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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a life long Alaskan resident, you'll be one of the few without gun protection. And I'm not talking about crime. Take bears as serious as possible, even in National Parks. Our Parks are nothing like your local ones, Rangers can be 100 miles away at times, no hourly Ranger drive-by in most camp grounds like most parks in the lower 48 get.

Just do your homework.[/quote]

I'm NOT a lifelong Alaska resident, but have been a couple of times.  The time of year affects where you'll see bears and how many.  When the salmon runs, there are just an insane amount of bears near the rivers.  But in the interior that's not really an issue because the salmon don't get as far as places like Denali, so the bears there forage all year.  But --- and please correct me if I'm wrong, Alaska resident -- my understanding is that, at this time of year, if you're on the West Coast, bears aren't that much of an issue because the salmon are running and they are all busy feasting, so much less likely to be wandering through your campground looking for snacks (which is more of an issue in June before the salmon run starts, when they are starving).[/quote]

I'm not the pp lifelong Alaska resident, but I've spent a lot of time there, and the only time you don't have to worry about bears in Alaska is in the winter, when they're hibernating.  The bears on the coast are usually fishing for salmon, but they do wander around and eat berries, and will defend their fish and most definitely their cubs.   There are bears in Interior Alaska that don't fish, but basically live on berries and other types of food.   You can run into them anywhere. As pp said, Alaskans do not go into bear country unarmed.  There was a story recently that I can't seem to locate regarding a boy who was hunting with his uncles.  They were all armed, and they were attacked so quickly that the 11 year old boy was the only one who could get a shot off (because he didn't have a sling for his rifle).  The 11 year old kid knocked down the bear, and then the uncles finished it off.  This isn't to scare people off of going to Alaska, but it's not a joke.

Black bears can be dangerous, too: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017/06/19/really-odd-two-fatal-maulings-in-two-days-blamed-on-alaskan-black-bears/

Go to www.adn.com and search for bear attack and you'll get stuff like this:

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017/06/18/searchers-looking-for-runner-in-bird-ridge-trail-race-who-reported-being-chased-by-bear/

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2016/09/16/black-bear-climbs-tree-to-end-trek-through-downtown-anchorage/

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2017/07/05/black-bears-attracted-by-trash-shot-and-killed-in-anchorage-area/

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