Backpacking in Grizzly Bear Country 

I love your approach of giving people tips and options, but always saying "here are some options, and this is what worked for me, but it may not be what you choose do," the way you treat your viewers as rational adults who can weigh options and decide for themselves. Thank for the tips!

"Throw the children to the bear" I couldn't stop laughing hahahahaha. Great information, thanks!

Those bear spray pics were amazing. Had me in tears 😂😂😂

"Lions and Tigers and Bears,,,,OH MY"!!!!...........And then there is Dixie's Harmonica.......The scariest thing on the Trail.

Great video! Thanks for including the most up-to-date info on how to deal with grizzlies. Just as an aside, the park service, forest service, etc., all take donations of bear spray from hikers who don't need their cans anymore. Most cans of bear spray cost about 50 bucks a can. Some places allow you to rent the cans, provided you bring them back full. Yellowstone has a place at Canyon Village where you can rent the bear spray. A lot of the bear spray that rangers use was actually donated by visitors. FYI, bear spray also has an expiration date. The spray won't be as effective after this date. :)

Great video. FYI, Fish & Game officials in both Kananaskis County and Banff National Park in Alberta advise against relying on bear bells as a method for bear, awareness. The bears hear the bells but don’t react much to them. Human conversation, as shown in Dixie’s video, travels well through the forest and bears do react. My dogs (leashed) and I did surprise a Grizzly while descending a mountain in Kananaskis, just as we were getting into the tree line. The Griz stepped out in front of us at about 75 feet. There was a comical, 5 second, pregnant pause as all parties, bear, dogs and human, paused in mid-stride in a confused “WTF?” moment. In the next five seconds I’d pulled my bear spray and tugged on the dog leashes with a quiet “this way” command and started slowly backing away. The Griz remained frozen in mid-stride, staring at us. Having gotten the Titanic reversed and moving away from the iceberg, after about 30 seconds or so I took a few seconds to glance upslope to check out some trees we could move out of sight behind. The Griz took that moment of inattention to disappear over a lip and downslope. We could hear it clattering away. I would describe it as a “professional” encounter as all parties, bear, dogs and human, disengaged as they should have. The dogs said nothing, which was very helpful. We hike in Grizzly Country all the time. Don’t surprise something you’d never want to meet. Guns are generally illegal in the parks here and I’ve never seen a hiker with one.

Your videos are always so informative and helpful. It’s been amazing watching you grow and learn over the years Dixie! ❤️

You have an excellent manner of conveying your story and helpful hints. Since I hike and camp a lot in bear territories, I agree with what you were saying. It is always great to see your videos. I. Was in Yellowstone in June 2018 when I was bluff charged by a bear, ca mb e within twenty feet. Happens in a heartbeat. But being calm and assessing the situation is a l.j ways the smart move. Yes. I had bear spray, but it all happened so fast I could not get it on the initial charge. So, knowing the basic rules your were suggesting work. Thanks Dixie. Do a post video of all of you telling the best trail stories. That would be great.

Dixie, you have given the best direction that I have ever heard concerning bears..very informative! Thanks a bunch, have followed you through each of your hikes, you are the best!!! 😄

Great video, Dixie! Be especially 'bear aware' if the wind is in your face. If the wind is at your back, the bear will smell you much sooner and have a chance to vamoose. If you're walking into a headwind, make more noise and slow down to reduce the chances of a surprise encounter. Great tip about doing dinner before you finish your hike for the day. I live in a high bear traffic area, and have learned that applying a little ammonia to things like trash cans works wonders. They really don't like the smell. I've never tried it, but wiping down a food bag with a little ammonia might go a long way toward killing any residual food smell and making your stuff unattractive to a bruin -- might be worth a try.

We use bear bells to warn skunks while walking our dogs in the city. Lots of people say sounds like Christmas 😊. But we don’t hear them anymore. They keep the multitude of skunks from being surprised

Re: the blast of bear spray, when I was working up in Denali NP we were always told to spray it in a downward angle towards the bear at 20 yards away, so that it puffs up into the bear's face, whereas spraying it straight ahead could result in it rising out of eye level by the time the bear hits where you sprayed...have never had to test this though :D

You should always carry pepper spray and wear a little bell when in bear country. PRO TIP - You can determine the kind of bear in the area by examining their scat. Black bear scat contains small twigs, leaves, and berries while grizzly bear scat smells like pepper spray and contains little bells.

Great stuff there Dixie! Bear country is beautiful country! Thanks for sharing!

Safe “Triple-Crowner!” Congrats Dixie! Your videos have encouraged my girlfriend, who was very afraid before, to backpack with me. We hiked 40 miles of the wonderland trail around Mt. Rainier this summer. Not sure if she’ll hike one of the big trails but thanks to you, it’s at least part of the conversation.

