Well I have a personal story to relate that I had never thought I would...
We were on our way back from Alaska about 2 weeks ago and we’re traveling down the Cassier Highway in BC. As most of you know BC has an incredible population of bears, in fact we saw three just that day along the Highway. It was getting late and we found a nice spot on Mehan Lake through iOverlander. The site was actually about a 200 ft back in spot to a small campsite along the shore of the lake that had a small floating dock tethered to it. After getting the rig leveled and chairs set up I grabbed my rod and tried to see if I could catch anything. It turned out that they were all about 5 to 6 inches long so I released the two I caught and went back to the camper.
That night we had our stove set up on the back right side of the truck with our two chairs forward of that so that my chair was at the front of the truck bed. A light drizzle had started so we rolled out the awning as Terri was sautéing some Andouille sausage and Brussel Sprouts ( don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!). We were having a drink along with our normal conversation when to my left I hear some noise in the bushes about 10 feet away at the corner of the truck.....
Realizing that what ever it was was bigger than a squirrel I grabbed Terri’s arm and told her to get into the camper as I got up and backed away towards the camper all the while talking in a loud voice and keeping my eyes on the bushes...As I get to the camper a black bear pokes his head out from the bushes right at the corner of our truck. I have Terri get me the bear spray all the while “talking” to the bear to go away. With the bear spray in hand and the safety cap off and pointed at him I turn the stove off. We are having ourselves a Mexican stand off and when the bear takes his first step towards me I yell and motion with my arms to back off. Apparently he must have not been an English speaking bear as he continues coming towards me...now about 10 feet away...
I pressed the trigger of the bear spray and give him a quick shot. The effect was immediate as he retreated into the bushes about 5 to 7 feet away and was making sounds that I estimated was him rubbing his face on the foliage to get rid of the odor. While still watching him I took the opportunity to grab all the cooking supplies and handed them into Terri in the camper. With the site now clean I retreated into the camper and we watched out through the window for a few minutes until the bear came back out again. I decided to not do anything further as there was no danger but just yelled at him to go away which he did...
So I can say that the bear spray was very effective and believe that the bear was probably more inquisitive than aggressive. Because he could have been on me in less than a second from his hiding place in the bushes..
Here are a few pictures I took the following morning showing the proximity of the bushes where he came out of and the beautiful lake...
Edited by smlobx, 25 July 2020 - 04:23 PM.