Experts Warn Bikes and Bears a risky combination (MT)

From: [a friend]
Subject: Experts Warn Bikes and Bears a risky combination
Date: Sun, 26 May 2019 11:59:24 -0700

Another excellent article on how mountain bikers are disturbing the bears (grizzly and black bears) -- and it also mentions how mtber's dogs should be left at home...

https://www.dailyinterlake.com/local...ky_combination

"Evidence suggested the collision occurred so quickly that neither Treat nor the bear could avoid it." In other words, not yielding right of way to pedestrians, as required by law.

"mountain bikers tend to focus on the trail close to the bike “instead of looking ahead for bears, especially on single-track trails.�": just what I have been saying.

"“Bears must live in these areas while humans are just visitors,� he said.": good point! But he forgot to say that mountain bikers can walk!

A February 2016 article at singletracks.com observes, “Mountain biking is perhaps the most dangerous of the forms of recreating in bear country.�

“I’ve hiked my whole life and I’ve never had a black bear or a grizzly bear charge me,� Hammer said. “The two times I’ve been charged I was on a mountain bike.�

He said both occasions occurred when he was biking in the Krause Basin area east of Kalispell. One incident involved a black bear protecting cubs. The other involved a bear Hammer concluded was likely a grizzly. In that case, Hammer was traveling down a Forest Service road and heard a bear chasing him, with clacking of teeth and huffing.

Hammer sped up and escaped injury. He has not mountain biked since in the Krause Basin.