Would a small light(GlowStick or Area LED) in a camp site tend to scare a bear away or attract his attention. I am talking about camping in the Rockies, wilderness areas.

I've never heard anything either way. Most bear adverse bear encounters in Colorado are in developed campgrounds or near houses.

What I do is hang my food and anything else with a scent at least 50 yards from my tent. This especially includes toothpaste and anything chocolate. The bears in Colorado have a habit of raiding chocolate shops .

Bad bear encounters are pretty rare here. I haven't seen any this year. I did see 2 last year, but they walked off as soon as they saw us.

If you do encounter a bear on the trail, it will likely be it's backside moving away from you. Don't look at any bear cubs as the mother will think you want to eat them. Don't face either the cubs or the mother. If you face the mother, she may think you want to fight or perhaps to mate. Expect the mother to stand up to show you how tall she is. If you don't look at her and walk calmly off she will figure you aren't worth the effort.

I disagree with trying to scare a bear away that is trying to get your food. The only attack I know of this year was on a woman who was banging on a pan trying to scare the bear away. This was in her backyard near Trinidad.

Bears used to be a fear of mine. I still respect them, but there are a lot of other things out there that are more dangerous.

Thanks for the local input. Can use all the knowledge I can get.

It matters a whole lot where you are and what kind of bear you are talking about.

I would, and have, successfully deterred every bear I've ever run into simply by the awesome power of my booming, intimidating (weak, wimpy, warbling) voice and waving my arms. But I don't live around grizzlies, polar bears or the real big maneating kind - I'm in California where the black bears scavenge, are not afraid of people, and will wander into your campsite looking for sandwiches. Then they will yawn at you and leave.

Were I in grizzly territory I would have bear spray, forget glow sticks and banging pots. Were I in Alaska I would have a magnificent gun and an expert marksman to wield it, plus the bear spray. You do not take chances in some places.

I should have been more clear that my advice was for Colorado bears in wilderness areas. It does not apply to popular areas such as Rocky Mountain National park and trails near Aspen and Vail. There are also little pockets near San Isabel where bears are more common.

There was a long thread on another forum about bears along the Colorado Trail. Many thru-hikers feel comfortable keeping the food in their tent. I don't agree with this, but it does show that bears aren't a significant problem here. You are more likely to lose food to that insane squirrel that seems to live near every campsite.

We haven't had grizzlies in Colorado since the early 70's, so they aren't a factor.

I've successfully deterred every bear just by being in the area. Once they see people here, they tend to run off in wilderness areas or campgrounds with very low use.

Personally, I wouldn't try to scare a bear away in Colorado. I'm not disagreeing with Lori. I am just making a different choice based on location. My feeling is that a bear that doesn't naturally leave when it sees me may be sick or acclimated to people. It could also be desperately hungry. My feeling is that if a bear is not currently attacking me or showing signs of attacking me, I don't want to change my behavior.

I'd rather give up my food. I know I can hike for 3 days without food and I'm never further than that from the next or the last trailhead. I don't know how far I can hike with bleeding claw marks from a bear I antagonized.

Anyway, your biggest problem isn't likely to be bears. It's starting to smell like winter here. This brings afternoon cold rains in the area you are going to hike. Be prepared with good raingear. You may also need a sleeping system that is comfortable to 20 degrees. There is a possiblity you will encounter snow. It's not likely you will be snowed in, but I'd bring a good pair of sunglasses in case you have to hike awhile in bright snow.

A light would attrack more attention than no light and as far as bears go, it wouldn't frighten them. A lot of people think a campfire will keep the animals away but it actually attracts them from down wind and then the predators come to dine. What happens when you put the fire out?

I know a guy who kicked a bear in the rear end in Yosemite valley. I've hit them with every thing from pans to rocks. Funny thing - bears are not used to things being thrown at them so they calmly watch the projectile as its incoming and do not respond until it actually hits them. OR - pick up a rock and throw it down on another rock surface so it makes the feared rock-slide sound, and the bear will be impressed and avoid you.

All that said - and depending on exactly where you are, the type of bear and the jurisdiction, camping away from the bears normal "route" is the best way to avoid them. Many marauding bears have a route that they do at night, that may take them on a 60 plus mile hike over mountains to raid a set of picnic, camp grounds, and garbage cans in nearby towns, and then return to their den by sunrise. The bear needs the food to do this foraging journey and by hitting the highest probable food sources, he has the best success of finding more food than it took for his evening hike.

The closer the bear gets to your food, the harder is to scare off a bear. Let him get within 30 feet of your food and it becomes his food. Jumping up and down, throwing rocks, yelling etc, should suffice as long as you establish your space requirements with said bear at 50+ feet feet from your food.

Of course following any of the above mentioned behavior with a grizzly or brown bear could lead to you becoming dinner. Your life could depend on what you do when you encounter that bear.

[You should see my mountain lion "dance" I go ballistic, jump at them and yell showing my fangs screaming "I'm gonna eat you". I've never had to say any more than that because by the time I finish saying that they are too far away to hear me anyway]
Jim

I don't know about CO bears, I know our Ozark Black bears don't like to hang around people much either, but if I did have one wander into my camp I'd be raising a ruckus with it like Jim and Lori. I'd yelling, waving my arms, and grabbing rocks to throw at it, and carrying on like that until it left. It's my opinion that bears should know that humans are territorial and will cause them harm. Once a black bear realizes they can intimidate humans and take their food they're way more likely to make a habit of it.

As it stands, I've never had to chase a bear off. As I've mentioned before, there is a hunting season for them here, and most of their close encounters with humans here ends up with them being shot at, and generally shot dead, so they mostly stay away from us, which is just fine with me.