Tim,

We've been camping and canoeing in the BW for more than 20 years.
We've had bears in camp twice.

The 1st was in Voyagers NP, on an island. The other post'er is correct, at least in our experience, when bears swim, they want food. There was another party on the same island and the bear went back and forth between sites. We left and went to a different site.

The 2ed time was in the BW. We got to camp late, just boiled water for soup and went to bed. As little smells and other things to attraction a bear as possible. About 12:00, we woke to find a bear in the pack tree, he was chewing through the branch the pack was on. He got about 1/3 the way through. We had to scare him off twice. When we stayed up and made noise he left peacefully. I've sure he was just "making the rounds" checking sites he had got food before.

As the only bears in the BW are Black, there is little risk of attack from them, they are just looking for food.
(yes, I know that several years ago a bear attacked 2 people in 2 different cases, but to my undestanding, that was the only cases known.) Some are persistant and for those you are better off just leaving. They get persistant because people "feed" them. Make sure they don't get your food.

As to pepper spray, I don't know. A shot of it may make them more aggressive. Check out Lynn Rogers stuff on the North American Bear Center site for more info.

Dan

Posted by Dan Lindberg on January 05, 2000 at 13:54