Found it. As I do not discuss political issues that is my honest answer for traveling in Tibet. Traveling to Pakistan and India or around the Himalayas is still on my bucket list. I shall be there one day. I am doing some studies on bears in your part of the country. I shall carry bear spray at all times and hope that they haven't acquired a taste of Chinese yet.....
They don't let you with bear spray on the plane but you can get it Canada or Alaska. There will be a couple of tourists trying to sell you one as in 99.9% of the time you won't need it and won't use it. Just make sure you know how to operate it. There's no issues with AK/CAN/US border crossings; pepper spray is illegal(?) in Canada but bear spray which is x3 more potent and comes in bigger bottle is not. Bears won't bother you unless you invite them leaving food or food smelling trash in open. And don't try to run that 16yo highschool kid who got mutilated was on the trail run.
Studying bears?Watched the videos yet?There are a number of them out there. Noise is good too.Air horn is what I use here to chase them off.Didn't even have a chance to use it yesterday....walked out the door and good size bear was sniffing at the compost 25m from my door.Nothing good in there?He ambled off......! Air horn? Chases bears off most times but will also signal other people that you may need help.Dash.....Dot....Dash for SOS? Yeah bears on somewhat remote gravel roads?........tipped my bike over one a few years back.I guess he found us heavy,he was out in a flash so I only had my nose close to him for a few seconds. Very loud horn on my bike.....Check! Air Horn for camping.....Check! Big can of Bear spray? No check yet but on my shopping list in the US next week,cheaper down there and maybe better choices? https://takeoutdoors.com/camping-gear/tool/best-bear-spray-market/
I don't plan to do much cooking at the campsite and won't leave anything that may attract them around me. I think living wisely in their land is the best way to avoid confrontation.
Yes, I have watched a couple bear videos and read some articles about it. Besides what you have suggested, what about bear bangers? How effective is that? Great story of you meeting a bear on a remote road. That will give you many chances to tell the story.
If you come in June when dendolions bloom you will see many of them along Alcan. We were going south and one decided to cross road. I passed but my son on intercom: "what do I do? he is blocking me" me: "blow horn" he: "horn stuck (from all the rain and mud)" me:"pull clutch and rev engine". I hear a nice crack behind and bear ran away. BTW bear spray it has air horn built-in in dispenser so you get double action. But if you camp put all smelling stuff away from tent; lock it and leave it on the bike. If you don't camp your chances of meeting Mr Bear will be insignificant, though friend of mine managed to hit a cub crossing the road. But in that respect moose is far more stupid and unpredictable. IMHO moscitos are far more serious problem than bear..
Bear bangers? No experience but my American neighbor does.He shot one at this huge old bear that was hanging around.Went off just over the bear and knocked it off senseless for a couple minutes. Darn bears.....got to go lift a fridge later.Bigger bear got at my 80 yrs old neighbor's empty outdoor fridge and turned it over.Empty now that the smaller bear opened it 2 weeks ago but only ate the gross Tartare sauce so they aren't too picky.....! I got a little worried up North a couple years ago.Nobody on that road but bear shit every few 100Ms.10Km in so I turned around.Little bear scampered across the road on my way back.Now.....where the Fxxx is mom?
I should be in northern part of BC sometime mid July. So I may miss the Dandelion season but I'll be visiting a friend on Kodiac Island late July and I was promised to see bears on the walks. I have already bought a hat with mosquito net builtin. Tomorrow, I'll be on a 10 days trip to the ancient capital of China - Xian. So no social media or limited internet access for a while. I'll talk to you guys when I return.
Got to love hearing those bear stories Keep'em coming. I might buy a box of those bear bangers to try them out. Its funny that the Chinese invented fire crackers but we are banded from using them in HK. Reason is we live too close to each other and no room to play with fire crackers.
I think if you're that far north it is a must ride. It's absolutely gorgeous and remote - not a lot of traffic. I did it when they were repairing the road and the construction areas were unpacked dirt and gravel - interesting but not scary. If it was raining I think it would be a totally different ballgame. Have fun!
Firecrackers as bear bangers? My thrower is loaded up.Double barreled so the smaller upper barrel is loaded with a 3 stage sky rocket and the lower with a 12 shots roman candle. Fine at this time of the year but a few weeks from now will be fire season.No firecrackers!
Bear bangers are reall hard to aim, especially in a panic.... lots of incidents where people have shot the banger too far and it goes off behind the bear. Now you have a startled bear coming your way.
Here you go. A little video of my ride on The TOW 2 years ago heading to the D2D event. iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Bear count is 5.Mostly younger ones,we had such a big bear year in 2016 that there will be a lot of them pesky two years old around this year. I stopped counting at 30 sightings in 2016....lots of females w/cubs. That one last monday? I even turned around to take a pic from about 50-70'.He kept on eating and looked at me once in a while.Scampered off really fast once I released the Denali "sound bomb".
We saw 20 bears last year on the Cassier and the ALCAN. Xian, I was there in Oct, seeing the warriors was truly an amazing experience. We were also in Bejing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Huangzo. We leave Calgary July 9 for Tuk, plan on being there around July 16. We are taking the Cassier again, its so much better than the first section of ALCAN.
Thanks for all the bear sighting reports. I am all looking forward to seeing these amazing animals that we don't have here in HK. 2 more days to go before I board the plane for SFO. I do wish to run into some of you on the road. Please look out for a Chinese rider on a 2005 KTM 950 ADV.
what we ran into in 2012.. we left them alone and they didn't eat us... camp areas in the area were closed to tent camping this guy ran at us in 2015... we made noise and he kept coming... we sped by him. learned later the bear was killed because people had been feeding it... camp area at Eagle Plains was closed because of this bear
