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My friends and I are traveling the North Country Trail in Michigan's Upper Peninsula this August. Even though odds are small, we could encounter a grizzly bear. This is something none of us have experience with, so as we prepare it is the top discussion of safety.

We understand that we should cook food more than 100yd's away from our sleeping area, and hang food in a bear canister (or bag)/anything else that may attract them via smell.

If we encounter a grizzly bear, what should we do? What if we are in a tent and hear a bear walk by (which I've heard is most common, because they are traveling to hikers' food, typically through a campsite)?

None of us are registered to carry a gun, so that isn't an option. For the sake of this website and the completeness of question for future users, the answerer could also provide an answer assuming we had a weapon.

Charlie Brumbaugh
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Ryan Welsh
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  • Also related: http://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/225/what-precautions-should-i-take-to-protect-myself-and-my-camp-from-bears – nhinkle Jul 16 '15 at 17:46
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    @nhinkle I'm not sure why those didn't show up when I searched "Bear" or "Bear encounter" on this site. Good links! Thanks a lot. – Ryan Welsh Jul 16 '15 at 17:49
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    @nhinkle Although, in my opinion, the first link doesn't give much useful information (outside of what I would expect to be common knowledge). The one answer that seemed to provide extra detail has a broken link, so it is useless. – Ryan Welsh Jul 16 '15 at 17:51
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    No problem @ryan. They did both show up under the [tag:bears] tag. You should see a button that says "this answered my question" which will help point future visitors to those other questions. – nhinkle Jul 16 '15 at 17:52
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    Good call on the dead link; I was able to find an older copy of that page on archive.org and put that link in. – nhinkle Jul 16 '15 at 17:56
  • As far as I can tell from a quick internet search there are no grizzly bears in Michigan, including the Upper Peninsula. There are plenty of black bears though. – Charles E. Grant Jul 16 '15 at 17:56
  • @CharlesE.Grant There aren't normally, but it isn't impossible to see them travel in the UP because of its close proximity to Canada. Especially the Eastern UP because it has a direct land path. Rare, but possible. – Ryan Welsh Jul 16 '15 at 17:58
  • @nhinkle Awesome! I didn't even know you could do that. Thanks a lot for your help, I appreciate it. – Ryan Welsh Jul 16 '15 at 17:58
  • @RyanWelsh, are you sure about that? As far as I can tell grizzlies in Canada don't get much further east then the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, unless you you are WAY up north (Nunavut) – Charles E. Grant Jul 16 '15 at 18:05
  • @CharlesE.Grant That was information I got from the trail office I called (North Country Trail Assoc.). It very well could be wrong, I suppose I don't know. – Ryan Welsh Jul 16 '15 at 18:09

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