Used one of those pull alarms (eAlarm+), it worked. My ears rang for a bit, but it worked. Had it clipped to a belt loop. Grizz ran. Was singing and ranting and making plenty of noise, and it squared off anyway. The alarm did the trick. Had bear spray handy as backup.

Totally awesome presentation about a serious situation that could happen. Love the way that you present your video's.

When I realized that you were hiking alone in grizzly country i was so nervous for you. Then when I watched the episode where ya'll were night hiking in grizzly country i was nervous again. Girl, every Wednesday i was like, alright Dixie, you're killing me. Loved every minute of it.

Hello Dixie, sincere thanks to you for this timely information. Trout season in the Northern Sierras will open month, so I will definitely carry bear spray. Be safe out there and again thank you for the information. 🤗

If I hike alone in Grizzly Bear Country I put a couple of pebbles in an empty plastic bottle that I keep in my hand and use as a rattle in iffy areas. The best thing is I don't need to add anything to my gear.

Dixie, your videos are both informative and inspiring. Thank you.

You can identify black bear and grizzly bear poop this way: Black bear poop has seeds and berries in it.. Grizzly bear poop has bear bells in it!!!

Hey, Dixie! Thank you for the info. Bears can be intimidating for sure. My family and I walked up on a brown bear hiking the Jenny Lake Loop Trail. Whew!

Great vid, thanks Dixie, I really enjoyed that. The one trip I had where I camped many nights in grizzly country, it turns out our guide had been attacked by a grizzly before. Fortunately he waited until the last night of the camping trip to tell us about his encounter. He was way up in the north of Canada when attacked. I know what you mean about hiking in a grizzly area. I hiked by myself down a trail where rangers had recently seen a grizzly. There's something about that that makes you feel both very alive and more attached to the world. And of course I was pretty nervous too.

I’m so happy that you are still pumping out vids Dixie, I look forward to these so much. You’re such a warm, kind, & beautiful girl, inside & out, & you inspire the hell out of me😬😍🇨🇦♥️come do the great divide trail with me someday, you wouldn’t be disappointed ✌️

Excellent and interesting video, as always. Thanks, Dixie.

Just the video I was looking for on bear vs hiker advice. Cheers Dixie!

Love watching your videos! Your very informative and give lots of opinions.👍👍 I live in Canada just outside of Waterton National Park and do alot of hiking in Glacier National. I have bear spray and I sometimes take bear bangers/whistlers. I also always have a fox-40 whistle.

Omg the quality of this video is amazing! Hope you’re doing well and resting Dixie! Haha

Well done! You have gotten so much wonderful info in this video! I am also very scared to hike in Grizzly country too, and yet I still do. I have been very blessed to not run into them. I do a lot of praying too. :D I definitely prefer bear spray from all I have read. Hope you can come up and enjoy it here in MT again! Happy Trails!

I learned so much in this video, thank you! Please please do that video with the bear bag hanging, you've gotten me excited 🐻🍕🍔🌮🍗🍟🍭

Love your videos, Dixie! Would love to see how you keep physically conditioned off-trail in between thru hikes!

always great to see you dixie thanks for the info I'm sure it's going to help someone stay safe :)

Thank you so much, Dixie. This is so educational.

Thumb nail totally needs to be the logo for merch contest! Love it!

I like that the fear of Grizzly’s keeps a lot of people out of the backcountry in the Northern Rockies.

Great info. Thanks Dixie

Great advice, thank you! I love bears!

I’m 59 and have spent as much of my life as possible hiking and climbing and paddling. I’ve lived in Wyoming and Idaho (grizzly turf) and traveled a lot of black bear neighborhoods. I’m retiring next year and plan on living in the wilderness virtually full time. Having said that, I’ve never seen a bear in the wild although I’m positive I heard and smelled one during one very brief and very tense moment on the trail! Your video is excellent. Enough said.

A bearitto.. heh. I adore your videos and can't wait to put some of this into practice. those last photos, just beautiful!

Love your t-shirt Dixie!

Congrats on the triple crown Dixie! That is an incredible accomplishment. 👏🏻👏🏻 You’re an inspiration to this old lady who is now a hiker! I would have never gone out hiking if it weren’t for your video encouragement. Lol 🦋

Bear spray AND hand held Air horn . Unless the bear is in full attack mode the sudden loud air horn along with the spray makes the best deturant .

Great job thank you I really like the Eating before before you get you get to your campsite seem like a great idea

Ahaaaa. This is a challenge I have. Thankyou so much for this Relevant piece! Thats helped no end! Just gotta go do it now lol

thanks so much for all your advice. safe travels

Wise advice! Thank you!

