A gentleman hiking alone yesterday near the confluence of the South Fork of the Madison and the Madison Arm of Hebgen Lake surprised a sow grizzly and cub. Here’s an excerpt of the story from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (no link as the BDC doesn’t keep their stories active on their website)–
A 34-year-old male hiker from Boise, Idaho, was attacked by a female grizzly bear in the Lionhead area near West Yellowstone Tuesday after he surprised the mother and a cub on the trail.
“The man claimed that he went around a bend in the trail and the bear was on him – just like that,” Kevin Frey, bear expert for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Wednesday.
The U.S. Forest Service has closed the area around Trail #217 and West Denny Creek Road while FWP investigates the mauling, said Marna Daley, Gallatin National Forest spokeswoman.
The man, whose name was not released, was hiking alone when he stumbled upon the sow grizzly and cub, Daley said. The mother bear bit the man several times on his arm, neck and torso.
“He said she bit him four or five times and then she was gone,” Frey said.
The bear bit the hiker’s upper arm, near his shoulder, breaking the bone, Frey said. The hiker also had puncture wounds and bite marks on his arm and the back of his head, and may have suffered a broken rib.“It was fairly quick, which past experiences indicate is what happens in a surprise encounter,” he said. “She reacted, injured the guy and took off, which is kind of normal behavior.”
The Missoulian is reporting that he was carrying both bear spray and a side arm and didn’t have time to deploy either one; our local paper glossed over this fact.
I’ll bet you breakfast at the Running Bear (no pun intended, see Firehole post today) the anti-gun crowd will be hypothesizing that carrying both created a moment of indecision leading to this guy’s inability to deploy his bear spray in time.
There are a few pertinent points to ponder here – the wisdom of hiking alone in bear prone territory (waterway), was he making adequate noise to alert the bears, was he upwind, was the sow defending a carcass, was this one of those very rare turn the corner and there she is encounters?
BTW, Jack Black as Kung Fu Panda is a hero to us fat guys everywhere.
More to follow….
