Grizzly Bears

While I was away in Bozeman for a few days recently, I learned quite a bit about Grizzly Bears. My fascination with Grizzlies stems from my first trip to Grizzly country in July 2011, when I first learned of the threat of Grizzlies in the western-third of Montana, as well as two recent fatal Grizzly attacks in Yellowstone National Park--one at a campground very close to where we stayed in Cooke City in July.

For me, the main appeal to Bozeman is its close proximity to thousands of miles of hiking/running trails in the Bridgers and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. There are two-thousand miles of trails in the GYE alone. The only trouble with running in the area, however, is the threat of Grizzly encounters.

The closer you get to Yellowstone National Park, the better the threat. That is, anything south of I-90, in the GYE, which includes the Gallatin Range, is ripe for Grizzlies. North of I-90, in the Bridgers, is still safe, but it's believed that Grizzlies will eventually populate there.

Runners are cautioned not to run alone south of Big Sky and Pray in Paradise Valley. Jess and I didn't go that far south, but we definitely got deep into Gallatin when we hiked up to Emerald Lake. It would have been wise to carry bear spray, so we were told. Our wedding caterer, who bow hunts for elk and deer, now carries a sidearm, in addition to bear spray, after having been attacked by a mountain lion. I don't know that I feel the need to carry a sidearm. After all, I'll be running on the trails, not bushwhacking in camouflage.

While Grizzly encounters are rare, the threat certainly exists. Almost everyone that we met in Montana had something to say about Grizzlies, and they all emphasized that the threat is real. Most couldn't believe that we hiked without bear spray. We did a total of five hikes, three in the Gallatin Range (Bear Canyon Trail, Emerald Lake Trail, and Gallatin Riverside Trail) and two in the Bridgers (Sacajawea Peak Trail and Sypes Canyon Trail).