Felt safe until now

[Boreal Birch]

Guess you never traveled or camped on a salmon spawning stream. I was required to have with me and be proficient with an issued firearm by my employer, State of Alaska Department of Fish & Game. Never fired a shot, but it was comforting to have it handy many times. Just like a PFD, may never need it, but comforting to have it if ever needed. And, yes also had bear spray, carried John Wayne style, never needed to deploy it either. I do have co-worker friends that did.

 

[yknpdlr]

Our last niight on the Y1K, I was looking over the map for a good place ahead to camp before our 6 hour rules required not later than 11PM mandatory rest stop time for the remainder of the short "night". The map showed a very likely landing spot along the muddy shore ahead that we aimed for. But upon arrival there were three bears watching us as we decided to bypass that one and having no choice before suffering a time penalty for late landing, we settled for a muddy wet brushy shoal island landing with large bear tracks in the slick mud leading to a fair tent site on gravel. The ladies on our voyageur canoe race team set up a rope bell warning system around their tent and held bear spray close inside. We had no strange visitors that night.

 

[ScottS]

Guess you never traveled or camped on a salmon spawning stream. I was required to have with me and be proficient with an issued firearm by my employer, State of Alaska Department of Fish & Game. Never fired a shot, but it was comforting to have it handy many times. Just like a PFD, may never need it, but comforting to have it if ever needed. And, yes also had bear spray, carried John Wayne style, never needed to deploy it either. I do have co-worker friends that did.

I guess you're wrong. My first trip to Alaska and the Yukon was in 1976. But the point is, this thread is not about far north traveling where a gun is an acceptable idea. It's just a bunch of gun squids imagining that they need to pack heat to protect themselves from squirrels in the lower 48. Anyway, I'm done with this.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Thought you were checking out for a while? You’re not happy with this thread, so just unsubscribe from it already. No one is forcing you to click on it.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Some of us like to hunt from a canoe. Some of us have to deal with the reality of being too near "civilization" however we're allowed and accustomed. I don't understand why it should upset someone if we talk about it, especially we're aren't getting too political.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Bears and guns are always popular topics. There's certainly no rule against discussing them here . . . with civility, of course.

Not everyone likes those topics, and the same can be said for many of our varied topics. Some folks like X but not Y, or read W forum but not Z forum. That's why I try hard to encourage members to post topics in the most relevant forums—both to aid people in finding threads that interest them and to aid others in ignoring them. Alan and I move threads to more relevant forums when necessary.

This thread did start on the specific topic of fear of camping in the Adirondacks because a murderer was on the prowl there. The guy subsequently was caught. The thread served its purpose and was an interesting discussion. Nobody has violated any rules, but there's an unwelcome crankiness in the air. I'll end the thread here, but any of the topics or tangents discussed can be raised in other appropriate threads.