solotripper wrote on Feb 11^th, 2017 at 7:34pm:

[quote][One of them pulled a rifle out,/quote] Considering who YOU were, it's a good thing the NATIVES didn't hold a grudge and shoot YOU and feed the NATIVE bears. ;) ;D ;D I have to ask, did you bring a firearm or at least Bear Spray on your trips from THEN on?

Pretty much every native I have met in my travels has been super cool actually. The only exception to that was two highly intoxicated native youths (they could barely walk and I couldn't understand them  :) ) who came into my camp twice on Miminiska Lake on the Albany River. They completely ignored me and only seemed interested in checking out my canoe. I was so unnerved I packed up and left heading downstream to Petawanga Lake a day early. I figured they would come back while I was sleeping and steal it.

To answer your question, no I have never brought a gun or even bear spray. Not that long ago on the Sutton River close to Hudson's Bay I had another encounter with a polar bear though and thankfully my canoe partner had brought a shotgun loaded with slugs. He fired above its head 3 times before it turned away.

Oddly enough I've never even bothered to hang my food pack either and if I total up every night spent in the bush it's years. I've never understood the logic and can honestly say I've never had a problem. I place my pack a good distance away from my tent and usually put a pot or two on top to alert me if something tips it over. To date nothing ever has. I've tripped with others who do insist on hanging their food pack and the irony is it was on one of those trips where we did have issues with a bear. It climbed a tree then chewed through the rope holding the pack before batting it around like a pinata first.  :) It took off like a scalded cat when we emerged from the tent.