Y E L L O W S T O N E   -   D A Y   # 3

Saturday, August 7, 2004

After eating breakfast I head back into Yellowstone and drive south to Mammoth Hot Springs. It's a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky.

Upon arrival I start gearing up for my first hike, Sepulcher Mountain. According to the Park Service there have been recent bear sightings on the trail and hikers are advised to be prepared for potential bear encounters.

To help fend off the bears I'll bring along my bear spray. It's special spray just for bears that's so potent it can permanently blind them if I shoot it directly into their eyes. However, the preferred method of application is to spray a 25 foot fog between myself and the approaching bear. The bear gets a whiff of the spray as it advances and hopefully finds it unpleasant enough to retreat. If so, the bear gets to keep its eyesight and I don't have to change my underwear (or worse).

I strap the spray around my waist for easy access. There's a plastic "safety" clip on the trigger that's easily removable in the event I need to dispense the spray. But I have to be careful, I only get 5 seconds of spray action out of it so I must use it wisely.

Thinking a little more about all this, if the spray can blind a bear then I assume it can blind me too. So I need to be careful. Great, not only do I have to worry about being eaten, I also have to worry about being blinded. Well I guess I'd rather be blind when eaten so that's always an option, assuming I have enough spray left in the can before it takes too many bites.