fend off the bear, according to a report from the Montana Park County Sheriff’s office.

The incident happened in the Coulter Pass area near Cooke City, Mont.

The Livingston, Mont. dispatch center was notified of the mauling at approximately 10:26 a.m. Saturday, the report said.

The hunter was transported to a local hospital for treatment.

“Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is currently the lead investigation agency, and the (Montana) Park County Sheriff’s office is assisting with this investigation,” said the report.

Here’s an update from the Great Falls Tribute.  They report that the hunter hit is friend in the arm with the first round, and later killed the bear.

There have been several bear attacks recently in the same area near Anchorage.  In one recent case, college cross-country runner Auston Ellis was able to avoid injury by staying just ahead of the bear before it gave up the chase.  This is the only case I remember where someone has been chased by a grizzly without getting bitten or at least pawed.  One thing that may have made the difference in Auston’s case was his speed — he was able to stay just inches ahead of the bear initially — and after running just a few yards he turned a corner sharper than the heavier bear could manage, which had to stop.  Apparently that was enough to dissipate the sow’s “bite the intruder” reflex and she took off with her cubs after a short stare down through the bushes with Auston.  Here is the core part of Auston’s account, as reported in The News Tribune.

“I’ve never heard of a story where anyone who has run from a bear that bad things haven’t happened,” said Ellis, 21, who grew up in Wyoming before spending his high school years in Valdez.

But, as he fairly points out, most of the people who advise dropping and playing dead for a grizzly bear have never had a bear chomping the air inches from their butt.

“I couldn’t do it,” Ellis said. “It was one of those instinct things.

“I took off and sprinted for about 20 yards or so.”

As usually happens, the bear gave chase.

It “was maybe 2 feet behind me the whole way,” Ellis said. “I was 99 percent sure I was going to get mauled, and I was about 97 percent sure I was dead.”

Running, he decided, wasn’t going to work. A bear will invariably beat a man in a sprint.

“I banked left into the woods,” Ellis said.

He was going fast enough that the bear, being far bigger and thus less nimble, couldn’t make the corner.

“I banked quick enough that she had to come to a stop,” Ellis said.

The move gained him precious seconds in the chase. He looked for a tree to climb to safety now.

He couldn’t find one. He dove into a thick tangle of alder.

“The bear circled back,” Ellis said, “and got with about 3 feet of my face. We had this stare down over the bush. I didn’t breathe or blink or anything.”

After a short time, the sow moved off with her cubs.  The stare down is another unusual feature of this bear encounter.  Stare down’s are common with cougars, but unusual with bears.  I think this incident tends to support my idea that a foot forward, but semi-passive defensive stance would be better than playing dead.  (See the page “How to fight bears,” on this site).  Who knows what this bear was thinking during the stare down but it clearly knew that Auston wasn’t dead.  It was probably trying to figure out what Auston was, and gauging whether he was a threat.

A friend sent me the link to this report of a trail runner near Bountiful, Utah who had a five-minute stand-off with a charging cougar.  He asked me if the cougar was playing.  ”No,” I replied in my email, “it wanted to eat  him.”  I pointed out that cougars have attacked and killed about 10 runners and at least one mountain biker in the last 15 years.   Standoffs like Steve Newman’s (the Bountiful runner) are common.  David Regela crafted a very readable account of a long, intense stare-down between a cougar on a river rafter that appeared in Vol. 2, Issue 2 of BEARS and Other Top Predators.

The linked article contains a perfect summary of what to do if confronted by a cougar:

• avoid rapid movements; don’t run
• Don’t turn your back
• Smile (to show your teeth!)
• Make loud, menacing sounds, like yelling and growling
• Raise arms, objects or jackets above your head (to appear larger)
• Position trees, boulder or large object between self and lion
• Throw things if the lion is close

And I would add:

• Grab your pepper spray or your sheath knife that you had sense to take with you in lion country (which in the West, includes many suburban areas these days)
• If you have kids with you in any kind of forested or brushy country, keep them within sight.

Tom Chester has a website that contains summaries of fatal and non-fatal cougar attacks in North America.

Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of fatal cougar attacks in North America.

This  post is in response to someone who read my page on how to fight back when you  have been unable to avoid an encounter.  Her question:

The advice to go in groups and make noise is of course primary in importance and good to be reminded of.  I have a question, though: While fortunately I’ve never seen a bear on any backcountry hike, what would a group of two or four people do who– while hiking along a trail– come upon a bear several yards in the distance? In other words, maybe the bear is not right there at you, but close enough that he sees you a little ways away? Do you quickly turn and walk back to the trailhead? Do you run? Do you walk backward while facing said bear so you know what he’s doing at all times? Would love to hear your take on this.

