RE: Protection from unpleasant animals
Colorado Luckydog has a post along this line too.
I've not hunted Washington State, so I'm not sure what type of "bears" (black or grizzly?) you think you might encounter. I have hunted Alaska though, where grizzly encounters are frequent topics of discussion. I carried a .44 Redhawk as "backup" then, but after awhile started wondering whether the extra weight and one more thing snagging in the alder thickets was worth it. So, I quit carrying the .44 and started practicing snap shooting at close range with my rifle.
Mountain lions aren't all that durable. I know guys whohunt them with much smaller caliber handguns. A .44 Magnum should be adequate for black bears, provided you do your part getting the bullet to the right place. I never had to use it that way, but I think it'd be marginal for brown bears and grizzlies. If a bear were to charge me, I'd respond with the rifle first and keep shooting until it was empty or the bear dead. You probably don't want to carry a rifle everywhere around camp though?