Yes, they are an issue, but the key is to make your presence known in the wilds. Hang your food caches, keep them sealed, and I mean hang them high in a tree in a sealed cooler of some type wrapped in several bags (keep the scent from escaping), maintain garbage and keep it burnt. Big one is when moving in the woods is to make noise. If you creep around like a stalking nature freak, you will learn more about nature then you care to know. Bear I can prepare for, a Bull Moose in Rut, or a Moose cow protecting young, that scares me. They come out of nowhere, can run FAST in any thickness of brush, and wont forget that you are there. Wear a camp pan filled with spoons and blast an air horn from time to time, keep a raging fire, and generally a brownie will stay out of your way. If they bear or moose hear you coming they will stay hidden typically. Now there are exceptions, and you could not pay me enough money to camp on Kodiak Island, but in the southeast and interior, they are less intense. Dont get close, use a zoom lens instead of trying to sneak up, and PRACTICE tree climbing (brownies cant climb), if being chased run directly downhill, bears have to switchback as the front legs are shorter than the rear. Just use common sense and know you are going into their world, and you are okay.
Oh, a was watching the dumb Alaskan Bush people on Discovery (oh dont get me going on that norther version of Honey Boo Boo) show this week and learned they now have ferry service all the way to Whittier near Valdez, so it is possible to ferry up without even touching Canadian ground. I am not current on the Homeland Security (I will reserve comment on this for the forum where we can flame politically if we wish) Policies for transporting weapons on the marine highway, but that data will be on the website above. Never hurts to get your passport (Ibelieve it required for Canadian travel) so you can see that Canadian villages along the passage. When I was a kid we would drive to Prince Rupert, and catch the ferry there, you get some British Columbia riding that way and save big on the ferry passage fees. Just more of my ramblings. But I agree with the above poster, it is always good to have a bear gun (30-06 at a minimum, they have very thick skulls), dont care how big your pistol is, you will just piss a brownie or grizzly off with a hand gun, and you don't want to piss them off. Anyway, it is possible to ferry from Seattle to Whittier and never touch Canadian soil now, I just don't know if the passport comes into play or what the fire arms policies are.
