Hello all...I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina and we = have rattlers and copperheads but I have never had a problem on the = trails with either. However, for the last two years many of us have had = trouble with bears.
Hi Sharon
I live in Idaho and we have lots of bears. Fortunately most of the state has only black bears (plus wolves and mountain lions), at least in the areas that I ride. Bears make horses extremely nervous but black bears seldom take on something that big. Around here there is a hunting season and nearly all of them will take off fast if encountering a person. They will do anything for food so if camping lock your food stores and grain up tight. I once had one come nose to nose when I was cooking bacon over an open campfire. They have terrible eye sight and are led by nose and stomach. It was scary but in hind sight was a good incident for a comic book. Picture me obliviously cooking, bear obliviously smelling and looking up and seeing each other. I don't know who was more scared - but we both took a startled dive backward. Fortunately the bear took off at a fast run. In some parts of our state we have grizzlies which is another beast entirely. I refuse to ride where there may be grizzlies even though they are few and far between. I've heard of more than one story of them attacking someone on horse back for their sandwich, and lots of stories of them attacking and killing humans. Gives me the creeps just to think of it. Thanks to wolf introduction we now have them in the mountains surrounding Boise. The horses are very afraid of them too. I know there are no documented cases of them bringing down a horseback rider but I can't think that any predator with enough guts to take down elk can also take down a full grown horse. There have been several incidences of mountain lions attacking horses, even close to the city of Boise. They are getting very brazen and used to people. I moved here because I love the wild places and things that go with them. It's neat as long as they aren't eating your pets and children!
