Montana: Being Bear Aware

My wife, Cassandra, pulled back the safety clip on the red canister of Counter Assault bear spray in her hands, bent her knees, made a shout, and sprayed into the air.

That was the immediate feedback from Chuck Bartlebaugh, who knows a thing or two (or three or four) about bears and their behavior and how to stay safe around them in the Montana wild.

If that grizzly had been alive and not a taxidermy mount, well, I wouldn’t be writing these words. I’d be gone. So would my wife. Our daughter, Taidyn, who is home following her freshman year at college and tagged along with us to learn from Bartlebaugh and his buddies from the Be Bear Aware Campaign, might have had a chance to get away.

If you’re going to live in this Last Best Place, you’d better be bear aware — especially as the weather warms up through the spring and into the summer and early fall. The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks billboards along the interstates say it all with big letters: “Montana is Grizzly Bear Country.” Only Alaska has more of them, according to the state agency tasked with protecting Montana’s natural resources.

The mascot of the state’s flagship university is a grizzly, after all — though Monte has clipped his claws and won’t hurt you. Unless you’re a bobcat, that is.

While we’ve been looking forward to exploring the trails around Missoula for months, Cassandra was adamant that we wouldn’t be venturing anywhere until we not only had bear spray but that we also knew what to do with it — if necessary.

We’re soon to be married for 20 years. I know by now to listen.

I was delighted, then, when I met Bartlebaugh while speaking to a good group of retired conservationists last month at Morning Birds Bakery in downtown Missoula. He was equally delighted to coordinate a training demonstration through the Be Bear Aware Campaign, which uses its bear avoidance educational trailer to teach safety at community events, for youth groups and schools, or at campgrounds and trailheads.

Or for the local editor and his family who could easily get themselves in a lot of trouble by wandering unprepared down a trail at the wrong time.

“The one thing you need to do is spray the bear,” Bartlebaugh told us.

Not up and down. Not in any sort of zigzag pattern. Not a burst. Don’t try to aim.

Just spray spontaneously and downward at the front of the bear while loudly yelling “no!” and thrusting your other arm in its direction. Bears, like many animals, can understand facial expressions and body language.

There’s only a few seconds of deterrent spray in each canister. Don’t stop until the bear sucks in enough of the billowing cloud to change its mind.

Or, as Bartlebaugh put it, “I spray until I see its butt.”

We left our day of training with two other especially important takeaways:

• Make sure your bear spray is quickly and easily accessible — in a chest holster, on your hip or in an outside pocket. When you need it, you need it. There won’t be time to retrieve it from a backpack or elsewhere.
• Practice removing the safety clip, which is done by placing your thumb in front of the curled lip and pulling back. The canister packed with Capsaicin and related Capsaicinoids, the active ingredients in bear spray that cause an inflammatory response in the bear’s mouth, nose, throat, lungs, eyes and ears, isn’t any help unless you use what’s inside.

If you’re like us and need an education, Bartlebaugh and the Be Bear Aware Campaign crew stand ready to help: Call 406-239-2315, email bearinfo@cfwi.org or go online to bebearaware.org.

It’s free. It just might save your life, too.

With our bear spray canisters in hip holsters and our training behind us, we’re ready to get out on the trail. Recommendations, anyone?