Baker wrote:
If you can teleport me to the Great Lakes in late June and get me outta there by Early October....that would be my first choice. I think Marin is missing a gem here....cool water and weather and no people and abundant wildlife with crystal clear water.
I've spent some time on the Great Lakes.* Well, lakes Michigan and Superior.* Canoeing and sailing and whatnot as a councilor at a summer camp.* I liked it, but they're freshwater lakes--- they don't have the dynamics of salt water.* And while they're large enough to have tides of a sort, it's just not the same as a salt water coast.* At least not to me.*
And it's pretty flat up there.* Not as flat as the east and Gulf*coasts but compared to the PNW, BC, and SE Alaska, the terrain around the lakes is flat, and we've already established that I*don't like flat.
It's very pretty and unique in it's own way---- I mentioned a canoe camping trip we took to Isle Royale National Park (we and the canoes went to the island on a ferry).* It was a really neat place and I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience it.
But the original question in this thread was where would you like to live and boat if you could be anywhere, and the Great Lakes is not on my short list of those places.
As to fear of bears, there are very effective means of protecting yourself (and the bears) in SE Alaska, or anywhere else. One, carry a firearm.* Not a magnum pistol--- the only protection you'll get from that is if the bear starts laughing so hard when he sees it he forgets to charge and eat you.* Or you might be able to*jam it in his mouth to hold his jaws apart as he takes his first bite.* We were advised by people we know in the Fish and Game Dept. when we started taking floatplane trips into the coast range in BC and Alaska, where bears, both black and brown, are abundant, to carry a 12-gauge shotgun with the largest shell capacity we could find*loaded alternately with slugs and buckshot.
But the most effective protection is to let the bear know you're coming.* And the absolute best way to do that is available for cheap at your local West Marine store.* It's those little compressed gas boat horns.* We learned about them on one of our floatplane trips to*SE Alaska when a*fisheries*guy said that's what they use when counting salmon during*the spawning season.**Before the horns, bear encounters were almost constant since the bears were counting salmon, too.* When they started using the horns, the bear*encounters dropped to near zero.* When we camp with the plane or go ashore from the boat*in remote areas of BC or wherever, we take them with us and beep them off every so often.* And we also carry a very short, fully loaded,*extended magazine, 12-gauge shotgun at all times when we're ashore in bear country.* I can tell you from personal experience that the horns and the shotgun both work as advertised.
Don't bother with bells on your ankles--- their effectiveness can be measured by the number of bells found in bear poop.* Bear spray can work but by the time you manage to hit the bear where it will feel it it will be so close to you that its momentum will carry it into you and once it lands on you, blind, stingy eyes or not, it will pretty much disassemble you.
So if you want to boat into remote areas up north and go ashore and do a bit of exploring, buy a legal 12-gauge shotgun and learn how to use it, *and buy*some compressed gas boat horns with extra cannisters and beep them off*periodically when you're ashore.* And buy a book about bear behavior and learn where they like to hang out.* Being able to recognize*places where*a bear may like to bed down or rest or pass the day goes a long way toward not having an encounter with one.*
-- Edited by Marin on Wednesday 1st of September 2010 10:52:20 PM