No cycling today, too rainy! So we headed over to Wholesale Sports to see if there is any equipment in the world that we haven't already bought two or three times over. We ended up talking to a staffer about the various dog and bear spray options. There are tiny bottles meant for fending off humans up close, and then sizes on up to something that will stop a bear at 30 feet. The ones labelled "bear spray" are apparently legal in Canada. The ones that can be concealed up your sleeve labelled "military strength", not so much.

This is the third or fourth store we have hung around reviewing the choices of fog vs. stream, range vs. weight, mounting systems and triggers, etc. But this is the first time that we ran into a salesman who claimed a lot of backcountry experience in Western Washington, Idaho, and Montana. This man did not discount the chance of finding a bear on for example the John Wayne Trail, but he was more concerned about cougars. Bears, he said, are defensive but dangerous if surprised. Cougars, on the other hand, hang out on ledges so they can pounce on prey running down the track. So he advised us to look up as well as out. Some people will say anything to sell a can of capsaicin!