storminator,

Bear spray can be legally carried through Canada enroute to and from Alaska. Not every Canadian customs official is aware of this, so it may take some explanation, but they are supposed to allow it.

Ray Bane has done a great job of explaining the advantages of bear spray, and Dr. Tom Smith's recent research into bear attacks in Alaska and the effectiveness of spray on both brown and black bears is worth reading. If you are backpacking into remote areas, consider carrying two cans. Should you need to use one on a bear, you'll want a second can ready as you get out of the area. The same reason those with firearms carry an extra magazine or speedloader.

Air horns are effective, but spray is better. There are lots of brands out there, so do a little research and buy a reputable brand, such as those recommended by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee.

I know of cases where a .44 magnum pistol (and some smaller calibers) have been used successfully to dispatch brown bears, but again, as Ray pointed out, speed and accuracy with a handgun are difficult in the stress of surprise bear encounter. More than one armed hunter has learned this in a bear encounter. The cloud of bear spray mitigates the accuracy problem and reduces the risk of collateral damage from a stray bullet as well.

Hope you have a great motorcycle trip this summer.

The previous post by Anonymous has some excellent comments on the subject of bear spray.

Storminator - hope you encounter a Canadian customs official who is up-to-date on the bear spray regs, so you can take some along.
Have a great trip!

SKEETERS! you mean, the Alaskan state bird? those critters will be harrassing me on the entire trip. i am Alaskan sourdough- so i know how to deal with them. i will have a my trusty head net at the ready at all times. and i shall bathe in DDT! lol

so, i can bring some bear spray with me into Canada, eh? excellent! thank you very much, Anonymous. that is very good news. i worry about not being able to hang my food properly. (the further north you go, the smaller the trees get). i won't have much, but it takes very little to attract that very long nose. i've driven the Alcan twice, and i almost hit a black bear on the road. (and several moose, and mountain goats, and a porcupine).

i read a book by Elmer Keith, the man who designed the .44 MAG, (and .357 MAG). he took down a lot of animals with it. and he had a story of a brown bear coming into their camp in Alaska unexpectantly, and very upset. after reading that story, i knew my .44 wasn't ever going to be big enough. in fact, i'm willing to bet they wish they could have blasted that bear in the nose with spray!

two cans is a great idea. my brother and i will both have them in Yellowstone. Shoshone Lake has a history of bear attacks, albeit most are just quick confrontations and fake charges. i'm still much more concerned with the lone bison. those guys have no fear, and walk wherever they please. i completely agree with Frank N. about the people in the back country. very nice, courteous, and genuinely happy people out there.

i'm not surprised by Beamis. i've known many people like him- and i would never hike with ANY of them. EVER. they were the people i would have considered as "sketchy". i believe the psychological term is "paranoid". once upon a time while living in Alaska, my paranoid boss pulled his .25 auto out of his posket and pointed it at me to prove that carrying was a good idea. i immediately knocked it out of his hand, and pinned him to the wall. then he fired me. then the owner found out he pulled a gun. i got my job back, and my paranoid manager lost his! he did not have a license. definitely the paranoid sketchy type.

thank you for your kind wishes, Jim B and Anonymous. i cannot wait to get on the road again. yet another epic adventure. i'll be riding to the Arctic Circle, and all the way down to Homer. by myself. no gun required.

oh, and just so all you CCW people know- i am a member of the NRA. i completely agree with the law to own and to carry. (i own 14 firearms). just not in the parks. those rules are in place for a good reason. i believe that it is more dangerous in downtown Seattle on a Saturday night than in the middle of nowhere at any time.

yet, i still don't feel the need to carry.

Licensed to kill? Gunmen in killings had permits
By DEBORAH HASTINGS (AP National Writer)
From Associated Press
April 07, 2009 4:45 PM EDT
They had more in common than unleashing carnage - nearly every gunman in this monthlong series of mass killings was legally entitled to fire his weapons.

So what does that say about the state of gun control laws in this country? One thing appears certain: the regulations aren't getting stricter. Many recent efforts to change weapons laws have been about easing them.
Despite eight rampages that have claimed 57 lives since March 10, "it hasn't sparked any national goal to deal with this epidemic. In fact, it's going the other way," said Scott Vogel of the Freedom States Alliance, a gun control activist group.

Even President Barack Obama has felt that sway. Last month, 65 House Democrats said they would block any attempt to resurrect an expired federal ban against assault weapons. The pro-gun Democrats, led by Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, wrote Attorney General Eric Holder saying they opposed not only a ban on military-style guns, but also efforts "to pass any similar law." Gun control issues would only produce "a long and divisive fight," they said, at a time when Congress should be focused on the roiling economy.

A few states are trying to loosen gun restrictions. In the Texas Capitol - where legislators can carry guns - bills easily passed the Senate in recent weeks that would allow employees to bring weapons to work as long as they leave them locked in their cars, and let those packing heat off the legal hook if they walked into a bar that didn't have signs saying guns weren't allowed inside. The state also is considering allowing students licensed to carry a concealed weapon - there are about 300,000 such adults in Texas - to bring guns on campus.

Kansas plans to put a measure on its 2010 ballot that would rewrite the state constitution to make gun ownership a personal, rather than collective, right. In Tennessee, lawmakers made progress this month toward allowing guns to be carried in state and local parks.

