2 more weeks until the Idaho life begins!
Getting a bit nervous of the new wildlife I will be encountering sooner or later
Who here has ever dealt with wolves?
Just looking at pictures from northern Idaho catches and these guys look humungous!! bigger than cougars for sure!
And what about moose, grizzles, and rattle snakes galore.. I feel like my two terriers won't survive as long out here !
Bear spray will be at hands reach for sure. Any other tips you have for me, let me know! I could use it.
Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
Unless you count the short strolls in Craters of the Moon, I have merely driven through Idaho to get to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier on the other side. I have heard that the Sawtooth Mountains are a great destination. The Bitterroot-Frank Church-River of No Return wilderness cluster of 2.5M acres would be promising multi-day backpack if it weren't for that food-chain issue.
Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
With the relatively dry conditions, bear density is fairly low in most of Idaho's wilderness. They are there, but it isn't like the Olympics, or even Yellowstone. Yellowstone's bears have been particularly aggressive in recent years and a number of hikers who have followed all the rules have been mauled. I think hiking in the wilds of Alaska is probably safer than Yellowstone wrt to bears, if not so for other factors (like the weather), because in Alaska the bear's natural fear of humans is still much stronger than it apparently is in Yellowstone. But I haven't seen bears in my trips in Idaho so I don't think they are a particularly large risk there.
- retired jerry
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Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
hmmm... maybe they should have bear hunting in Yellowstone? or you wouldn't have to kill the bears, just harass them. At least the areas where humans frequently go.
Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
This is kind of the line of reasoning re: the goats in the Enchantments.retired jerry wrote:hmmm... maybe they should have bear hunting in Yellowstone? or you wouldn't have to kill the bears, just harass them. At least the areas where humans frequently go.
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Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
By virtue of our size relative to black bears, a black bear will be naturally reluctant to treat a human as prey, even if it has never seen a human before. Grizzlies are another matter. They are more than four times our size, can outrun a deer, are immensely strong, and have no 'natural fear' of anything alive, although my understanding is they will only rarely tackle a moose as prey. There will never be any foolproof way to instill fear of humans into grizzlies. The best we can do is to convince them we are mildly dangerous, but extremely obnoxious, unpleasant company, and worth avoiding on general principles. Oh, and it helps if we travel in packs.drm wrote:I think hiking in the wilds of Alaska is probably safer than Yellowstone wrt to bears, if not so for other factors (like the weather), because in Alaska the bear's natural fear of humans is still much stronger than it apparently is in Yellowstone.
Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
I didn't mention black vs brown bears. Denali NP has had one brown bear mauling in it's entire history, which unfortunately was fatal. Yellowstone has had 3 fatal brown bear maulings this decade. Yellowstone has a lot more visitors than Denali but I'm not sure what the comparison is for counts of backpackers.Aimless wrote:By virtue of our size relative to black bears, a black bear will be naturally reluctant to treat a human as prey, even if it has never seen a human before. Grizzlies are another matter. They are more than four times our size, can outrun a deer, are immensely strong, and have no 'natural fear' of anything alive, although my understanding is they will only rarely tackle a moose as prey. There will never be any foolproof way to instill fear of humans into grizzlies. The best we can do is to convince them we are mildly dangerous, but extremely obnoxious, unpleasant company, and worth avoiding on general principles. Oh, and it helps if we travel in packs.drm wrote:I think hiking in the wilds of Alaska is probably safer than Yellowstone wrt to bears, if not so for other factors (like the weather), because in Alaska the bear's natural fear of humans is still much stronger than it apparently is in Yellowstone.
Maybe I should have referred to a tendency to think of human's as a source of food (I mean the food we carry with us). Grizzlies are not necessarily 4 times our size. Those in Denali, who do not have access to much salmon protein, are a lot smaller than coastal grizzlies.
- NacMacFeegle
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Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
Lots of excellent hiking in Idaho - though I've never done any in the Northern part of the state I know that there are many fantastic trail-rich mountain areas to explore there.
Read my hiking stories and more at: http://illuminationsfromtheattic.blogspot.com/
Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
That's not how I think about it. I think grizzlies are afraid of us, at least in the sense that they consider us a threat. Only rarely do they think of us as food, and that's usually an afterthought. That's why the main thing with grizz is to not startle them. That's why you can play dead with grizz, because as soon as they think they've eliminated the threat, they're usually ready to move on. That's why it's so much more dangerous to separate a grizz mom from her cubs than it is with blackies.Aimless wrote:By virtue of our size relative to black bears, a black bear will be naturally reluctant to treat a human as prey, even if it has never seen a human before. Grizzlies are another matter. They are more than four times our size, can outrun a deer, are immensely strong, and have no 'natural fear' of anything alive, although my understanding is they will only rarely tackle a moose as prey. There will never be any foolproof way to instill fear of humans into grizzlies. The best we can do is to convince them we are mildly dangerous, but extremely obnoxious, unpleasant company, and worth avoiding on general principles. Oh, and it helps if we travel in packs.drm wrote:I think hiking in the wilds of Alaska is probably safer than Yellowstone wrt to bears, if not so for other factors (like the weather), because in Alaska the bear's natural fear of humans is still much stronger than it apparently is in Yellowstone.
Yes, they know they're bad, but all the professional advice on behaving around grizzlies makes more sense in the context of them thinking of us as a threat, whereas the advice on blackies makes sense in the context of them thinking of us as supper.
Disclaimer: Well read but inexperienced!
- retired jerry
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- Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Re: Anyone ever hiked in Idaho?
I don't they consider us food.
Any grizzly that eats a human is killed.
The grizzlies that remain are the ones that don't eat humans.
Any grizzly that eats a human is killed.
The grizzlies that remain are the ones that don't eat humans.