Bear kills cyclist in the US

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Mr conners
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Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Mr conners »

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NewRetroTom
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by NewRetroTom »

Absolutely dreadful. That was in Ovando which is on the Tour Divide route and notorious because of the friendly shopkeeper who takes and upoads photos of pretty much all the racers who come through.
jameso
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by jameso »

It's awful to hear of it actually happening. Worth remembering how many hundred, maybe thousand riders pass through bear country on the GDMBR and other routes every year and how rare it is to hear of bear attacks.
woodsmith
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by woodsmith »

It's an awful thing to happen and while the risk of it happening are very small these campers didn't help matters by keeping food in their tents.

Ms Lokan and her two companions, who were staying in a separate tent, then removed food from their tents and secured them before going back to sleep. But the bear returned shortly afterwards, leading to the fatal attack.
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Richard G
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Richard G »

woodsmith wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 10:32 pm It's an awful thing to happen and while the risk of it happening are very small these campers didn't help matters by keeping food in their tents.

Ms Lokan and her two companions, who were staying in a separate tent, then removed food from their tents and secured them before going back to sleep. But the bear returned shortly afterwards, leading to the fatal attack.
Yeah, I noticed that. Unfortunate.

I've never camped in bear country and even I know that you're supposed to hang your food up away from the tent (or something along those lines).
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by jameso »

I don't want to discuss what they did as any criticism, but if I knew a bear had been anywhere near my camping spot I'd have been be up and riding and probably planning on returning for my bivi gear in daylight. Maybe that's from a lack of familiarity with bear risk or behaviour but as much as I love seeing wildlife when out on rides, those things really scare me.
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NewRetroTom
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by NewRetroTom »

I think the fact that they were in town may have meant that they let their guard down (one of the news articles states "She and her party were camped near the town’s post office and museum").
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UnderTheRadars
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by UnderTheRadars »

Ridiculous that the bear has to be killed. ‘Kin humans :cry:
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NewRetroTom
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by NewRetroTom »

It's certainly sad that the bear has to be killed, but I wouldn't say ridiculous. Once it has become habituated to raiding chicken coops and trying to get into peoples tents the bear is always going to be dangerous irrespective of if it has hurt or killed anyone.

If everyone carried out best practice then the necessity of killing bears would be even more unnusual than it is.
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

Obviously wrongly - I kind of thought that the use of bear bags, hanging food away from camp etc was pretty much common knowledge in those parts of the US that are home to bears? As said, maybe they let their guard down?
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Dave Barter
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Dave Barter »

Are we sure this is entirely the fault of the poor deceased woman? It looks like this bear was on a mission having raided a chicken coop. Furthermore it dragged HER from the tent not the food. If it had a lust for meat then no amount of hanging is going to deter it. We don't have the full facts but my reading of it was that this was an unfortunate encounter between a predator and a human which was maybe down to bad luck. The campers had bear spray and thus were prepared in some form.

A farmer near Butte discussed mountain lions with me and basically said that if it decides to kill you there is nothing you can do. It's rare that they do, but they are impeccable stalkers and you'll know you're being attacked when the teeth clamp round your neck.

We take a risk going into areas where predators reside, it's incredibly low but maybe this poor lady fell the wrong side of the odds?
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woodsmith
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by woodsmith »

Dave Barter wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 11:33 am Are we sure this is entirely the fault of the poor deceased woman?

We take a risk going into areas where predators reside, it's incredibly low but maybe this poor lady fell the wrong side of the odds?
I'm not saying it was entirely her fault, bears predating on humans is very rare, all I'm saying is that she didn't improve her odds by keeping food in her tent which may have been what initially attracted the bear.
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Boab »

There's an article just up on bikepacking.com -> A Story to Bear: Thoughts on Grizzly Tragedy in Montana
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woodsmith
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by woodsmith »

The Dr. Tom Smith video is well worth watching even if you're not really thinking about travelling in bear country

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PExlT-5VU-Y&t=1737s
Mr conners
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Mr conners »

When touring in the states and riding the GDMBR we were regularly reminded by people we met to hang food and be generally bear aware. Lots of horror stories about people being mauled and eaten. However, thankfully it is rare but you really need to try to stack the odds in your favour.
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by ton »

myself and the wife had plans to tour the divide. i have just shown her this thread.
we are now planning for New Zealand instead............ :wink:
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Leerowe76 »

UnderTheRadars wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 11:01 am Ridiculous that the bear has to be killed. ‘Kin humans :cry:
Exaclty my thoughts
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Cheeky Monkey
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Cheeky Monkey »

That YouTube by Dr Tom is fascinating and entertaining too.

