The scariest bear I saw this summer was a cub. A little brown ball of fuzz, so small I first thought it was a marmot. My wife Cathy and I were fishing trout in Wood Tikchik State Park in Southwest Alaska. The bay was stuffed with sockeye salmon, spawned brilliant red and green. Brown bears had come to feast on these spawned reds. We’d come for Dolly Varden trout that feast on salmon eggs.

I spotted the cub from a distance, alone and bumbling along the beach toward us. I made noise and waved my arms, trying to get it to go the other way. The cub stood on it’s hind legs for a look, all three feet of him, then continued toward us, grazing on scraps of fish left by other bears.

“Get in the boat! Hurry!” I yelled frantically to Cathy, but she was already paddling away in her sea kayak. I dove into my boat and shoved off almost dumping in the process.

Most bear attacks happen when a human gets too close to a cub – a sow will fiercely protect her baby. Other dangerous situations include getting too close to a bear’s kill and surprising a bear.

The best way to avoid these situations, and a bear attack, is to use simple bear smarts. Travel in groups of two or more, never run from a bear, avoid wearing headphones in the backcountry, move cautiously (high speed equals high chance of surprise), don’t feed bears (duh!), carry bear spray, and most of all, let them know you’re coming.

Making noise gives mom a chance to collect junior, or a bear to get back to its dinner carcass. Make noise at least once a minute wherever your view is restricted, even in the alpine tundra. Don’t yell “Hey bear.” That’s like crying wolf. Instead, yell “Hey Yo! Coming through!” Clap your hands. Use the whistle on your sternum strap buckle or blast tunes from a small speaker. Please avoid bear bells. Also known as dinner bells, they give insufficient sound, especially around loud creeks. Plus, bear bells identify you as a tourist.

So what if a bear does attack? Most people will say “Shoot it!” Yeah, if you’re John Wayne. You only have a few moments to shoot a charging bear. Even if you nail a vital organ it will keep charging, and be really mad. The problem is that most of us aren’t sharp shooters. A study done by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that people defending themselves from grizzlies with guns suffered injury about 50-percent of the time. Those defending themselves with pepper spray escaped injury most of the time. If I decided to defend my second amendment rights I’d surely shoot my foot instead of the bear.

For us non-John Wayne types, the preferred option is pepper spray, also called bear deterrent. Bear sprays consist of Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) from chili peppers. The active, burn-your-eyeballs-out ingredient in the OC is Capsaicin and Related Capsaicinoids (CRC). To be approved by the EPA, bear spray must be 1- to 2-percent CRC giving them a Scoville heat unit punch of over 3,000,000-SHU compared to a savina habanero chile with about 580,000-SHU. Bear sprays accepted by the EPA include Counter Assault, Guard Alaska, Pepper Power by UDAP and Frontiersman. These sprays weigh about 11-ounces – way less than a Dirty Harry – and they can shoot over 25-feet for over six seconds. Practice using spray so you’re ready for quick draw and aiming in the correct direction. Keep it accessible, holstered (I like the holster made by Counter Assault) to your pack's waistbelt or shoulder strap. If there’s lots of fresh bear sign – scat, shredded fish, trampled areas – keep the spray in your hand.

The reality is that if you use bear smarts then the danger is minimal. A study by Alaska state epidemiologists showed that from 1900 to 1985 only 20 people died in bear attacks in Alaska. For comparison, from 1975 to 1985, 19 people in Alaska were killed by dogs. Also, salmon-eating bears are rarely a problem – salmon is much tastier than humans or human food.

Despite the stats, we didn’t sleep much that night in Silver Horn. The fearless cub was too creepy. Our imagination stayed crowded with visions of an 800-pound momma charging out of the bushes intent on killing us. We launched roman candles and bottle rockets every hour (not recommended) and kept the bear spray by our pillows. We camped the rest of the trip on islands away from fish and bears.

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