Your odds of getting eaten by a Bear

If you haven't guessed by now, I'm scared of bears.

It's because if a bear decides he or she wants to eat you... theres not a lot you can do about it. Grizzly Bears are huge. They can weigh 1500 lbs and run 35 mph for long distances. Up hill... down hill, you're not going to out run a Brown Bear. Climb a tree. Probably won't matter... they can climb too. The good news is that they mostly don't see people as food. OTOH, there's a reason their scienctific name is "Ursus arctos horribilis". Never fight back aganist a Grizzly... just try and protect vital organs, be still, and pray.

Black bears are more common, and are less dangerous. They only stand 6' tall and weigh up to 800 lbs. (~300 lbs is more normal). They can only run about 30 mph... but that's faster than most non-olympic athletes. Black bear attacks are pretty rare and usually not fatal. OTOH, the attacks are more likly to be predation (unless there are cubs), so you should fight back if attacked.

There are polar bears too... but not as far south as I'll be traveling. They are very dangerous and are know to stalk humans.

The odds of a bear attack in Alaska are pretty low... ~10-20 attacks per year... or 2-3 per 100,000: http://www.absc.usgs.gov/research/brownbears/attacks/bear-human_conflicts.htm. I couldn't find the odds in the Yukon, but an interesting fact is that with ~31,000 people in the Yukon, there are >16,000 bears. More bears, so I would guess your odds of encounter are higher in the Yukon.

BTW, I weigh less than 130 and can run less than 20 mph for not very far. My scooter weighs ~250 lbs and goes 62 mph on a good road. I'm guessing under 45 mph will be top speed in the Yukon.

Maybe Bears aren't so scary...

A couple friend have been pointing out that Alaska/TheYukon are the kinds of places were "Men are Men... and Women are Victims". Specifically, they have been talking about the high incidence of rape in Alaska.

Naturally, I was skeptical. I heard that in the North, a person's repuation was important... and people were pretty much to their word. After all, people in small towns tend to be pretty honest.

Apparently, I'm naive. Forcible rape is 30/100,000 for the whole US. Alaska has been in the top 5 worst rates for the past 25 years. For the past years the rate has been around 80 per 100,000 people: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_05.html.

Canada can't be worse? Well... yes it can. Overall rates show that rape in Canada is even more common than in the US. I couldn't find current rates for the Yukon, but the 1999 rate was ~240 per 100,000. ( 1995-1999 Canada Crime Statistics).

Wow. Your odds of getting attacked by a bear are a lot less.

Solo or Team?

One of the open issues I need to resolve is if I want to go alone, with a small private group, or as part of an large open group.

There's a lot of advantages in each; more people more safety. (I'm scared of bears). More people also limits travel possiblities and slows down the trip.

It's also going to find other people who might be interested. It'll be a hard, long ride whichever route I take. Also, depending on the route, it could cost a bit of money.

I think the best idea is to research routes first... get an estimate for the cost and time of the trip... then see who might be interested.