I vividly recall the first close-quarters backcountry grizzly encounter of my adult life. My wife and I were in Yellowstone National Park, descending Specimen Ridge towards the Lamar River. We began seeing suspiciously liquid, black scat along the trail at frequent intervals. Soon enough, during the umpteenth transition from meadow back into pines, we saw them: a black mother grizzly with two puffy silver-backed cubs. All five of us came up short and stared for a few seconds, before the bears rolled their shoulders and disappeared deeper into the forest. The bears haunted my dreams that night.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Preamble
- Guideline 1: Grizzlies are unpredictable.
- Guideline 2: Grizzlies are scary.
- Guideline 3: Be humble when amongst grizzlies.
- Guideline 4: Read Herrero's Bear Attacks.
- Guideline 5: Know your bears.
- Guideline 6: Know your bear poop.
- Guideline 7: Make decisions for yourself.
# WORDS: 2990
# PHOTOS: 5
Member Exclusive
A Premium or Unlimited Membership* is required to view the rest of this article.
* A Basic Membership is required to view Member Q&A events
Discussion
Become a member to post in the forums.
David, thanks for writing this article. It's always good to be reminded of the points you covered.
The humility part is my biggest "issue", even though I have had many encounters, I think I'm in control and can handle what may come. I have never carried anything, guns, pepper or bells. But I think I am softening.
Last week I was fishing on a remote river on the lost coast of Alaska and had a too close encounter with a three year old Coastal Brown bear(grizzly) than I would have liked. The bear was working us for most of the day. It even false charged my nephew (he was the smallest of our group). When it made its stand, I started yelling and slapped my fly rod on the water, startling the bear and it turned and ran off into the bush (only to appear later down river). This all happened 50 feet in front of me. I think he was just trying to get his fishing spot back, but you never know. After it was over I thought it was really cool- I had seen stuff like that on TV but this happened right in front of me. I guess I got a little science research done!
Become a member to post in the forums.