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| As seen from the car on the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail in Kananaskis in August 2013. |
This makes bear safety that much more important. Especially when you've got kids who want to run down the trail ahead of you. Last spring I shared my usual bear safety for kids pre-hike talk. Since then, I've learned that one of the most important things I say are the first six words out of my mouth:
"We probably won't see a bear today, but it's important we know what to do if we do see one."
The only thing worse than the kids not knowing what to do if they see a bear is spending their entire time on the trail in mortal fear of being eaten alive. And I've had a few kids on my hikes that were totally and irrationally scared of bears. It didn't help when a black bear-eating grizzly made the front pages a couple weeks ago. Even the young offender teens I guided last week on a backpacking trip in Banff were freaked out at the prospect of a cannibal grizzly wandering out of the trees. If teenagers can't put the actual risk of encountering a bear in perspective, how can I expect younger kids to?
So these days I stress that we probably won't see a bear, I go through the rest of my talk, and I repeat that we probably won't see a bear. On the trail if I hear kids talking each other up to DEFCON 2 about bears, I repeat that we probably won't see a bear again and change the subject. I worry a little about the kids misinterpreting what I'm saying as a minimization or dismissal of the risk, but so far I haven't seen any evidence of that.
How do you talk to your kids about bears and bear safety? If you've got ideas on how to keep them from inflating the dangers in their heads to the point that they're too scared to enjoy their time in the mountains, I'd love to hear.
We play a game of Peek-a-boo on the trail as we hike. I scream Peeka and then my son has to scream boo. I just hope we are loud enough and never have to actually face "what to do' when we see a bear. So scary to think of!
ReplyDeleteWe also try to hike in big groups so that we will be loud by nature.
There's nothing like a bunch of kids to let the bears know you're coming!
DeleteYou've hiked with Thomas... we go for constant stream of high volume chatter. ;)
ReplyDeleteDeirdre
LOL. He's better than a bear bell the size of a church bell.
DeleteBear bells = "It's Supper Time!"
ReplyDeleteHere is a link for wildlife advisories in K-country.
http://www.albertaparks.ca/kananaskis-country/advisories-public-safety/wildlife.aspx
-Shulamit
Definitely a difficult one! I've come at this one from a very different place, in that my kids are much younger (2.5 and 4.5 now), and that we've hiked a lot of places where we DO see bears. Sometimes a lot of bears. Big coastal Alaskan brown bears. So far, we've gone with the "kids are not allowed to run ahead in areas with low visibility", taught them to use low-pitched "Honk!" sounds to draw our attention instead of high-pitched squeals, and taught them to stick close to a parent if they see a bear, and that we'll lift them onto our shoulders if the bear is close.
ReplyDeleteAs far as it goes, it's worked so far. We've encountered a bunch of bears, the kids stuck close each time, and seemed a little nervous (appropriate), but not terrified, and haven't been paralyzed by fear of running into more bears.
I think the most important thing is seeing adults behave appropriately towards them. In that way, I may be luckier, in that my kids will have seen us react to plenty of real bears before they're old enough to encounter one on their own (which I hope to avoid for a long long time)
You're in a whole different bear world up there, Erin! We have grizzlies, but in 40 years of hiking I've never seen one of the trail (a couple way, way off in the distance, though). I agree that the most important thing is seeing adults behave appropriately. Kids look to us for a lot of things.
DeleteI've wondered about this as I work to get my 2 girls (8, 10) more into hiking, who get nervous in new situations. I haven't known what else to do other than bear bells, making noise, and talking matter-of-factly about bear safety. But I think if we ever saw one they'd freak and become shut-ins.
ReplyDeleteLOL. I'm pretty sure if we ever saw one they'd forget everything I said and either freeze (not bad) or run (bad). A few weeks ago, a friend was hiking to Eiffel Lake in Banff where there's a minimum group size of 4 because there are grizzlies in the area. They had six, but one guy was lagging behind and a bear wandered across the trail between him and the others. When it was across, the guy ran to the group, the bear followed for a while and then went back to berry picking...and that was an experienced hiker.
DeletePretty nice post. I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts.
ReplyDeleteIn any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon! Thank you.
big bear hotels
Thanks Rick! Next weekend I taking a bunch of kids to a series of abandoned tunnels and rooms that were carved into the side of a mountain in the 60s to store valuable documents in the event that the cold war turned hot. If I haven't written anything before then, you can expect a trip report shortly after.
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