What's the deal with THAT?

When I took Ryan camping a few weeks ago, I was pretty sheepish when I bought bear spray for protection. I even was a pretty good sport when the know-it-all dude at Sportsman's Warehouse wanted to give me a lecture on the n-dimensional decision tree which should be thoroughly analyzed before bustin' a cap of bear spray.

All I had to say was "Well, they're only black bears" (aka Ursus americanus), not known to be very aggressive toward humans--more likely to run away than the more aggressive grizzly bear (Ursus horibilis, as in they can make your day horrible).

While we were camping, the only other campers we ran into reported that they saw a black bear last year in the area. That made me feel a little less foolish about packing "heat". The campers reported that suddenly came into a clearing and saw the bear, which turned and ran away into the woods.

A couple of weeks ago, a black bear attacked a family in Tennessee and actually killed a child. Last week, a bear attacked and severely injured a man in Washington. It is so rare--there have only been about 50 deaths attributed to black bear attacks in the last 100 years.

Somehow, I preferred life when my fears were irrational.