Mountain Biker Attacked by Black Bear on Kitsap Peninsula

Late summer is berry season, which means it is also bear season. A 51 year-old man mountain biking in Banner Forest (near Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula) was attacked by a male black bear last week. His dogs were running ahead of him, and he heard them barking. He turned a corner, and was face-to-face with the bear, which then attacked him. Attacks by black bears are remarkably rare, which makes the situation all the more puzzling. Miraculously he survived and is in good condition, and both dogs are alive and well. Every mountain biker, hunter, hiker, random person that Seattlest knows seems to have their own opinion: he shouldn't have had his dogs off leash, shouldn't have been riding by himself, he was in a freaking "Forest" what do you expect...and so on.

We just got back from a week vacation followed by the long holiday weekend in BC, and there's plenty more bears up there. We stood less than 10 feet from one right next to a bunch of condos in Whistler's village (while a neighbor yelled and and eventually chased him off), saw one run across the road while we were driving, rode past them in the bike park, and earlier this year actually came far too close for comfort to a huge male black bear way out in the woods while on a mountain bike. The bears there haven't attacked people, but they're much more accustomed to being around people (and, unfortunately, their food sources). What bears there are around here--and they're out there, more than you probably know except for when a story like this pops up--are not. Very few of the stories published about this man say much about what to do in the case of a bear attack (excepting the Kitsap Sun), and we actually haven't seen one that tells you what to do to try to avoid one in the first place. So instead of swilling rumors about whether this guy's dogs provoked the attack or not, or drowning in the debate about killing the bear, here's Seattlest's Guide To Avoiding Bears:

1. Never leave your house.
2. If you leave your house, and go anywhere near wooded areas or places labeled "forests" or anyplace that could remotely contain bears, plan to make some noise. Buy a bear bell, put it on you and your dogs if you have them.
3. If you don't have a bear bell, sing lots of loud, obnoxious songs. Easily repeated stuff you can belt out, like Bryan Adams or something equally horrible. Or make one up. Either way, announce your presence as you go. Black bears (what we have around here, no grizzlies, thankfully) want nothing to do with you really, and will try to stay out of your way.
4. Should you actually end up within a couple hundred feet of a bear that sees you, make yourself known. If you're a group, gather together to seem larger, and engage in a lot of yelling. "Go on bear, get out of here," is a popular one for us. Eventually, the bear should move along to get away from you, and you can do the same in the opposite direction (even if that means turning back). But if you find yourself between a momma bear and her cubs, you should back away slowly while talking loudly because that scenario is the most likely to actually provoke an attack.

As for bear spray? Only helpful if you have a decent amount of time to plan and react. Some folks we know who work in serious bear country (read: grizzlies) carry what are called "bear bangers" which are essentially very noisy versions of a flare gun, but the same caveat about response time applies here. It's most important to stay calm and remember that black bear attacks are very rare, and odds are you'll part ways in a mutually agreeable fashion.