National Park Service warns against sacrificing slower friends in a bear attack ‘even if the friendship has run its course’

I was hiking in Glacier National Park (Montana) several years ago. Our group split in two as the faster people didn’t want to wait for the slower folks in our group (key to the story because they had the bear spray)...

I was first in the pack of the slower group (I didn’t really want to wait either, but didn’t want to abandon my friends like an A-hole) when all of a sudden, a cinnamon-colored black bear came up onto the trail from the lower brush and was 30-50 feet from me. I froze in my tracks, put my arms up to make my silhouette as big as possible and started backing up slowly. The bear stared at me, and I stared back at it, as we sized each other up. If in fact it was a grizzly, I was F’ed at that point anyways because it could clearly out run me. Our group had also just hiked up past a family of four with two young kids.

By this point, other folks started to stack-up behind me, as the bear crossed the trail to higher ground. Clearly a younger animal, it sat on a flat rock in the sun and pulled at some sapling branches playing. It was like being at the zoo without the protection of a cage/bars. Like true Americans, we all took out our cell phone cameras and started snapping photos.

Eventually, the animal appeared to get bored, hopped off the rock and started flanking us on the high-ground in the brush. We all took that as our cue to skedaddle. On the way back we took the same trail (it was the most direct route) mindful of where we saw the bear. Within that general vicinity, there were two sets of crisscross bear claw marks about 4-5’ up on a tree adjacent to the trail. It was so prominent, I swear I would have noticed it on the way up. I’m not saying this exact bear made those exact marks, but I saw a bear waaaay closer than I ever thought I would, and those claw marks had to be 1/8” deep into the bark of the tree.

Moral of that story: Don’t F- with nature. Maybe carry two cans of bear spray (LOL) Just about the only person I’d stand in between a bear for is my kiddo. Everyone else is pretty much on their own.
 
it had to be said thankfully...i'm that old, fat, slow guy that usually involuntarily becomes that sacrificial lamb.
 
it had to be said thankfully...i'm that old, fat, slow guy that usually involuntarily becomes that sacrificial lamb.
Sacrificial lamb? I figured you'd be the one in the group to plug that bear with rifled 12ga slugs.
 
"Bear" - not "Beer"
[wink]

 
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Pushing your friend down is a stupid idea... Because it involves being within reach and giving them a chance to drag you down.
 
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