First off,  as far as I know it is still true that there is no instance of a bear killing a human in a group of five or more people.  Hiking with a group is clearly safer.

If your group confronts a bear that hasn’t charged yet, the best thing is to gather together if possible.  The idea is to look like a large animal.  Bears do the same thing to each other.  If they don’t want to fight they turn sideways to look larger and avoid eye contact with the other bear.  Raise packs, jackets, arms — anything to make yourselves look larger.  Avoid eye contact and back slowly away.

Some people have theorized that the large orange cloud of a pepper spray blast may be a visual deterrent to a bear.  It’s hard to say if this is true.   Others have speculated  that a large rapidly inflating balloon may be an effective method to scare a bear off.

If everyone in your group has an accessible can of pepper spray, I think the odds of cutting short a bear attack without serious injury are very high.  In most cases where pepper spray has failed, it is because the victim doesn’t get it out in time or they miss on the first blast and deplete their can.  If a bear gets to one person in the group, I have to think that a coordinated rush by the others with full cans of pepper spray would be pretty effective.

I was shocked and saddened to hear today about the death of hiker T. J. Langley.  The Seattle Times said he was on a solo hike near Luahna Peak, above Boulder Pass in the Glacier Peak Wilderness.  He was found at the bottom of a glacier, apparently having slipped.  T. J. was a likable fellow with a taste for wilderness not unlike my own.  I’m sure he will be missed.

I interviewed T. J. in an Idaho Falls, Idaho hospital 10 years ago after he had been attacked by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park.  I was interviewing him for my magazine, BEARS and Other Top Predators.  (The account of his attack is in Vol.1, Issue 3).  I have photos in my files of his lacerated and stapled head and of his eye socket sewn closed to protect the eye from infection.  He thought the eye was safe, but I never heard for sure.

Recently I had been thinking about looking him up now that I had moved from Idaho to Seattle.  In the years since I interviewed him I had postulated a method for defending bear attacks.  His experience was particularly informative because he switched tactics during the encounter from playing dead to fighting back.  I wanted to revisit a few details with him.  I should have done it sooner.

In the hospital he told me that thereafter he would always hike with a companion when in bear country.  I guess black bear country with a slight chance of meeting a grizzly didn’t count.  Or more likely the solace of solo trips was too compelling.  A few years ago I hiked solo to the very end of Napeequa Valley.  We would have hiked over much of the same territory.  Over little Giant Pass, down into Napeequa Valley (a Shangri La if ever there was one).  But he went up Boulder Pass and then along the high ridges along the West end of the valley.  I went to the end of the valley and out to the North, off trail, over a narrow pass.  From my bivi I could see across the valley to Luahna Peak, two miles directly south.  I know where his heart was when he died.  It’s a good place.

Map of area of Lauhna Peak and upper end of Nepeequa Valley.

Nepeequa Valley from Little Giant Pass

This is the view of Nepeequa Valley from Little Giant Pass. T.J. would have descended into the valley, then probably went up Boulder Pass, which climbs out of the valley about halfway up the picture. Then he would have followed the high ridges, first to Clark Mountain, and then to Lauhna Mountain, which can be seen along the left side of the photo. I followed the valley all the way to its end, then climbed out to the north. I bivied on the lowest spot that can be seen on the ridges in the far background.

Clark Mountain (sharp summit on left) Lauhna Mountain (in center)

When I snapped this shot from the valley I remember thinking how rugged those mountains were.  I thought  they might be a nice adventure  someday.  When I first posted this I wasn’t sure whether this was showing Clark or Lauhna Mountain.  T.J.’s friend, one in the party that found his body, left a comment that Clark is on the left and Lauhna is on the right, and that T.J. fell on the other side of the mountain.

Waterfall in Nepeequa Valley

Looking down Nepeequa Valley from the upper end.

Cirque at the very end of Nepeequa Valley. Lauhna Mountain would be off to the left.

I have commuted by bicycle my whole career. That’s about 20 years in such varied places as New York City, Washington D.C., Berkeley California, Kumamoto Japan, Seattle, and Blackfoot, a small town in Idaho.

For long-time bike commuters it has been gratifying to see the surge in our numbers as gas prices skyrocketed. Here’s hoping these new riders don’t lose their gumption now that the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting cooler. To those riders, and anyone who is open to the idea of bike commuting, here’s the secret — commuting through the winter here is not so bad, in fact, it’s quite pleasant and invigorating most days. Seattle is famous for its rain but did you know we get about the same annual precipitation as Washington, D.C. and Tulsa, Oklahoma? It’s just that we have significantly more “rain days”. The truth is the light rain that prevails here most of the time makes for pleasantly cool riding. Temperatures are moderate, and we experience little wind by most standards.

