I have almost 53 years of direct experience with G-Bears and Blackies and I often hike/camp alone in BC with NO gun and I never carry bear spray. I would discuss this topic further, however, I feel that the original query has been answered and further commentary is likely to engender useless strife.

There are certain things very obvious to me here and I agree with "midnightsun" on her excellent posts. In all my years of living alone without a break for months in some of BC's most remote and "bear-dense" wilderness, I have never been attacked and attribute this to my behaviour as taught me by oldtimers whose real bush knowledge came from a lifetime of experience.

I might point out that Gary Shelton very clearly states in his books, all of which I have read and are a part of my considerable collection of bear-related literature, that HE learned much of what has formed HIS opinions from an oldtimer in the Bella Coola area. I worked and lived up there, nearly 40 years ago, and knew a few myself, including Stanley Edwards, son of the legendary Ralph Edwards, "Crusoe of Lonesome Lake". This type of person knows whereof they speak and wisdom does not lessen with the passage of time...........