Bears!

During this trip, Julie and I will be venturing out into the backcountry in places like Glacier and Yellowstone. While we've done a lot of camping in the midwest, we've never camped anywhere that has the threat of grizzlies.



Julie is terrified. This, in turn, terrifies me. Not because of the bears, but because I'm afraid I won't get a single decent night's sleep for the 3 months that we're hobo-tripping.

Her fears aren't totally without merit. Before backpacking in Yellowstone, they make you watch a video based almost entirely on bear safety, and defending yourself in the event of a bear attack. It also doesn't help her fears that in the two times I've backpacked in Yellowstone, I managed to find myself 50 feet from a grizzly while changing pants in our camp.

Lucky for me, the bear wasn't interested in me and trundled off down the trail, after a few seconds of contemplating my edibility. It turns out that even though the bear didn't eat me, Julie is not at all soothed by that fact. Even when camping in non-bear country, Julie is extra vigilant, and spends most of the night waking me up to investigate all suspicious noises, real or imagined. Once, a turkey wandered through camp and Julie thought we were under attack by all manner of wild beasts.

Fortunately for us, in the last 10 years there have been a total of 29 deaths due to bears in North America, according to my finest internet research. If you don't count Canada, there have only been 15. That averages out to less than 2 deaths per year, and it also includes people who keep bears as pets and were then devoured. In contrast, 90 people are killed every year due to lightning. I'm not too concerned about any event that's 30 times more rare than lightning strikes, so once Julie wakes me up in the middle of the night to make me check for bears, I'll just tell her, "Go back to sleep, it's the lightning you have to worry about." Somehow, I don't think that will comfort her.