In addition to having a base level of fitness, having a predictable commuting schedule, and saving on parking, gas and car expenses, here are a few things bike commuters enjoy:

• Smiling pleasantly while riding past lines of slowly moving cars.
• Zipping across town in the middle of the day without worrying about traffic or parking.
• Being smug to otherwise socially conscious types drive their cars and park in the garage.
• Telling people “No, I don’t have to ride my bike home, I get to.”

Here are a few things I’ve learned over many winters that help make winter bike commuting go a little smoother:

• Dealing with traffic. Some traffic can’t be avoided, but most commute routes can take advantage of long sections of bike trails and bicycle lanes that are away from traffic. King County, Seattle, and Redmond all publish handy maps that show all of the bicycle routes, bicycle lanes, and the more bike-friendly roads. The Bicycle Alliance of Washington has a bicycling buddy program. They will hook you up with an experienced rider in your area to be your temporary riding companion to assist with route finding and give general moral support.
• Consider a hybrid commute. If your commuting distance is too far or otherwise just doesn’t work as a straightforward bike ride, consider linking your bike with another form of transportation. For example, try hauling your bike on your car to a non-congested and free parking area then bike the last few miles. Other options involve taking your bike one way on the bus, train, or ferry and riding back home on the same day, or alternate days. All of the above methods also work well for runners, skate boarders, roller bladers and walkers.
• What type of bike. Any bike will do, but for year-round riding, fenders are mandatory to keep you and your bike clean. Fenders are widely available and can be fitted to almost any bike these days. Mountain bikes make great commuting bikes, but take the knobbies off and put on 1.5 or 1.25 inch-wide smooth road tires (but not too smooth (see below about flats). Smooth tires will increase the rolling efficiency of your bike by one or two gears. Road bikes are fastest, but the trade-off is that thinner tires get more flats. If you don’t have a bike, consider buying one that has been designed from the ground up for commuting. The best in this category have the following features

• upright geometry (more like a cruiser, less like a racing bike or aggressive mountain bike)
• medium width tires (1.25 inches) with relatively smooth tread
• fenders
• gear racks
• internal hub gear system
• drum brakes (internal)
• dynamo front hub (powers lights without batteries)
• front and rear lights (powered by the dynamo)
• bell

One bike built from the ground up with all of these features is the Novara Fusion, sold by REI.

