Wow, lots of good stories here! I guess you could say my story is something stupid I did in bear country one time. A few years ago I was getting ready for archery season and scouting some country just north of Yellowstone NP for elk. There is a guest ranch very close to this area and a few of my friends worked there over the summer. Earlier that year my buddy had an encounter with a grizzly bear not far from where I was going to be scouting. Nothing bad happened - I guess the bear just snorted at him and the two went their seperate ways.

Anyway...so there I am at the trail head. I had just purchased some scent-lok camo and was eager to get into the hills to spy on some elk. I hopped out of my truck and started down the trail. I had some food in my pack, plenty of water, and most importantly...my binos! About 2 miles down the trail I realized something...I forgot my bear spray...and to make matters worse I forgot my knife. I know, the knife wouldn't do much against a bear...but it still provides me a little extra comfort. I stopped and thought about it for a couple seconds and decided...what the heck - my chances of running into a bear were pretty slim anyway. So I got off the trail and started to head up a ridgeline. I must have followed this ridge line a good 3-4 miles through some mountain meadows and found plenty of game trails. The higher I got the more promising it looked for elk.

Eventually I found a nice little wooded spot with some big rocks that sat atop the ridgeline. I decided this would be a good place to enjoy lunch. So I sat down, dangled my feet off the edge of the ridge and had a little meal. It's was nice and peaceful...until I heard a large CRACK! My heart stopped a for a second...what in the world could it have been? I stayed put for a little while and kept my eyes and ears open and never heard anything else. So I decided it was time to move on...and up the ridge I went. It wasn't more than 100 yards from where I was eating that I came to a small little park surrounded by some tall pines. There were a couple downed trees that I had to climb over. The second tree I crawled over and there it was...a semi-old pile of bear scat. Man...another heart stopper. Again, I said to myself that I won't run into a bear...so I kept moving forward. Another 20 ft and...yeah...a fresh pile. Sigh...I took it to heart this time and turned around. In fact, I picked up my pace a little bit. There I was...on top of a ridge in a little park standing around defenseless in camoflauge that covers my scent...in bear country...idiot!

It couldn't get any worse could it? Haha...well yes it did. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible...so I decided it would be better if I tried to get back to the main trail rather than backtracking the ridgeline i'd come up. Instead of going east I decided to go south. This brought me into a little ravine full of thick brush and berries. The only thing I kept thinking at this point was wow...this sure is some nice black bear country. There was a little stream and a lot of vegetation. I moved slowly, quietly, and very cautiously. At this point I was so freaked out by my situation...and it seemed that stream went forever! Every little crack of a branch I heard only increased my heart rate ten fold.

Eventually I made it out. The original trail was a god send at that point. So what did I learn...

1. Don't go into bear country without your bear spray - if you forget it...go get it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
2. I now scout for elk in normal hiking clothes. There isn't any need to get close to them until the season opens.
3. If you do find yourself in bear country...make some noise. Had I turned around the wrong corner and spooked a bear - black or griz - it would have been bad news for me.
4. If you don't know the country...9 times out of 10 it will be faster to back track then it will be to find a different way out. I bet I added a good 2-3 hrs onto my trip because I got myself into that ravine.