KENKEN makes some good points here.
I asked this same question about 3-4 months ago, and the best solution I could
think of was to go and buy a shotgun and run slugs in it. While he says that
bears usually don't attack people, they ARE wild animals and by their very
nature are unpredictable. We've had 6 attacks in our area of the world since
the late summer.

I don't know the details of all cases, but in 3 of them it was because the
person got between the sow and her cubs. One was because he got too close to a
grizzly den where momma and cubs were residing.
2 of the attacks were because the bear had developed a taste for "human flesh".
These 2 attacks were from the same animal.

I can't see how a small blade would help you very much against a bear. Maybe a
5 inch blade or something like that, but I don't see how much smaller would be
able to penetrate the fur and fat on a bear to be able to hit anything vital.
On a cougar, you'd probably have a decent chance, using a smaller blade. One
fellow killed a cougar this summer with a Buck Stockman folder, but it cost him
about 50 stiches in his scalp if I remember the story properly. I wouldn't put
all my faith in a small blade like that.

At minimum, I would carry a walking stick (always helpful when hiking in the
bush), a can of bear spray (would work great on a cougar too), and a 5 inch
knife.

Best case scenario would be some kind of firearm with enough stopping power to
drop a bear. A lot of the old timers that I've talked with carry a 12 gauge
with slugs when they go out (when not hunting that is). That'll even stop a
moose in rut (which is probably more dangerous than a bear or cougar <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> )


Good question. I'm looking forward to reading all of the comments that come up.
Cheers DotD