Hiking with speakers

General discussions on hiking in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest
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retired jerry
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by retired jerry » May 8th, 2017, 7:27 pm

"Question: Would this speaker backpack be loud enough to scare off a grizzly bear?"

I wonder if you could make a device that was very loud that would scare off bears. Like a smoke alarm or something.

pcg
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by pcg » May 8th, 2017, 8:39 pm

Last year I met a Canuck carrying one of those small air horns. He claimed it was better than bear spray because it worked no matter the wind direction and you didn't have to be within 20 feet of the bear to be effective.

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adamschneider
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by adamschneider » May 8th, 2017, 9:49 pm

I'm happy to report that I just spent four days in and around Moab, Utah and didn't have to deal with anyone's speakers. (Of course, it being the first week of May, it was mostly retirees and German tourists.)

ThePortlandeer
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by ThePortlandeer » May 9th, 2017, 8:29 am

Reasons against:
Music disturbs wildlife

Reasons for:
Music loudly and predictably disturbs wildlife
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/opin ... .html?_r=2
This is, of course, based on just a few studies.

All things equal I'd prefer not to hear someone's music while hiking. It's funny though, most responses on this thread respond from the solely human-centered viewpoint that another hiker's music disturbs your proclivity for quiet versus the more inclusive idea that we're guests in nature and we might be disturbing the thousands of natural residents. If we were truly responding from a human perspective we should be happy that all these hikers with blue tooth speakers are not damaging their inner ears with headphones just to avoid inconveniencing the rest of us for a mere 30 seconds of our 5 hour hike :P

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BigBear
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by BigBear » May 9th, 2017, 8:59 am

Portlandeer:

Okay, I've talked with the wildlife and they have a rather simple reply to hikers wearing speakers on their backpacks, blasting away their favorite tune:

"Stay out of the woods. Speakers or no speakers. We don't want you. This is our home and we don't recall sending out an invitation to all you humans. Please, just leave your food at the trailhead, we'll send down a representative later in the day to collect the goodies. Oh, no nuts and seeds (we've already got plenty of that already)."

Chazz
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by Chazz » May 9th, 2017, 9:05 am

Did the squirrels co-signatories of said response? I can't imagine they anything about too many nuts or seeds.

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windmtnpete
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by windmtnpete » May 11th, 2017, 8:06 am

BigBear wrote:

"Stay out of the woods. Speakers or no speakers. We don't want you...."
I hear ICE is now recruiting grizzly bears as boarder guard agents at the US / Canadian boarder. Indeed, they might use music backpacks to direct these bears to the boarder. ;)
“Not all who wander are lost.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien

squidvicious
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by squidvicious » May 11th, 2017, 8:22 am

windmtnpete wrote:Indeed, they might use music backpacks to direct these bears to the boarder. ;)
It's true some snow boarders can be annoying, but that's no reason to have them eaten by grizzly bears.

pdxgene
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by pdxgene » May 11th, 2017, 1:33 pm

retired jerry wrote:"Question: Would this speaker backpack be loud enough to scare off a grizzly bear?"

I wonder if you could make a device that was very loud that would scare off bears. Like a smoke alarm or something.
Or it could point the grizzly bear to exactly where you are.... :P

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retired jerry
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Re: Hiking with speakers

Post by retired jerry » May 11th, 2017, 1:39 pm

maybe if it was mounted on your belt like a bear spray

if grizzly attacks, immediately pull out alarm and activate

like this for protection against humans https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Attack- ... arm+attack

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