I've never been attacked by anything. I have had some entertaining encounters over the years though. The only animal (besides myself) that I've used bear spray on was an aggressive deer in Glacier. But I have had the safety off, ready to fire at least a dozen times. I've gotten lucky several times while running into grizzlies on the trail, and walking away. Bear spray is a bad deal if you get sprayed by it. I have no desire to spray any living creature unless I absolutely have to.
Here are a few stories, in short version:
In September of 2007, I was backpacking in the belly river area of Glacier NP. Rangers on horses with shotguns in hand passed us on the trail. They informed us that there had been a bear attack on Glenns Lake, and they were headed out to investigate. We were planning to camp on that lake, but it was a different campsite than where the attack had occurred. So we continued on, and had a normal evening on the lake. I was with my girlfriend at the time, along with her dad and brother. We had separate tents, and slept in separate campsites. Some time in the night I awoke to a bear in camp. It was making vocal noises that are hard to describe, and I've only heard it one other time. But it was loud and piercing . The bear approached right up to our tent, and I could here it breathing. It continued making these loud noises, and then started circling our tent for several minutes, freaking us out. Then it took off. The next morning, my water bottle had incisor holes in it from where the bear had bitten into it (I had left it out in the food prep area).
In July of 2009, I was at Morning Star Lake in Glacier NP with my good hiking buddy Kyle. We had been out for several days, and reached our campsite along the lake early in the afternoon. In no hurry to set up the tent, we sat there leisurely, taking our boots and packs off. We heard noises behind us, but it didn't garner our attention until we heard thrashing through the lake. Kyle, who was opposite me, stood up and pulled his bear spray out. I stood up, and 15 feet behind me in the tall grass was a grizzly bear standing up, looking at us. He dropped down and continued towards us. I slowly backed up, and Kyle bee lined it for the pit toilet (If you've ever camped in Glacier, you know every campsite has a pit toilet. This one was enclosed.) Thirty seconds later, the bear popped out through the grass, where I had just been sitting. It was at this moment I realized he wasn't alone, and 2 more were coming. Cubs! I tried backing up, but there was a bunch of dead tree branches behind me, and every step backwards was loud. I hesitated, and then it was too late. The other cub popped out, followed closely by their mother. She stood up, sniffed, and then dropped back down. Then she stared directly at me. She started huffing, woofing, and pacing back and forth in front of the cubs, all of this less than 15 feet in front of me. She would look at me, make noises, then put her head down and let it sway back and forth. After several minutes, she took off into the lake. One cub followed her, but the other one didn't. It started to follow, then looked back at me, before walking towards one of our packs. It reached the pack, looked at me again, sniffed the pack, then looked back at me, before taking off towards the lake. And so we sat there watching the bears swim in the lake. They simply didn't care that we were there. We nervously spent the entire night by ourselves in the camp, listening to the bears run around the area. They actually hit and knocked over my trekking pole that I had leaned against my tent in the middle of the night. A very long story short, park service ended up killing the sow, and one of the cubs. Another note about this incident: I could have easily sprayed the bears, and probably should have. I didn't because both of our backpacks would have definitely been sprayed, and we had several more days of our trip to go. I did have the can aimed at her, ready to fire. If the packs weren't in the way, I would have absolutely sprayed in this situation.
Looking across Morning Star Lake at the grizzly sow on the shore. Picture taken from where we set up camp, and from where we had just encountered the bears.
In this picture a bear cub is playing in the lake, in the far back.
A blurry picture of the last cub to leave. It had been sniffing the backpack. I was standing by this tree, and the bears were a few feet to the right of the backpack during our standoff.
Here is another perspective of the scene. I am standing where I had been sitting on the log. The tent was not set up yet. The bears came to where I was standing, and the sow was pacing back and forth in front of the log, where the right side of the tent is. They were inside the tent pad area. You can compare this to the picture above, to get an idea of how close I was to the sow.
In September of 2012, I was backpacking in the Uinta's. I was coming up the Rock Creek trail towards Granddaddy Basin. I had headphones on, and was amped up on caffeine. Suddenly I looked up to see a mother moose and her calf only a few feet away. I knew I was too close. Immediately I started backing up. I found a large tree, and stood behind it as the mother moose was calmly walking towards me. We stared at each other briefly before she full on charged. I took off running through the trees. We played this game for a while, where she would charge me, and I would run. I managed to keep at least 20 feet between us the entire time. She would stop, look for me, stare at me briefly, and then charge again. This went on for over 30 minutes. It was like a game of "IT", where I was it the entire game. I decided to cross the creek, and after doing so, waited briefly, before she came charging down. While she was doing that, I took off running down along the creek, and didn't stop. Some how I managed to lose her here. I hiked up high on the ridge above the trail, and by passed the area. I could see her back along the trail down below, still looking around as I passed high above. I did lose both my trekking poles during this encounter, one on each side of the creek. I haven't been back to retrieve them since.
