It’s actually not clear that there’s any additional risk for menstruating women in bear country assuming they dispose of their tampons like one would with any trash with an odor, by placing it in a ziplock and storing it away from your campsite.
“Actually honey it’s not clear that there’s any additional risk for menstruating women in the presence of certain types of bears. Although Ursus Maritimus elicited a strong behavioral response to seal scents and menstrual odors, according to a study by Cushing, (1983), the responses of Ursus Americanus to menstrual odors has not been studied experimentally. Lacking more conrete data, I’d say you’re probably…”
“AAAAUGH!! HELP ME YOU ASSHOLE!!! THIS THING IS ATTACKING ME!!”
On a bison hunt in southern Utah, I was charged by a herd I had just shot at and missed. I waved my arms over my head and they turned away.
On the same hunt, I ended up on a mountain top far from any roads at sunset with a storm moving in, in the end of December. Had to decide between spending the night in a blizzard on top of a mountain with no shelter other than my (pretty good) hunting clothes, or hiking down the mountain in the dark. Decided to go down by flashlight, took about 3 hours, was a bit cold when I finally got to the truck.
Just to be safe… this is why you need this :
Got that from another doper in another thread.
No offense, but how the heck do you miss A bison, let alone a whole herd of them?
Friends and I went camping in Ontario shortly after the spring thaw. We had spent the day out hiking and were returning to our campsite by canoe. The sun was going down and the wind came up. Suddenly we found ourselves in the middle of a large lake in very choppy water, and it dawned on me that if the canoe tipped over we were DEAD. The water was very cold – the lake had been frozen over the week before. Even though we were all strong swimmers there was no way we would have made it to shore before hypothermia got us. We made it across just fine, obviously, or I wouldn’t be typing this, but it was not an experience I would care to repeat.
India last fall. Corbett Preserve.
Angry wild elephants with an extra angry head bull, backing us down from a few feet away in our open jeep when we surprised them with their baby. Easily the most frightened I’ve ever been and it was most amazingly primal. Half a dozen enraged elephants screaming at you and pacing toward your car definitely gets your attention.
I’ve been on several safaris and seen hunting lions, hippos, elephants etc close enough to touch. I’ve bungeed a 700 foot drop. No comparison in terror. This was different. Something about facing a wild animal interested in killing you is definitely “primal.”
During the course of about ten minutes we slowly backed away. About 15 minutes later the elephants took out their wrath on a forest camp of road laborers, completely destroying it, terrifying the workers who had fled up trees when they heard the elephants coming. They quit on the spot according to our guide.
I once went camping with a grup of people from my wife’s work. One of them was an older guy of the sort who fancies himself a real genius. We got into an argument when he claimed that no human being had ever been killed by a black bear. Totally harmless, he said. So he didn’t think it necessary to take bear precautions, since where we were the only kind of bears around were black bears.
I was like, “That’s fricking insane. Black bears have killed lots of people.” I wouldn’t camp near him.
How people get this stuff into their heads I don’t know. He wasn’t eaten by a bear that night I won’t be surprised if he is someday.
I was camping on the top of a mountain in New Mexico as part of a Boy Scout trip the summer after my senior year in high school (2000.) My friend and I were asleep in our tent when I woke up from a large pain in my ankle. I thought a branch fell on me because that corner of the tent was collapsed. Then I heard movement outside, and I figured it had to be an animal…a large animal with a propensity for honey and picnic baskets…
I woke up my friend and told him I thought a bear was outside the tent. So he starts making noise and hits the walls of the tent like we were told to do. Then his face whips around and blood is pouring out of four slashmarks across his face. He later described it as feeling like getting hit by a 2x4 with nails sticking out. Of course, my friend, being slightly insane, just got angrier and yelled louder and hit the walls of the tent more. The bear did eventually wander off and his cuts weren’t that serious, thank God. But if he was just an inch or so closer, they would have been much deeper, or if the bear’s arm was about an inch higher or lower, it would have taken out his eye.
Summer 2008, I was delivering pizza in the southwest suburbs of Springfield, Illinois. The whole afternoon had been one of off-and-on thunderstorms.
I made one delivery, and headed off to some subdivision to make the next one. No sooner had I turned into the neighborhood than the rain came pouring down so hard I could barely see the road in front of me. I parked in a house’s driveway, facing east. The wind was coming from the south, and it was rocking my car. :eek: So I figured that, with the side of my car taking the full brunt of the wind’s wrath, I’d be better off with my car facing with the wind, rather than against it. Oh so slowly and carefully, I backed out of the driveway and parked along the curb, facing north.
The wind blew against the back end of my car, and under the carriage, making godawful sounds I don’t ever want to hear again, and shaking it violently. Then, the wind pushed my car, in park and with the emergency brake engaged, about 3-4 inches along the street. :eek::eek:
I knew at that moment that there was a very real possibility that I would be the first storm-related fatality in Springfield in decades.
And then, just as quickly as it began, it was over. The skies cleared, I caught my breath, and went on to deliver my next pizza.
Part of an Elk hunting trip. I walked a short distance from my truck. Came back to find these tracks beside the left door. Near as I can tell, it was a big cat (apparently watching me wander about). I really don’t know if I was close to being a meal. I’m not a real good judge of size (from tracks).
Any tracking experts on the dope? Looked like the track of a large cat to me.