hello I am here at Lake McDonald today and I'm going to teach you guys how to
use bear spray before we get started I am actually going to spray not this one
but I do have a training canister we're going to use but before we get going I
just wanted to discuss a few misconceptions about bear spray I work
at the airline so every summer I see people come in well intentioned but a
little bit confused first and foremost you cannot fly with
bear spray so bear spray plane not in your checked bag not in your carry-on
bag you cannot fight with it so don't bring it the second thing that I hear
people say is some people think it's like mosquito repellent you use it on
yourself or your clothes you do not use it on yourself you will regret that this
is for use on the bear only okay so once you rent your bear spray or buy it you
do want to look on the can it does have an expiration date so make sure that
it's not passed and it shouldn't be good for more than four years also you should
probably they recommend carrying 2 even if you're hiking alone one in the
bottom of your pack and then one on your person so that if you meet a bear
on your way out you have something to protect yourself
on your hike back if you're traveling or hiking with more than one person in your
party you definitely want 2 you don't want to be in a situation where the
person in front that has a bear spray has been attacked they can't get to it
and you can't help them so definitely at least two people should
have a bear spray in hand also when you are walking bear spray is a great
line of defense but honestly talking and singing is your best bet to make sure
you don't encounter an angry bear if you're talking if you're singing they're
gonna hear you coming they're gonna get out of the way they're not gonna feel
threatened by you so I think that about covers it so let's
get into how we use this okay so when you're looking to buy Ive
done a little bit of research and they say counter-assault
and frontiersmen are two of the best brands that you can buy just based on
potency spray distance and the size so this one is just my training and this is
actually the one we have counter-assault is nice because it comes with this which
you can slide this into a belt buckle to carry on your hip if you prefer to do
that otherwise some people like to put it in their backpack but I don't think
it's actually the best place I guess it depends on your backpack but if there's
a bear there I guess I can reach but that's not the most comfortable so but a
front pocket or your hip is actually the best place okay so they do come with a
safety clip and you want to be sure to leave that on until you see a bear we
were hiking once my husband's thought that he might see a bear so he took that
off and the problem is when you're hiking and he was actually on a river he
slipped fell forward and actually sprayed the bear spray it went down the
river to us ladies we started coughing hacking he came running he grabbed a bunch
of mud and rubbed it all over his face that stuff is potent and you do not want
to accidentally spray it and it's I mean it took a second not even pull that off
so leave it on there until you see the bear and then once you do see a bear if
you've surprised him just slowly step back talk to the bear don't look him in
the eye just step back like hi bear nice bear good day for a walk
if he starts charging that's when you're going to want to actually take your bear
spray out and spray they say when they're about 30 feet away
which for you that for you people that are great with spatial reasoning that
works but I had to look up what 30 feet is the distance of one of those big red
London buses since I like traveling it's the easy one for me to remember so
once they're that far away you want to take your can of spray you aim it at the
ground not up about 15 feet in front of you so half that distance of the bus and
hold it steady and you're just gonna do short bursts so like and the wind's
going that way so they say start low and zigzag up unless you already know where
the wind is and that's going to create a nice fog barrier that's going to deter
that bear and give you time to get away thanks so much for watching guys I hope
that was helpful to you if you have any other questions leave them below I'm
happy to answer them it's just great to be prepared whether you're going to
Glacier National Park or Yellowstone or wherever you're heading this summer also
I forgot to mention another thing that I've seen when you buy it take it out of
the packaging you don't have to I when you see a bear to remove that packaging
just be ready be prepared and have fun camping see you guys next time