When a bear gets on two legs
I have had my fill of bear encounters all these years I have been hiking in Montana, being Glacier National Park or Yellowstone (I know, Montana and Wyoming), and somehow each encounter is completely different from the other.
In the fall of 2024 I had an interesting and potentially serious one.
Like most of my hikes in Yellowstone National Park, I tend to hike in trails not well hiked. To be honest, past the first two miles of any trail and you will be all alone. This time it was the Mt Washburn Spur trail, off the Seven Mile Hole trail. Seven Mile Hole is popular, the spur trail is not. As you can see below, the spur trail In red) goes northeast from the Seven Mile Hole trail:
On the way back from the large Washburn meadows (the trail eventually can take you to the top of Mount Washburn, a long point to point hike), finally enter a small meadow that you can see below and that is where this story starts:
Upon entering the meadow I saw a large figure in the middle of the meadow and remembering people telling me there are bison in the area I thought it was a bison at first, dark and big, like 100 yards from me. For bison I want them to see me, so I stopped in my tracks waiting for it to move and see me. Then the figure moved while grazing and I realized it was not a bison but a bear, a large bear.
As a side note, I am not afraid of bears, I don’t really care what happens since my experience and instincts have always worked. If something horrible happens to me, I know I did everything correct, no blame.
At that point the bear was not aware of my presence and I finally had a bear encounter where I could attempt to dictate the time of the encounter. I backtracked back into the forested area and hid in order to observe the bear and take pictures ……………… well, the bear was always behind tree branches and the camera kept focusing on them instead of the bear, FAIL !!! At the same time, mosquitos were eating me alive but I endured them. Time for fun was almost at an end when the bear stopped grazing and smelled the air; yes, he got my scent. Time for me to get out of Dodge, my policy is never to bother a bear and make my presence unknown if possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyVcpqz5s40
I am always amazed of how everything that takes seconds in this situations, plays in slow motion in real time, decisions are taken with a correct assessment of the situation and I never find myself without time to think what to do …………… I think this is universal to everyone, right ?
I get up and decide to still stay hidden for as long as possible so I hide behind the tree line that is to the left of the trail (the trail hugs the tree line, it does not go across this meadow). I keep looking at the bear behind the tree branches to not loose track of it. On a side look towards the bear I see the bear has seen me, is fully squared towards me and I correctly assume that he is trying to see what is walking behind the tree line and I have to IMMEDIATELY make myself known to avoid the bear coming to investigate. The moment I reveal myself the bear gets on its to hind legs (that is to take a better look) and this guy is a gigantic black bear ………… the ones you don’t play dead, but have to fight.
Seeing a bear getting on its hind legs 80 yards from you reflects how majestic and real large these animals are; you always see them on their four legs, hunched over and don’t realize their real length.
Ok, the bear stayed up for 5–10 seconds and then the scary part started: he goes down and squares against me. He already knows what I am and can go back to grazing and look at me once in a while. No, he squared against me with a very serious look. I had the bear spray out a while ago and on the other hand I had my walking stick because, instinct tells me he could actually charge me. Call me stupid, but I made the right decision at that point …………. I squared against him and didn’t move at all, made no noises, just stood my ground, no fucking way I am leaving until we all know that we are not going to mess with each other. Again, I don’t care, I know I am behaving the way I am supposed to match the situation.
I think we stayed facing each other for about 1–2 minutes and then I decided he is not making a move and he will regret charging me, he is 80 yards from me and I have plenty of time to defend myself. So, I start walking slowly facing him for the about 100 yards left on the open trail on the meadow. He never ever stopped facing me the about 2 minutes that it took me to leave the meadow and enter the forest. Honestly, I was extremely tired from this hike and in no mood to be fucked with.
Well, that is the story. I don’t want to leave the impression that I am a bear whisperer, I just I am very comfortable with my instincts and I really really really don’t care. I was pissed that the bear squared against me for the whole encounter. I am not brave in other situations but body language is everything to me, not just that but eyeball me all the time. I didn’t make a sound the whole time, why should I? My instinct was not to escalate the situation by yelling, but also give him a hint that he was going to get fucked if he escalated the situation. Obviously, if something happened and I could not use my garmin emergency device no one would have found me until the next day or more.
