Mama Bear Charged My Daughter & My Dogs While Hiking Today

What a frightening story. I am so glad your daughter and the dogs made it out okay. She'll never forget that! Wow.
 

Mama bear wouldn't stay in the area with her cubs if there are male bears in the area. She could have just been passing through the area, doing what mama bears do, training the cubs to forage for food. I highly doubt reporting this incident would do anything. Even if they came out to that area, they wouldn't find her and the cubs now. IMO, she's long gone.

I have black bear coming and going on my property all the time, mostly males. Only once, did I have a sow with 5 cubs. She had them down at the stream, then moseyed up the hill, never to be seen again.
 
Gemma said:
Even if they came out to that area, they wouldn't find her and the cubs now. IMO, she's long gone.
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Yer prolly right

Wouldn't hurt to post some signage
MOMMA BEAR WITH CUBS SEEN IN AREA AUG 2022
Or something like that
Can always take 'em down later

Another confrontation might not go so well
 

Bear spray is very effective. I carry it in the woods all the time. I never had to use it, but I've had it out and ready a time or two. Once while on a trail a found myself just 10 feet from a mama bear and two small cubs. Mama eyed me as she cautiously stepped around me while sizing up the situation. I froze and made no threatening or sudden moves. After a couple of minutes, mama rounded up her cubs and left. That was in Montana where over the years, I had faced off several bears on the trail, all that turned and bolted away as soon as they recognized what I was. Some of those were before bear spray had been available, and I was unarmed.

So years later I moved to rural Virginia. I quit carrying bear spray, because well.... it's Virginia. Don't ask me to explain the logic in that reasoning. Somehow, I just didn't think it was necessary. So two years ago, I'm walking a trail system made by mountain bikers in a local county park of all places. But it's a big park, maybe just short of a square mile, and I'm a mile up the trail and was charged by a bear. It came running at me, and I'm standing there waving my arms and shouting at it. It stopped and looked at me as if it were processing information, and then started its charge again while I continued waving my arms and shouting. It stopped a few yards away and processed the information again, and then turned around and ran up the trail and into the woods.

I didn't finish that hike, I turned around, got back to my truck, and then I drove 40 miles to the nearest sporting goods store and bought a canister of bear spray, which I've always carried with me since then.
 
Bear spray has been around for 20 years or so, and I've yet to read an incident where it didn't work as it is supposed to. I squeezed the trigger once just to get the feel of using it. It spewed and orange spray about 5 yards or so. It was a calm day and the spray dissipated quite fast. I could see not a trace of it in the air, but just a slight drift gave me a very brief exposure. It was a horrible experience, and I can't imagine how much a snoot full would feel like. I can understand why all a bear would want would be to get away. All it's aggression or protective instincts would be overcome with the need to escape. And so far that seems to be what all reports indicate.
 
JustDave said:
That was in Montana where over the years, I had faced off several bears on the trail, all that turned and bolted away as soon as they recognized what I was
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Yeah, that's been my experience here in Oregon
All blackies
All wanting to just get away
Man, they go thru the thickest of brush like it wasn't there.

Friend of mine faced a wolf on a tight mountain trail.
Cliff on one side, abrupt ridge on the other
Around the corner was a wolf, meeting him head on.
He screamed as loud as he could, while waving his arms
Took several seconds, but the wolf finally turned and saunter off.
Said he screamed so loud and so long he lost his voice for several days.
I asked him if he messed his pants
He didn't answer
That ol' sphincter can really pop when scared 'shitless'
 
Jules said:
Nonsense. The Conservation Officers don’t even know about the bears unless they’ve been reported as a problem. Just seeing a bear isn’t a problem, even in a town. The people that fed the bears and quit, killed them. A fed bear is a dead bear.

Lara, I’d definitely report the sighting, especially since it was a mother and her cubs.
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I don't for a moment believe you live in my small town.
 
Jules said:
Nonsense. The Conservation Officers don’t even know about the bears unless they’ve been reported as a problem. Just seeing a bear isn’t a problem, even in a town. The people that fed the bears and quit, killed them. A fed bear is a dead bear.

Lara, I’d definitely report the sighting, especially since it was a mother and her cubs.
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I'm pretty sure you don't live in my small town.
 
mrstime said:
I'm pretty sure you don't live in my small town.
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No, I don’t but I live in the same province and am well aware of the regulations.

There’s a hotline for reporting bear sightings and they’ll make note of it and tell you that unless the bear is a problem or someone is leaving attractants, they aren’t concerned. Just because you didn’t perceive the bears as a problem, that doesn’t mean some others didn’t tell anyone they reported bears that were previously fed and no longer are.
 
Jules said:
No, I don’t but I live in the same province and am well aware of the regulations.

There’s a hotline for reporting bear sightings and they’ll make note of it and tell you that unless the bear is a problem or someone is leaving attractants, they aren’t concerned. Just because you didn’t perceive the bears as a problem, that doesn’t mean some others didn’t tell anyone they reported bears that were previously fed and no longer are.
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Whatever you say.
 
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