Great advice, I'll show this video to the bear education team we have in town, the way you present things like this are very well done. Who knows.....maybe they'll use some of it to educate the kids. RAWR I'M A BEAR!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for posting "Crazy Grizzly Gal"!!!

Again, a lot of good information given. Whether you're an experienced "bear country" hiker or not, Thank you for sharing.

I liked the advice to hang your food bag Down wind of where you sleep. The triangle camp set up is good advice. Excellent training video.

Great video, heading to Bob Marshall for 7 days next week. Thanks so much.

This is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best video thumbnail you have ever released!

The way I distinguish black from grizz tracks is the distance of the claw marks from the foot pads. On the front feet grizz have long stretched out claws that leave marks a few inches from the toe pad marks. Black bear claws are short and more hooked for climbing trees. The claw marks will be much closer to the toe pads, usually about an inch or less depending on the size of the bear.

Once when I went camping in bear country, we had a bear canister. But we couldn't get it open! It was comical after the fact, but at the time it was so frustrating!

Grissly bear experts in British Colombia do recommend bear spray. It is 98% efficient. That is what I use, and I have spent over 5 summers living in grissly bear country. Hey , Thank you so much Dixie for sharing this very important information on how to behave in bear country. It is so important to not feed ANY bears. They are starting to shut down trails where peoples have been careless. Congratulation again on your triple crown you mountain Queen...

Grizzlies don't typically climb trees. They just knock them down. And for a Thru hiker bear spray is going to be much lighter than a gun that will do more than tickle them.

15:55 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂😂🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Great info!!

Great shirt choice for this talk!!

Great video, appreciate your approach to these more informational vids. Any tips on Mountain Lions? Seems like there has been an increase in activity in the Pacific Northwest this year.

Very thorough information. Great video. We have black bears in Ontario but no worries of seeing a Grizzly Bear. Phew.

Come to think of it, I'll just hike through EASTERN Wyoming and Montana to get to Canada. The EASTERN part has elk and antelope, which are really the sweetest wildlife!!

Thank you for the reasoned talk on hiking in Grizzly country, or just all bear, lion and wolf and bison country. The dynamics of hikers and Grizzly interactions are getting interesting. It seem much like the bashing and charging done by Griz on hikers seem to be territorial and just annoyance; I going to put this furless two legged in his place ' just like they were some sort of out of line bear teenager. And to me the most dangerous large critters in the Rockies are moose, bison, elderly lions and juvenile bears first away from Momma. Moist of the Griz I have seen and encountered, have not given so much as a never mind. I love watchingtehm, at a distance, go about their mission of the day.The biggest danger to bears are sloppy campers and outfitters that habituate bears to human food, fear mongering pistoleros looking for a gun fight and I always love the wildlife experts down at the smokey diner wanting to "put the bear in his place:, you listening Dubois, West Yellowstone or Gardiner?

Hi Dixie, I am planning to do a backpacking quilts here in Canada. Once I have the prototype done can I send one to you for review, feedback, suggestions etc.

Grizzlies are also in Colorado! Northern Colorado specifically, but they will likely travel further down into CO into the next few years

A toot on a whistle every now and then works if you don’t have bear bells. Plus it’s a great signaling device if injured in the back country.

Very good advice ❤️

I was hiking on the NC Mountains To Sea Trail last year. It was a beautiful and peaceful hike. I started hearing a faint ringing. Progressively it got louder until finally encountering a man with bear bells. That was my only experience hearing them, and I think being attacked by a bear may be less painful than hearing that bell. 😂

These videos are great! As a notice backpacker, bears are my biggest fear as well.

Thank you so much for this info. I’ve watched all your CDT videos but don’t remember- about how long were you in grizzly country hiking alone? I’m pretty nervous to be out there by myself.

Wonderful information and I your 360° coverage of the subject. Is there a trail from the coast to coast?

I have that same shirt! Love it!

While living outside Yellowstone long time local outdoor wisdom was bear spray + a firearm.

I've really enjoyed your videos. Have you ever thought about doing a "behind the scenes" post? Like talking about what video editing software you use, where you got your great logo, do you read off a script or just improve every take? I watched the Q&A with your editor. But I'm curious to learn more. I'm planning on doing a thru hike of a local trail and would love to produce a quality video like yours. Not that RU-vid needs another hiker series, lol.

Super cool thumbnail! Made myself a hot cocoa and casted the video on the big tv screen right away :)

Bill Brysan's A Walk In The Woods had a number of hilarious summaries of what to do about bears.

🌯 BURRITO!!! 😆 thanks Dixie- this has been the best video on 🐻 bears and the best advice about eating and hiking further up the trail BEFORE setting up camp for the night.

