Zipperfish Zipperfish:
I was hiking with an American once and telling him about bears--black bears, Grizzly bears, brown bears. Basically that, if the bear is pissed off or hungry, there's not much you can do. You can't outrun them (though the advice is to run downhill). PLaying dead helps--sometimes. You can climb a tree if it's a grizzly, though he can knock it down and, also, some grizzlies can climb.
Anyways, he was amazed and asked me why I didn't carry a gun. I hesitated a moment and then admitted that that had never occurred to me.
I guess I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. After so many years of preparing and planning before doing anything whenever I go anywhere anymore the first thing I do is threat assessment and plan accordingly. Sometimes that includes bringing a side arm, sometimes it includes bringing something more potent. Sometimes, it means bringing nothing at all.
In the once-upon-a-time that I had to go to Fort Greely in Alaska the accomadations clerk recommended that I carry at least a shotgun at all times whenever outside the fence less due to bears than the moose. Wisdom being the better part of valor, I simply kept inside the fence.
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