On memorial weekend in 2013, I was backpacking solo up Slough Creek in Yellowstone NP. I already encountered a sow with cubs on the trail, and had to bypass them. I got to my campsite along the creek, which is close to the second patrol cabin along the trail. I believe its called Elk Tongue Cabin, near the junction with the Bliss Pass trail. The campsite is maybe a quarter mile from the cabin. I set up camp, and started cooking dinner as the sun disappeared over the ridge. I heard geese fluster along Slough Creek, and noticed a bear grazing along the opposite shore, slowly moving closer to my camp. I couldn't tell what kind of bear it was, and pulled out my binoculars for a closer look. I stood along the shore line, and the bear slowly moved closer. Originally I hoped it was a black bear, both because I would sleep better at night, and due to already running into a sow with cubs close by. I soon realized it was a grizzly. Slough creek was swift, and would require a swim, so I knew I had a little barrier. The bear got to be directly across the creek from me, when he finally caught wind. Then he charged. His ears were pinned back, and his face looked like a werewolf. He came to the creeks edge, and started running along the beach, looking for a place to jump in. I turned and ran back up into camp. The bear continued to look for a crossing, but apparently didn't want to swim. He worked his way up stream, and suddenly appeared to go back to grazing. Then he disappeared around the bend. But I knew it wasn't over, and that my night was just beginning.
I quickly ate dinner and cleaned up camp. I gathered up a pile of rocks and put them by my tent. As I went to my tent, I could see the bear down by the creek. He was now on my side, and only a few hundred yards from my tent. He was grazing, but I felt it was fake. He was curious about me. I got in my tent, and packed my backpack in case I had to abandon camp in the night. Sure enough, I soon heard the bear approaching my tent. I got out, and threw rocks in his direction, and he took off. I repeated this process several times over a few hours. At 12:30 AM, I decided to leave camp. I carry 2 cans of bear spray with me when solo, and had both cans out, headlamp on, as I started hiking back out to the trail in the dark. Only 10 minutes away was the patrol cabin. I knew the cabin was locked, but I could climb on the roof and sleep. It was a long, intense walk in the dark over to the cabin. As I reached the cabin, I saw the outhouse, and immediately realized this was a better idea. Once inside, I noticed I had one slight problem. The door didn't have a lock on the inside, it swung inward, and wouldn't stay shut. I placed my pack against the door to hold it shut.
A half hour went by, and I started to drift asleep. But then I heard the bear crossing the marsh behind me, coming towards the outhouse. He got closer and closer. I sat there on the toilet seat in the dark, my back pushed up against the wall, both my feet up against the door, and a can of bear spray in each hand, safeties off. Every muscle in my body was tense. Through the little slivers in the door I saw the light change, and the bear walked right in front of the door. He didn't do anything though, and continued to hand out in the meadows outside. I could hear him all night, sometimes really close by. Around the first morning light, he disappeared, and I hiked back to camp. Tired, I fell back asleep in my tent. Around 11am, I woke up to the bear back in camp. He was by my food prep area, making a ruckus. I got out of the tent, yelled, and he took off crashing into the woods. At this point, I was ready to get out of there. Every squirrel and chipmunk in the forest was going nuts, and it sounded like I was in a jungle. I packed up real fast, and got out of there as quickly as I could. On the way out I got chased by a buffalo guarding a heard. Apparently, there were around a dozen grizzlies grazing in the slough creek meadows, and the bison where all on edge. As for the bear, I believe he was an adolescent, and was just curious about me.
A view along Slough Creek, where I was standing watching the bear. My tent was up in the trees top center of the picture
A video taken from camp, when I first noticed the bear. You can't see the bear in the video. Click the HD button
A view of the patrol cabin near camp (taken from a previous trip). The outhouse is near the tree to the right, out of view
A picture of the outhouse I stayed in, taken early that morning. You can see how the door swings in.
A video I took that morning after spending the night in the outhouse
Very unusual for one to come after humans, but it makes sense if the fighting dander was up, so to speak. Very likely he saw you as a credible threat to the herd he just tried to protect from another stallion. Frankly, you guys were quite lucky. Domestic stallions can be wonderfully gentle if well-trained and well-handled (mine is a sweetheart, though he's not going to stay a stallion lol), but they can also be incredibly unpredictable and dangerous when around mares, especially mares in heat. A wild one? Yeah. No way would I ever get in the way of a wild stallion, especially if it was defending its herd. Bet you got cool shots, though!