As for the bear, it's a real shame it had to be shot ( and possibly it being habituated to humans etc was a problem caused by humans in the first place) but what else could you realistically do?
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Lazarus »

The Dr. Tom Smith video is well worth watching even if you're not really thinking about travelling in bear country
ery interesting and a lot of counter intuitive facts
Cheers for the link
woodsmith
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by woodsmith »

UnderTheRadars wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 11:01 am Ridiculous that the bear has to be killed. ‘Kin humans :cry:
Problem black bears are frequentley relocated and given a "hazing" upon release with rubber bullets to put them off further contact with people. The problem with Grizzlies is that their range in the contiguous USA is limited to Yellowstone and Glacier, the area where this attack happened.
Not enough people realise that the the measures taken to keep food out of bears reach ( bear lockers, bear cannisters, ursaks etc) is as much, if not more about protecting the bears than protecting us. As the saying goes, a fed bear is a dead bear.
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Dave Barter
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by Dave Barter »

ton wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 6:41 pm myself and the wife had plans to tour the divide. i have just shown her this thread.
we are now planning for New Zealand instead............ :wink:
Don’t

As I said this is a low probability event. A terrible tradgedy but as likely as being killed in a smash on the M62
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wriggles
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by wriggles »

I was lucky to tour the Great Divide in 2016. I nearly bailed the first night due to bear-fear. I have had plenty of wildlife encounters in the past. eg Lions outside my tent and Elephants 50 metres away in Africa. This was completely different. I cant explain it. A totally irrational fear. I was lucky to meet a couple of cyclists two days later and ride with them. "V" is a PHD Biologist specialising in bears and taught me loads whilst we were riding. "V"'s partner "T" was a bit of a stoner who was trying to work through his stash before the US border so as his consumption increased our daily mileage decreased (and his bear-fear also increased :lol:) so we had loads of time to talk it through. She basically said that bears are more scared of us, than we are of them, and as long as we make plenty of noise they will stay well away. Also camp rules etc. I would happily ride solo in grizzly country again now. Riding as a couple or group also makes a huge difference.

They dont always shoot the bear. For example in the Brad Treat incident* they realised it was a terrible accident and decided to no further action on the bear. Reading around this sad Ovando story they felt they had no choice because the bear had started to come into the town in search of food and the attack was a result of that behavior change.

Also part of the problem is as soon as these tragedies happen US social media whips awareness to a frenzy. There were loads of stories about the Brad Treat incident suggesting there was a rogue man eating bear out in the woods somewhere like something out of "The and they eventually realised he rode round a corner on a fast singletrack decent and actually rode into and hit the grizzly. Someone on here was touring the route through Glacier park when it happened.

* https://eu.greatfallstribune.com/story/ ... /98818710/.
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by woodsmith »

ton wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 6:41 pm myself and the wife had plans to tour the divide. i have just shown her this thread.
we are now planning for New Zealand instead............ :wink:
Don't let this extremely rare incident put you off. I haven't biked the Continental Divide (yet) but I have hiked it and Grizzly attack probably the least likely way to be killed out there. Lightning strike, sketchy river crossings and rattlesnakes were the things that really gave me the fear although the closest I came to serious injury was being charged by a moose.
Seeing the wildlife was one of the high points of the trip , I only wish I'd taken some binoculars.
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by wriggles »

Oh and reading up thread about not having a chance against a Mountain Lion. In the last 100 years there have been a total of 125 attacks, 27 of which were fatal, documented in North America. So minuscule numbers and another example of media hype.
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Re: Bear kills cyclist in the US

Post by jameso »

Echoing the comments of others here Ton.
I was in awe of the wild places in BC and Montana and knowing what was out there was part of it. Remembering how many people travel, work and camp in those areas and how rare bear encounters are, plus basic precautions, it seems to be a safer place to ride overall than a road LEJOG might be. Though I do find bears a scary prospect and it wasn't helped by the pipeline worker in a shop in Canada who delighted in winding me up while I was buying bear repellent.
I didn't think the bear presence on the GD detracted from the trip or felt threatening in reality. I went from thinking they were really rare to a bit worried after seeing signs of them regularly in the first few days, to being more relaxed when seeing they were clearly keen to get away from people if you saw one cross the trail in front of you.
being charged by a moose
:shock:
The huge moose that just stood in middle of the trail worried me more than the couple of bears I saw. It seemed to listen to what I had to say then ambled off afterwards. I was just stunned by its presence, not so close that I felt really unsafe or threatened but close enough that we were in the same space and knew it. Beautiful animal.
The scariest thing I saw were 2 sets of eyes in the dark maybe 2ft off the ground, just a bit further up the trail and not far outside the Glacier part, Red Meadows Lake area. Thought they were bear cubs and I may have ended up between them and mum, very bad place to be. Was genuinely scared until I realised they were racoons.

The guy in the shop gave me some helpful advice in the end, that spray is possibly less useful than bangers (mini rockets) you can get. If the wind isn't in your favour you're in trouble and by the time you're close enough for spray you're already in big trouble unless you have a really good idea of what else you should/shouldn't be doing - he said the pipeline workers in the forest saw bears often and used a rifle shot overhead or a bear banger, didn't or rarely carried spray? I guess I'd feel ok without spray if I had a rifle as an alternative.. (edit, I watched that Dr Tom film - I'll take the spray thanks). General advice is to carry spray though.
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