posted by alex on Mar 4
I think it’s time I address this topic since it’s often the question I get the most from people.
My biggest fear by far when touring aren’t cars, most drivers are fairly predictable on long stretches of open road. I also pay extra attention in the morning since that’s when drunks are on their way back home. Since purchasing a bike mirror I’ve developed the habit of obsessively checking it to see how close and fast cars are coming so I could always pull off the road if need be. Trucks on the other hand can effect the handling of the bike when they overtake it and can suck it toward them so to speak. Again, the mirror comes in handy in those types of situations. Road debris is also another problem, what I’ve notice is that it’s always more of a problem in urban areas. Mechanical problems happen but they can often be dealt on the road. Since I’m operating on a shoe string budget I’ll be camping along the way. Half of the time I’ll be camping in the backyard’s of my new best friends and then the other half of the time I’ll be doing some guerilla/free camping on the side of road. This brings me to the greatest danger of all that I must share with anyone who will ever attempt this sort of thing.
Bears! Nature’s Godless Killing machines http://godlesskillingmachines.org/
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March 7th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Listen, what’s the dealy-o with all the bear hate? We try and keep to ourselves, but the whole lot of you can’t seem to stay away! It’s hard enough to resist eating all of you, but when you decided to come into OUR land with all your camping gear and your food, it’s impossible to resist.
In any case, stop your shenanigans at once, and know that we will treat any violence towards our fellow bears as a threat to all of us. You have been warned!
LONG LIVE WINNY, THE ONE AND ALMIGHTY RULER OF THE BEAR NATION!
March 7th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Bears *are* pretty scary.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
In reply to Gavin
Hath not a Bear eyes? Hath not a Bear hands, organs, dimensions, senses, love of honey, love of raw fish; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer as a human is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not go on a killing ram- I mean laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Bear wrong a human, what is his humility? Revenge. If a human wrong a Bear, what should his sufferance be by Human example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Well, is anything being debated here? Either way… A unhappy bear does have a point. Bears are what they are, we ARE pretty stupid if we think we can get into a bear’s ever shrinking territory without triggering some natural response. As a treeplanter, I’ve got some experience with bears, and can tell you that from my experience, they are usually NOT agressive. You just have to do the wrong things… if there’s something that smells quite nice… then you have a problem. If you threaten the bear, then you have a problem… There are lots of things that can provoke an unpleasant response from the bear. You just have to limit the situations where such a response is more likely than your safety. I’ve done hiking in remote mountain ranges by myself, I have encountered bears, both passive and agressive. I am unharmed and alive and wiser for the experience. The bear is not your enemy, humans are!