By: Karyssa Hiller, University of Vermont

Camping on Taku River Tlinigit traditional territory has been an unforgettable experience. The views and the area alone are something I will never forget—especially being surrounded by some of North America’s most charismatic animals. Evidence of these animals can be found all along the trails we hike, the mountains we summit, and the areas we bushwhack. Most of these animals tend to avoid us, but there’s one we make every effort to avoid ourselves: bears.

Camping in bear country is a challenge in its own right. On our first day in Atlin, the group reviewed a video and went over bear safety, which included a live demonstration of bear spray (essentially bear-strength mace). From that point on, we carried bear spray everywhere, always keeping it on us and even right outside our tents at night. Bear spray is a last resort if a bear pursues us, and it only works at a range of about 1.5 meters from the bear’s face. We also carried “bear bangers,” loud devices meant to startle and scare off bears. Both tools are meant to be used only when absolutely necessary, so our main goal was to avoid encountering bears altogether.

Avoiding bears is truly an art. We constantly talked, whistled, or sang to avoid surprising a bear and startling it. We also set up our camps in a specific way to reduce risk: our cooking area was located at least 100 meters from our sleeping tents, and our food was stored even farther away.

Keeping food and scented items away from bears when we weren’t present was one of the most important parts of our routine. We packed all our food, cosmetics, medications, sunscreen, and anything with a noticeable scent into dry bags and either hung them high in trees in “bear hangs” or buried them under large rocks in “bear buries” if hanging wasn’t possible. With enough determination, a bear could certainly get into the bags, but the key was to make it difficult enough to deter them.

Our first night attempting a bear hang took about 30 minutes just to gather all the “smelly stuff.” The list is long – bears are even attracted to the scent of gasoline. We found it easiest to store all scented cosmetics and medications in a personal bag to avoid forgetting anything, which could result in a large and dangerous visitor.

Reading the landscape is also essential in avoiding bears. Black bears are usually found at lower elevations with dense forest cover, while grizzlies tend to inhabit higher elevations with fewer trees and more open terrain. However, this isn’t always a reliable rule, and reading bear tracks is a better way to determine what species are in the area. Bears often use human-made trails, and their tracks are easy to spot in substrates like mud.

Black bears have shorter claws than grizzlies, and if you draw a line across the top of their foot beneath the toes, the last toe of a black bear will fall below or through the line. In contrast, all of a grizzly’s toes will sit above the line, and their claws are significantly longer. Tracks can also indicate how recently a bear was in the area, with fresh ones being most important to spot. The number of bears present also matters—a female with cubs is one of the most dangerous encounters you can have, especially if startled.

Scat is another useful indicator, as it reveals how recently a bear has passed through. When we were leaving Llewellyn Glacier, we were following closely behind a large grizzly. We knew this because it was leaving fresh, still-wet scat directly in the middle of the trail. We followed this bear for a couple of kilometers, singing as loudly as possible the entire time to avoid surprising it.

Overall, camping in bear country is not only possible—it’s enjoyable. Taking the proper precautions and staying alert are critical. Improper food storage is one of the most dangerous mistakes you can make, as bears may defend food aggressively. It’s also important to remember that bears don’t seek conflict with people. Just as we work to avoid them, they’re usually trying to avoid us too.

Fresh grizzly bear tracks in the sand at Lewellyn Glacier. The bear was here a couple hours before we got there. We saw many fresh bear tracks in the area we were camping the whole time we were there. We never physically saw any bears. 

Old grizzly bear tracks that we saw at Lewellyn Glacier. These tracks have small cub tracks next to them, most likely a yearling that was following their mother. Luckily, the tracks were dried and caked, meaning they were not fresh. 

Black bear tracks. These tracks were found in a forested area before we hiked up to our camping spot and gained elevation. 

Grizzly tracks on the left and black bear tracks on the right. You can see how the grizzly’s toes do not cross the line while the black bears do.