[pct-l] Trail of Death (Was; Weapons on the trail?)

[Bighummel@xxxxxxx (Bighummel@xxxxxxx)]

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A weapon will be more useful to have in your home than on the trail and for
defense against human attackers, not animals.

As I understand bears, a machete might help stop a bear, but then again, it
just might make him irrate enough to kill you just before he bleeds to death.
 Also, having a machete sticking out of your pack should really make the
trail angels and supplier towns comfortable, . . . NOT!    The local sheriff
might take one look and be convinced that you're not something that they want
spending the night or day in his town.

An ice axe is a highly intimidating tool that will not stop a bear but just
might encourage a ill intending person to back off.  It wont intimidate the
local sheriff either, they've seen them coming through for decades.

Of course, you may get some ribbing from your thru-hiker cohorts for carrying
an ice axe in Lassen in July.

Your fears are unfounded.  The need for a proactive defense system beyond
bear spray or an ice axe is not warranted by anything that you are likely to
find on the trail.

And, with all due respect to what Fallingwater said, I must disagree, there
have been reports of grizzlies sighted on the PCT in the extreme north
Cascades, but no known incidents.  I don't think that you would be willing to
carry anything that could stop a grizzly.

Being aware of your surroundings and not allowing yourself to accidentally
sneak up on a mother bear with cubs, will be your best defense.   This should
be your greatest concern.

I surprized an eight or ten point (I didn't get a good count of them due to
the circumstances) buck coming around a sharp bend in the trail on a steep
hillside.  We nearly collided.  He slowly lowered his rack at me.  There was
no question in my mind what I should do.  I lowered my eyes and slowly backed
up without any quick motions.  When I had given him sufficient room he
bounded over the side of the trail and hauled down a slope at full speed that
I would need a rope and harness to descend.

I had to change my underwear then.  I can still smell his steamy exhale of
surprize and replay those very few seconds of the encounter as though they
lasted minutes.

I was fortunate that this buck didn't react out of instinctual defense.  I
would have been severely hurt or killed with no chance to withdraw a weapon
from my pack. No, my/your best defense is knowing how to show total
supplication to an animal that feels threatened and attempting to avoid the
situation to begin with.

And,

then,

. . . there is the peaceful resignation in a truely ugly unfortunate
encounter with a huge powerful animal (God forbid), of knowing that this is
how nature is, the circle of life hasn't yet crowned man as the ultimate head
of the food chain in all situations, and, if this is how your life is to end,
then what better situation (doing what you love), what better place (in the
grand wilderness) for this to happen?

Greg

Salvitur Ambulando
(walking solves all things)