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Is there any studies on effectiveness of bear spray? Anecdotally, I don’t think I have read about any attacks where bear spray was deployed and the bear attacked.
I prefer to still hike with at least one other person. I feel some comfort in knowing that if anything happened somebody could get help. My biggest paranoia is losing my car keys on the trail.
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I don't think there is much in the way of actual research, Anecdotal evidence at best. It would be hard to determine if a bear would have actually followed through with an attack if the bear spray hadn't been used. Bears aren't super aggressive towards people and often just bluff charge or huff and puff to get their point across. We've had several of these already this year in Kananaskis but no attacks. A guy in Montana named Todd Orr was attacked and filmed himself all mangled afterwards. He says that he gave the bear a really good full on spray but she just blasted through it.
The number one thing you can do to ease your mind in the mountains is get a Spot or InReach gps tracker and emergency device. You can set it to contact a person if your car breaks down or you lose your keys. I used it once cause a porcupine ate my tires and my contact person showed up and gave me a ride home. The message is I need your help but not emergency help. It's funny, the one time I could have used it for actual emergency help I completely panicked and forgot I had it. But I think they are being used an awful lot this year. Like over a hundred rescues since June.