hap -

The last time I saw this thread title, I made a mental note to make the point you made so well about wind direction. A couple years ago, at a trailhead in a rather remote place in grizzly country, I decided to test a cannister of bear spray. Just as I fired off a half second blast, the wind shifted and blew it right back into my face, just a very small whiff, actually. That stuff is really NASTY.

The irony may be that if a bear is down wind from you it is much less likely to be a problem. If a bear is upwind from you, it is much more easy to startle it and set up a confrontation. That makes use of bear spray problematic, whether one has faith in it or not.

Thankfully I can't speak directly about the problem that fellow in and out of the stream endured. I will say that anyone carrying a half can of spray is making a major mistake, and that anyone carrying it in a fanny pack or any other pack might as well have left it at camp or at home. If it ain't really handy, it is probably more a problem than a help.

I have to disagree with you that bear spray is a bad joke. While I don't put 100% faith in it and take all the precautions that I can to make it very unlikely that I will ever need it in a bear encounter, I'd rather have it than nothing. So far I haven't had to use it on any critter, which brings up another point. It may not be a bear, but a moose, or lion or feral dog or such that is the problem, not to mention some of the less than pleasant folks one occasionally encounters.

It is sad that so many bears, both in your neck of the woods and down here, are put away because we intrude regularly on their habitat. I don't mean that as judgmental about people and how they use wilderness areas, just as a fact. I'm curious if you would agree from your experience that generally, the more remote the setting you are in, the less likely there will be a problem, given that all the reasonable precautions to avoid an encounter have been taken ??

John