>>1075095>>1075202> Katmai> National ParkThere's your problem. In National Parks you can't hunt the animals, so they are not afraid of you. I spent a week in Yosemite national Park hiking from White Wolf to Tuolumne Meadows, and we were visited by human-acclimated bears every night. These were just regular black bears, but they are well fed and get huge. We were even tailed by a juvenile bear while hiking on the trail, the little guy followed like a puppy waiting for a hand out. That was in 1976. I will never, ever go backpacking in a National Park again. I avoid those places like the plague. Pic related.
The way to avoid these encounters is to stay the fuck out of US National Parks. In my area (south-central Idaho, USA) we have plenty of BLM, National Forest, etc. lands. This is where hunting bears is allowed. Every time I have seen a bear here, the thing runs off as soon as it sees me.
And somewhere I read that you have less chance of being attacked if you have bear-strength pepper spray versus a gun. Unless you have a shotgun filled with slugs, or something like a Ruger Alaskan chambered in 454 Casull, and you're calm while being charged by an animal the size of a Volkswagen at 35 MPH, it's better to have a bell on your pack and a big can of pepper spray. Avoid the encounter to begin with by making a lot of noise.
