In the City, Dreaming about the Wilderness...

[Rockskipper]

One of the Montana universities came out with a study recently that said the exact same thing, bear spray is much safer than carrying a gun. My cousin was an archaeologist in Alaska for many years, flying into remote sites, and he had several close grizzly encounters. He said he would be dead if he'd been carrying a gun and not bear spray - and yes, he knows how to use a gun.

I would recommend that you read some of the work of Charlie Russell (a Canadian, not the artist). He's worked closely with grizzlies all his life, and we have much to learn from him. I also recommend Doug Peacock, another grizzly expert. Bear researchers are finding the bears are more intelligent than apes, and they're really and truly not killing machines. We go into their habitat hopefully with great respect, and a can of bear spray.

 

[Udink]

Sorry, my post wasn't very nice and I used caps lock way too much.

 

[Rockskipper]

I understood where you were coming from, though caps lock can sometimes make a post seem more extreme than it was maybe meant, though maybe not...

 

[SteveR]

We have hiked and camped extensively for 40 years in the prime grizzly habitat of the Canadian Rockies, and agree with others- both of you should carry bear spray (maybe "waste" a canister so you get an idea of the effective range) and consider leaving the gun behind. This is not an "anti guns" in general stance ( I have been a hunter), but is based on the most likely outcome of being armed- a false sense of security, and the possibility that a merely curious bear will be unnecessarily shot.

 

[Wanderlust073]

Educate yourself then do what you want. It's still mostly a free country.

 

[b.stark]

My best description of golden trout meat is salmon-like. It's not just like salmon, but what I had was very red and had a similar texture to salmon. That was probably the only time I'll ever eat a golden trout though, both because I don't target them much and they are indeed a pretty special fish. It's been long enough since I had a cutthroat that I can't very well compare. Tiger trout is maybe the most recent trout I've had that would be in the same category as golden trout meat. Most of the time I keep rainbows or brookies. I eat lots of brookies in the mountain west, since they usually are so prolific that they overpopulate lakes and are stunted into what we call "fish sticks." No shame in eating a panfull of those.

When I first started hiking, I ate fish 2-3 times a day as available. A lot of that was probably for two reasons, one, because they guy I hiked with a lot ate them all the time, and two, our food lacked good nutrition (ramen and easy mac just don't feed your body well). I hike myself or with other people most of the time now and carry much more nutritious food, so a trout is a treat once in a while. I use barbless hooks as much as possible too (haven't started tying my own yet or all my trout flies would be barbless).

 

[Wanderlust073]

Love the little brookies that you can just scrape with a fork to get the meat off them in one shot. 6-8 for breakfast, ohhhh yeahhh.