Backpacker magazine's Bear Country Behavior informs readers about how to hike and backpack safely in grizzly bear and black bear country throughout the United States. Topics covered include hiking and camping in bear country, food storage, special considerations for women, and special precautions for hunters, anglers, mountain bikers, and photographers.
If you encounter a bear in the wilderness, what do you do? In Bear Country Behavior, veteran backcountry traveler Bill Schneider gives valuable advice on how to hike and backpack safely in grizzly bear and black bear country throughout the United States. This volume includes hiking and camping in bear country, food storage, special considerations for women, and special precautions for hunters, anglers, mountain bikers, and photographers.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Introduction: Hikers and Bears: A Dangerous Combination for Both |
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1 | (3) |
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Chapter One Bear Awareness |
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4 | (8) |
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Chapter Two Have You Heard This One? |
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12 | (6) |
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Chapter Three Hiking in Bear Country |
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18 | (13) |
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Chapter Four Camping in Bear Country |
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31 | (24) |
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Chapter Five Personal Protection |
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55 | (6) |
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Chapter Six Special Regulations in National Parks |
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61 | (10) |
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Chapter Seven Special Precautions for Women |
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71 | (2) |
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Chapter Eight Special Precautions for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers |
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73 | (5) |
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Chapter Nine Special Precautions for Mountain Bikers |
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78 | (2) |
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Chapter Ten Special Precautions for Photographers |
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80 | (2) |
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Chapter Eleven Encounters: What to Do? |
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82 | (12) |
| Afterword: Thinking Grizzly |
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94 | (3) |
| Index |
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97 | (1) |
| About the Author |
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98 | |
Bill Schneider has spent forty years hiking trails all across America. During college in the mid-1960s, he worked on a trail crew in Glacier National Park and became a hiking addict. He spent the 1970s publishing the Montana Outdoors magazine for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks while covering as many miles of trails as possible on weekends and holidays. In 1979 Bill and his partner, Mike Sample, founded Falcon Publishing. Since then, he has written twenty books and hundreds of magazine articles on wildlife, outdoor recreation, and conservation issues. Bill has also taught classes on bicycling, backpacking, zero-impact camping, and hiking in bear country for the Yellowstone Institute, a nonprofit educational organization in Yellowstone National Park. In 2000 Bill retired from his position as president of Falcon Publishing (now part of The Globe Pequot Press) after it had grown into the premier publisher of outdoor recreation guidebooks with more than 800 titles in print. He now lives in Helena, Montana with his wife, Marnie, and works as a publishing consultant, freelance writer, and travel and outdoor editor for NewWest.Net, a regional online magazine. For more details, go to www.billschneider.net.