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

[gwschenk at socal.rr.com]

---- Gerry Zamora <gerry0625 at gmail.com> wrote: 
> Funny cause the 1st question I get is are u taking a gun.

I'm not sure how effective a gun would be against a pine cone. They fall silently, you'd have to have really good ears to hear them detach from the tree, and then very fast to pull the gun and get a well-aimed shot off to deflect them. Perhaps an armored umbrella might be the answer.

> On Feb 9, 2011 7:08 AM, "Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes" <
> diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:
> > When I was hiking somewhere in Washington a huge rock went crashing
> > down the hill between me and the guy I was hiking with. It scared us
> > to death. It was at least 2 tons in size. It would have killed us. It
> > left a huge gouge in the hill all the way down wherever it bounced.
> >
> > On Feb 9, 2011, at 6:47 AM, <gwschenk at socal.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> >> ---- 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
> >
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