The right to bear arms

[HobbesOnTour]

Just an update

A grizzly was shot and killed nearby after attacking an (empty) house. Tests are being carried out to verify if it's the same bear who carried out the attack on the poor lady.

I'm not sure if it's the same area but there is a large zone in those parts that is used to rehome "troublesome" bears from other parts of the country. A lot of bears are already in the "last chance saloon".

The town closest to where the attack occurred is on the ACA's Great Divide MTB route and is close to one of the Trans America routes as well as being a popular destination for overnighters from a nearby city so this affects a lot of cyclists.

 

[Domus]

Read a story many years ago about someone hiking in the US, parked their VW Beetle but left a piece of cheese inside. A bear smelled the cheese and destroyed the car to get at it. Did a very short stretch of the Superior Hiking Trail around Lutsen many years ago. Rustling in the undergrowth was quite unnerving.

 

[chriswoody]

The couple that witnessed the attack were actually completing the Great Divide route. There's a little more on the story here, along with some thoughts on bear safety:

https://bikepacking.com/plan/story-to-bear/

They contacted the owner of Bikepacking.com to recount their tale and hopefully raise awareness of the dangers of riding through bear country. They are also understandably very shook up by the experience.

"The couple went on to tell me the intensely emotional account of what happened, which I won’t go into here. It was a tearful, heart-wrenching story that wasn’t easy for them to tell, and it’s clear they’re at the very beginning of a painful healing process."

 

[Punkawallah]

An individual tragedy, just like all the other, 600k, deaths per year in the UK. Don’t know about the Colonies.

If you say it’s sad, no one remembers. If you make a joke, the story travels. Survival trait for the species.

Does the incident qualify for a Darwin Award?

 

[HobbesOnTour]

An individual tragedy, just like all the other, 600k, deaths per year in the UK. Don’t know about the Colonies.

If you say it’s sad, no one remembers. If you make a joke, the story travels. Survival trait for the species.

Obviously my experience differs to yours but a few years ago having considered a route that involved the exact campground mentioned here I can assure you that I can recall reports from a variety of sources and not one of them humorous.

I find it very hard to believe that on a cycling forum people are looking for the humour in the death of a fellow cyclist.
If humour is what you use to remember that's well and good. I suggest you amuse yourself though. Some of us find it distasteful. It's a public forum and the bike touring community can be very, very small.

Does the incident qualify for a Darwin Award?

Victim blaming?

No, the people involved in this attack did not follow the general advice for camping in bear country. But that's a long way from a Darwin Award.


Update:
Apparently, examinations of the dead grizzly have uncovered an abscess on the animal and a theory is that this may have caused the animal to behave more aggressively or uncharacteristically.


....

 

[Sniper68]

So just because it was a cyclist and this is a cycling forum I should feel some faux sadness?
As I said upthread it’s banter and amusing whether it was a cyclist,hiker,kayaker or indeed any outdoorsy type.I find nothing distasteful at all.
There’s too much seriousness about!Too many are to quick to be offended/upset/outraged etc etc.

 

[oldwheels]

Not really very dangerous generally but in Scotland herds of cattle can be a problem for wild campers. Setting up not an animal to be seen but they wander when grazing during the night and come trampling past your tent with the potential of getting entangled in guy lines. Cows with calves at foot can be aggressive towards any perceived threat.
At Sheildaig once there was a rumpus in a neighbouring small tent. Turned out the occupant had been feeding the sheep which wandered around the area and the sheep had come back looking for more and got inside the tent. Everybody else found it very funny.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

So just because it was a cyclist and this is a cycling forum I should feel some faux sadness?
As I said upthread it’s banter and amusing whether it was a cyclist,hiker,kyaker or indeed any outdoorsy type.
There’s too much seriousness about!

I'm not suggesting what you feel at all.

I'm suggesting that people consider the impact of their words. And maybe not throw them about carelessly on a public forum.

Words travel far these days.

As you said yourself....
Because you don't know the victim you find the banter amusing.
Would it be less amusing if you did know them?

And then what is "know"? To actually have met the person? To have interacted with them online in a forum such as this?
Or simply to have been in a similar situation as them?

 

[Sniper68]

As I said upthread if it were my family or someone I knew and people on a forum made fun or light of it I wouldn’t care in the slightest.

 

[Profpointy]

Not really very dangerous generally but in Scotland herds of cattle can be a problem for wild campers. Setting up not an animal to be seen but they wander when grazing during the night and come trampling past your tent with the potential of getting entangled in guy lines. Cows with calves at foot can be aggressive towards any perceived threat.
At Sheildaig once there was a rumpus in a neighbouring small tent. Turned out the occupant had been feeding the sheep which wandered around the area and the sheep had come back looking for more and got inside the tent. Everybody else found it very funny.

At least, that's what the guy caught with a sheep in his tent claimed had happened

 

[HobbesOnTour]

As I said upthread if it were my family or someone I knew and people on a forum made fun or light of it I wouldn’t care in the slightest.

And that's fair enough.
You wouldn't exactly be in a position to think, feel or comment though.

I wonder what family and friends left behind might make of the banter?

But it's really one of those things where we really don't know how we'd feel until it actually happens.

 

[marzjennings]

My first time camping in bear country up in Oregon I slept with a 12-bore shotgun in tent. My mate's thought I was crazy and they slept in the van, but this was my first trip camping in the US and I wanted to the whole big country camping experience.

Since then I've camped a few times out in the wilds and Canada and the US in bear country, and so far, without a gun, I've been fine. I do always hang the food in a tree 50ft away and snore like a 500lb Grizzly.

On a side note, we've no bears here in Houston, but a local rider used his gun to protect himself from a driver...

https://www.fox26houston.com/news/c...shoots-road-rage-driver-on-houstons-east-side

 

[glasgowcyclist]

So just because it was a cyclist and this is a cycling forum I should feel some faux sadness?
As I said upthread it’s banter and amusing whether it was a cyclist,hiker,kayaker or indeed any outdoorsy type.I find nothing distasteful at all.
There’s too much seriousness about!Too many are to quick to be offended/upset/outraged etc etc.

Nobody is telling you how you should feel.

There’s a thread elsewhere with the sad news that a long-standing CC member was killed in an RTC just a few weeks ago; four pages of condolences and not a gag in sight. It’s called respect and you should consider showing some.

 

[Punkawallah]

Obviously my experience differs to yours but a few years ago having considered a route that involved the exact campground mentioned here I can assure you that I can recall reports from a variety of sources and not one of them humorous.

I find it very hard to believe that on a cycling forum people are looking for the humour in the death of a fellow cyclist.
If humour is what you use to remember that's well and good. I suggest you amuse yourself though. Some of us find it distasteful. It's a public forum and the bike touring community can be very, very small.

Victim blaming?

No, the people involved in this attack did not follow the general advice for camping in bear country. But that's a long way from a Darwin Award.


Update:
Apparently, examinations of the dead grizzly have uncovered an abscess on the animal and a theory is that this may have caused the animal to behave more aggressively or uncharacteristically.


....

Think you’ve nailed it on the head when you point out they were not taking sensible precautions. For me that engenders about as much sympathy as a for a cyclist who drops from a pavement in from of a vehicle, without looking. A prime candidate for a Darwin Award in my opinion.

But hey, I’m happy to agree to disagree.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

View: https://twitter.com/slkaye/status/1261542395700641794