[pct-l] Bears: Risk of becoming a fatality? Statistics of interest here

[gwschenk at socal.rr.com]

---- Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes <diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote: 
> > Bears: Risk of becoming a fatality? Statistics of interest here
> 
> The whole scary bear and scary snake thing gets really old after a  
> while. People worry about the wrong thing. Whenever people ask me  
> "what did you use for safety" they always mean did I carry anything  
> to protect me from bears or snakes. Or else they ask me if I was  
> scared and they almost always mean did any bears or snakes frighten  
> me. What they should ask was how scary was the water? Did you have  
> any close calls with water. Water is by far the most dangerous and  
> frightening thing on the trail. Frozen or liquid.

Yes, and rockfall. Spontaneous rockfall is my bugaboo. We were camped at Vidette Meadows and were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a block headed our way. I laid there trying to remember where we had pitched the tent relative to the slope. Many times we've seem spontaneous slides, glad we weren't in the vicinity.

Oh, and pine cones. Those big cones would kill you if they hit you in the head. Pine cones scare me way more than bears.

Gary