Post History

Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/6780
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<p>I am hiking in black bear country (no other kinds of bears there). It's dark, I have a whistle hanging around my neck to scare away such a potential bear and I'm using my torch light to be able to see the path.</p>

<p>Now, for some reason, the light and noise I made till now were not enough to scare away a bear. It stands on the path, 10 meters away from me.</p>

<p>I'll blow that whistle soon, but what do I do with my torch light? Do I</p>

<ul>
<li>shine it into the bear's eyes to blind and frighten it?</li>
<li>activate the stroboscopic mode on the torch and / or wave it around wildly to create a lot of shadows and confusion?</li>
<li>shine it on the path between me and the bear so that the bear is able to keep its night vision and run away?</li>
<li>shine it at myself to appear brighter and more impressive?</li>
</ul>

<p>I've been hiking like that recently, so I was wondering what the best reaction would have been in case of an encounter.</p>