Saw a video recently of someone now doing the AT, but had done the Wonderland trail who came across a Brown Bear (Grizzly). She waited it out and it eventually ran off.

You hiked right through my back yard - Glacier National Park! A good read is "Night of the Grizzlies ". It happened right here in GNP. We have a simple bear ID test. How do you tell the difference between Grizz crap & Black bear crap..? The Grizz crap has bear bells in it and smells like pepper spray!! Thanks for the video...

Great Video! Good information.

Love Vermont. I enjoyed the video Dixie.🍳🎁🎅🎄🌹😎

I lived in Montana for 17 yrs and often walked alone in bear country. I used to hit two rocks together while walking on the trail

First, Dixie... THANKS for all your videos. Convinced me to try (and succeed) at section hiking, in one shot, every step of the AT in Georgia at the ripe old age of 60. That said, I tend to think a firearm in grizzly country is a good idea. It probably wouldn’t stop the bear but, it might give you (or me, at least) enough confidence to avoid the temptation to run screaming away... almost certainly provoking an attack reflex. I’d never shoot at the bear until it was absolutely the last resort but, if it came down to “fighting back,” a 40 cal S&W is a lot more effective than a sharp stick or a rock. Just my 2 cents. Thanks again for all the education! Planning to do the John Muir trail soon so, it is hugely relevant!

Always love your content! For someone so hike experienced you remain fabulously relatable, most and humble (and articulate!). Have you ever done or thought of doing the GDT in Canada? Looks amazing, I am hoping to do it and the northern part of the CDT in 2024🤞 Come along! 😁 Greg

I remeber growing up my mom was demonstrating how to use bear spray... I accidentally got a facefull of the mist... Lemme tell you, that hurts like no bodys business

Would love to watch your bear bag hanging video!

Gummi Bears, Bouncing here and there and everywhere. High adventure that’s beyond compare, They are the Gummi Bears.

Makes a lot of sense. good video

going to the winds this week...id like to see a griz but from 100-200 meters or more

I love your shirt during this video! It fits accordingly 😅😅

Good tips...don’t be a human burrito! Back in the day, I use to lie awake alone in my tent looking up bear statistics on my blackberry instead of sleeping.

There are also grizzlies in the northern Sierra Nevada's. I encountered one behind the Donner pass rest area on I- 80. It was digging in a garbage can. It ran off when it saw me, then came back to the trash. I saw me a second time because I was watching it. Then I called the state police and told them. They thought I said the bear was using the rest area and had a laugh at first.

One thing to consider if you do spray the bear be cautious of what direction the wind is blowing

Ya make noise. Also on the carcass mention, if you hear crows and ravens etc. nearby, give them a wide birth and go around, assume it's a bear kill.

Canadian bears hug you, they are really friendly and will buy you lunch then apologize for not thinking your good enough to eat.

I haven't yet tried this, but I've long thought, through years of hunting and general outdoorsyness, that no animal willingly attacks a skunk. If a predator cannot gain an upper hand on prey through surprise it will starve, and every instinct tells any predator that being sprayed by a skunk equals starvation. Skunk....scent? Is available at outlets that have supplies for trapping to mask human scent. No, I've never trapped and would not unless in a survival situation. It doesn't take much, just a tiny bit on the soles of one's shoes should do the trick, but I still strongly recommend carrying bear spray, the skunk scent only acts as a warning and a deterrent, defense is best left to bear spray. The most powerful firearm is unlikely to instantly disable an attacking grizzly and will possibly enrage or frighten it enough to make it dispatch you quickly as opposed to exploring an apparently dead lump of not-prey-i'm-familiar-with human. Animals eat what they're used to unless they're starving.

Hey Dixie so with the clothes you cook in, do you put it in your pack and keep it in your tent?

The attacks i've heard about bears and hikers is when they surprise the bear, like come up over a hill and BAM. Apart from that, random attacks like one kid that was attacked (i think he was from India or something), even while he was in a group on the Appalachian trail a few years ago. Attacks against hikers where i live (Sweden) is fortunately rare. I've heard that there are bears wandering around near northern Stockholm where i live (according to tracks and droppings some observers have seen), but i've never seen or heard one. If you're like me and live in a country where bearspray isn't an option, what i have heard is to get salt or something that you can throw towards the eyes (if they attack), and lots of it because you will probably miss a couple of times. Also, get some clean extra underwear - for obvious reasons :o)

Next video: Top Ten songs to scare off Grizzly bears?

Dixie, someone may have already mentioned this. I saw a ranger with bear spray, he said when you play dead to spray across yourself also to deter the bear. Hope that makes sense to you. Thanks.😀