I am hiking in black bear country (no other kinds of bears there). It's dark, I have a whistle hanging around my neck to scare away such a potential bear and I'm using my torch light to be able to see the path.
Now, for some reason, the light and noise I made till now were not enough to scare away a bear. It stands on the path, 10 meters away from me.
I'll blow that whistle soon, but what do I do with my torch light? Do I
- shine it into the bear's eyes to blind and frighten it?
- activate the stroboscopic mode on the torch and / or wave it around wildly to create a lot of shadows and confusion?
- shine it on the path between me and the bear so that the bear is able to keep its night vision and run away?
- shine it at myself to appear brighter and more impressive?
I've been hiking like that recently, so I was wondering what the best reaction would have been in case of an encounter.