• Speaking of flats. The occasional thrown staple or bent nail can’t be avoided. But most flats are caused by broken glass or by hitting the sharp edge of a pothole or iron rail on underinflated tires (creates “snake bite” punctures). Keep your tires inflated to the maximum recommended pressure and start paying attention to where the worst potholes are on your route — or don’t and learn where they are one flat at a time.
• Rain causes flats. Glass is another problem altogether and caused me all sorts of grief until I learned how to deal with it. Small pieces of broken glass cause flats by sticking to the surface of the tire and gradually working their way through the tread to the tube. Glass sticks to moist tires much more readily than to dry tires. That’s why on the first rainy day after a dry spell you may see more cyclists than usual on the side of the road, fixing flats. Check your tires regularly for tell-tale nicks in the tread that indicate a piece of glass may be embedded. Squeeze the deflated tire right at the nick to expose any glass down inside. You may need a pointed tool to remove it. Personally, I have found that tire liners and stop-leak liquids aren’t worth the effort or the mess. However, after many years, I have finally figured out that glass doesn’t stick as readily to the types of tires that have micro beads on the running surface of the tread. Between that and checking my tires regularly, especially when the roads are moist, I rarely get flats from glass shards these days.
• Riding attire. I’ve never spent much on biking clothes, except for $200 I wasted on a waterproof breathable biking jacket when I first came to Seattle. Personally I have no use for expensive waterproof breathables for bike commuting. They just don’t breathe well enough to vent adequately when exercising and they quickly become uncomfortable. Instead, I wear synthetic shirts under a simple nylon windbreaker. Even when it is actually raining (which isn’t that often) my heat has built up by the time the water has soaked through such that my temperature is fairly well maintained throughout the ride. This method might not be the best if your ride takes longer than 45 minutes or so, if you ride quite casually, or if there is no convenient place to hang wet clothes to dry when you get to work. For the legs I get by with heavy bicycling tights or simple polyester jogging pants, rainy days or dry. A few bikers where neoprene or other types of booties on the feet. Most don’t bother. But you should pick shoes made of non-absorbent material without a lot of padding. I relax my no Gore-Tex rule for the hands. I use thinly insulated Gore-Tex-lined gloves on raining days. A visor on your helmet is unexpectedly useful for keeping the rain out of your eyes and off your glasses.
• Get a thermometer. As winter progresses you will want to start putting on more layers to match the temperature, but it’s a hassle if you misjudge. Get a large outdoor thermometer and check it every morning before you leave. You will soon learn exactly what to wear to be comfortable at a given temperature.
• Friction is mandatory. As the weather gets colder, the thermometer is crucial to avoid riding on mornings when the temperature has dropped below freezing overnight. Fortunately, this happens on average only about five nights per winter. (Last year was unusually cold; we had about 10 nights below freezing.) Because we have very little wind here, it can actually be quite comfortable riding in 33 or 34 degree weather. But don’t be tempted to ride when the thermometer goes to 32. It isn’t worth it. If you ignore this advice and end up banging your hip in a crash, look on the bright side. There is a very good chance that you will even things out by banging up the other hip before you get to work. I speak from experience.
• Carrying your gear. Your backpack, messenger bag, or panniers should be made of non-absorbent, not just waterproof material. The bags designed for the purpose made out of PVC work perfectly. They are also expensive. For the last four years I have used a vinyl backpack I bought for three dollars. Besides being waterproof, it is also an eye-catcher, albeit not necessarily in a pleasing way. If you see a guy riding downtown with a florescent blue backpack that looks like he borrowed it from a Japanese school girl, that’s me.
• Cargo bikes. If you need to carry lots of gear or even kids on your commute, check out Xtracycle, a company that makes a bicycle extension that allows you to haul up to 200 pounds of oddly shaped cargo or people. There are a number of these handy bikes around town.
• Become a night rider. If you are committed to bike commuting year around you will need to get comfortable riding at night. Bike lights continue to get brighter, cheaper, and the batteries last longer. There’s no excuse these days not to be lit up like a candle in all directions. You should also have redundant lights, both front and back, to avoid issues if one stops working for any reason, and to use more lights when it is raining. Wet roads reduce visibility, wet windshields even more. When it’s raining I turn on more lights and put them on more obnoxious flash settings. Many riders attach a red light on their helmet facing backwards. I have a little headlight taped to my helmet that I turn on when it’s raining and I use it to shine in the face of drivers whose attention I need. I use plastic cable ties to mount tail lights on my front fork so that I have good lighting on the side. In 20 years of riding I have had one close call with cars, not here in Seattle but on a rural highway in Idaho. It was at dusk and though I wasn’t the one violating the law, I could have avoided the whole thing by having decent lighting on my bike (I only had a dim headlight.) My theory (no proof) is that a well-lit, reflected up bicyclist grabs the attention of motorists at least as well as a biker in daylight.
• Maintaining your bike. The worst part about rainy weather is not that your clothes get wet; it’s that you have to spend more time maintaining your bike. As I said earlier, fenders are mandatory and will help keep the bike clean. With older bikes it requires some care to keep water out of the wheel hubs. With modern sealed hubs, this is no longer an issue. Nowadays the most critical parts affected by wet weather are the chain and the cables for the brakes and gears. Make sure the cables have been appropriately lubricated when they were installed, and check for gaps or cracks in the covers that might let water in. Keep your chain lubricated. I like a wax-based lubricant called White Lightening which stays on well and doesn’t cause nearly as much mess. Carry an absorbent cloth with you in your pack and on rainy days wipe the water off of the chain as soon as you get to work. If you wait until you go home you’ll have rust, even if your chain is well lubricated. Consider shelling out extra cash for a stainless steel chain.
• Internal hubs. If you are in the market for a new bike consider an internal hub. Internal hub bikes have made a comeback in the last few years and the choice has expanded beyond the traditional 3-gear variety to 5, 8 and even 20-gear versions. These gear systems are a little heavier and more expensive to repair, but the advantage is that they are completely internal, out of the weather, and they also allow the chain to be completely covered by a guard, keeping it out of the weather too. The Novara Fusion, mentioned earlier, has an internal hub.
• Parking your bike. Some companies are okay with employees carrying their bikes in the elevator to their office. I don’t bother, because the underground garages in most office buildings have racks to store your bike out of the weather and in the relative safety of the garage. These garages apparently do this as a public service, because I’m not aware of any incentive for them to do it, and it seems against their economic interest. So let me take the opportunity to thank the managers at the IDX Tower and the Columbia Tower for making a place for bikes in their garages.