"I think you're seeing a continuing change of culture," Vogel said. "I think the gun lobby wants to take away any stigma to gun ownership. I think they feel emboldened, like who's going to stop them?"

The National Rifle Association, the country's most powerful gun lobbying group, declined to comment this week on gun control laws. "Now is not the time to debate politics or discuss policy. It is time for families and communities to grieve and to heal," it said in a prepared statement.

Groups such as Vogel's, and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, say existing laws are already too weak - just look at the men who received gun permits, legally bought high-powered weapons, and then mowed down family, friends and total strangers in these past few weeks, they say.

Joining their outrage was the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "How many more gun-related acts of violence must we experience before the nation's leaders will decide that it is time to act?" asked president Manuel Diaz, mayor of Miami.
Gun enthusiasts say there is no way to prevent human beings from committing insane acts. Whether they have a gun permit or not. On Friday, a depressed and angry Jiverly Wong used a 9 mm and .45-caliber handgun to kill 13 immigrants and service center employees in Binghamton, N.Y., police said. Earlier that day, the ethnic Chinese immigrant from Vietnam mailed an envelope to a Syracuse television station. In it were his gun permit, photos of him smiling while hoisting shiny, big handguns, and his driver's license.

Questions have been raised over the upstate New York gun permit issued to Wong in 1997. Two years later, he was reported to state police by an informer who claimed Wong was planning a bank heist to feed a crack-cocaine habit. Unlike other areas of the state, including New York City, Wong's Broome County permit did not have to be renewed.

Local authorities, however, have broad discretion in reviewing and revoking such permits, according to legal experts. Especially when it comes to drug use, criminal behavior and violence.

"In retrospect, this is probably not a guy who should have had a gun," said attorney Jeffrey Chamberlain, a former Rochester prosecutor and chief counsel to the New York State Police. "No one likes to see things fall through the cracks and it looks like this guy fell through the cracks."

Binghamton police chief Joseph Zikuski said Tuesday that no robbery occurred and there was no merit to review Wong's gun permit.

In New York City, gun permits are reissued every three years. Yet, regulations differ only slightly between states, Chamberlain said. "They're fairly typical - don't be a felon, don't be a drunk, don't beat your kids or your wife. Don't be so mentally unbalanced that you need be in an institution."

To Chamberlain, the answer to gun violence lies not in stricter regulations, but in answering the question, "Why are we so tolerant of having guns in this country? The answer to that is historical. We've had guns for a very long time.

"I can't think of any sweeping law change that would address that."
To Vogel, the answer to why atrocities happen in places such as Binghamton, and before that Washington state and Santa Clara, Calif., lies in sheer numbers.
The number 280 million, to be precise, the estimated total of every gun in this country.
"When you have that many guns, those guns are going to be used in horrific ways," Vogel said. "There's just too many. Inevitably, somehow, some way, those weapons are going to be used in an egregious way."

Rick Smith

Your comb won't accidentally discharge when if falls from your pocket and kill my daughter

All I can say on the gun issue is, spend a day at your local hospital emergency room and see the terrible consequences of gun violence: the deadly aftermath of gun violence and carnage that fills the hospital morgue with the most pitiless and senseless acts of mans inhumanity to man. If one has witness the incredible and horrendous pressures that a highly trained ER trauma team has to go through to save the life of an individual that has been shot to pieces (like swiss cheese) by a semi-automatic rifle...then perhaps you might think of promoting tougher gun laws. I have seen ALL the aftermath of gun violence (as a former surgical tech) and tagging the toes of the dead before their entry to the morgue. Just the very cold sickly smell of the morgue leaves me with one question...WHY? Why this chronic love affair with guns and more guns in the home and with society? It's just pure stupidity mixed with paranoia that has run amuck with society...and with baseless irrational fear.

Not to meantion the insane bill sitting on the governor's desk in Montana. A bill that would eliminate the need for federal background checks and registration on guns that are made and sold in the state of Montana. My first question would be: Why in the world would any "law abiding citizen" object to a simple background check to verify that they are a "law abiding citizen" when purchasing a firearm? This will make Montana the "gun capitol" of America. If I were not a "law abiding citizen", I would surely buy my guns there. Indeed, if I were a crime "kingpin", I would set up a dealer there. Oh sure, these guns are not supposed to be transported out of the state, but exactly how is that going to be prevented? And, hey! The fact that these guns are being used to commit crimes in Miami or L.A. isn't Montana's problem. Right? My second question would be: Just what are Montanans afraid of? Or for that matter Idahoans or Wyomingites? Big rash of home invasions in Harve' or Lincoln that I haven't heard about? These states have pretty low violent crime rates compared to the National average. And that's not because of liberal gun laws; it's because of low population densities. Is it the feds themselves that they fear? Do they really think that the Obama "gestapo" is going to bang on their door and take away their guns? And if, in some sort of Bazarro world, that really did happen, do they really think that they would stop at the doors of those who had background checks or registrations? Or do they really think that they could stand up against federal tanks and military weapons with their hunting rifles and handguns? How'd that work out at Waco and Ruby Ridge, BTW?
Thank goodness the Montana legislature only meets every two years!
I worry that it will take another national tragedy, like Bobby Kennedy or Martin Luther King, for people to wake up and tides to turn again. People have just become numb to news stories about ten people shot and killed, or twenty or fifty seven. Unless they personally know one of the victims, they are just numbers.