“Rare predatory black bear” is the phrase July and I repeated most often to one another, laughing, during our nine-hundred-mile bike tour across Alaska and Canada. It had come from the mouth of an Alaskan park ranger. Our route would take us on the Cassiar Highway, one of the least populated roads in British Columbia, where we would certainly meet a bear or two.

“Do not,” the ranger told us, “try to outrun a bear. They might confuse you for prey. If you see one, stop and get off your bikes. Then, you have to talk to it. Talk to it until it understands you’re not a threat, or prey. Keep talking until it loses interest.”