Big Animal Attacks - First Hand Accounts

[Joey]

Don't know how you guys are hiking but I've always been able to have animals stay a good distance away from me...... I'm not noisy either....
I have no stories.

Just sprinkle some fresh elk blood around your camp, that usually works .

I think most animal encounters are just dumb luck. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time (or right place in the right time). But when it comes to grizzlies, all those things we read about seem to ring true. Hiking alone or in a group of 2, not making noise, hiking into the wind, and hiking early mornings/late afternoons really seems to make a difference. In my experience, 100% of my close encounters with bears take place when I'm either solo or with only one other person. The majority of that when I'm solo. The more people hiking together, the louder you sound. Regardless of whether your making noise or not. Just the vibrations in the ground of several hikers will scatter wildlife.

Here's another story: In July of 2012, while in between long trips in Yellowstone, I decided to go for a one night backpack down Pebble Creek in the north eastern part of the park. My hiking buddy for the summer wanted a day off, so he decided not to go. He dropped me off at the top, and I started hiking around 4:30pm (late in the day). When I dropped down into the upper Pebble Creek Valley, a strong breeze was blowing from the south. I remember thinking, my bear spray is worthless today. It was unbelievably windy. After the first river crossing, where the big meadows end, and some fire burn is present, I saw the first grizzly. He was maybe 100 yards away, across the creek. I watched him for a while, and he never caught wind of me. Not 30 minutes later, I saw another larger grizzly grazing across the creek. I was much closer. This one too never winded me, even though I was within 200 feet of him. Then, just after the junction with the Bliss Pass trail, I hiked out of the woods into a small meadow, and immediately noticed a grizzly bear less than 30 feet away, with her back to me. Then I saw her cubs. I immediately backed up, and she never turned around. It was so windy, she couldn't hear or smell me. Neither did the cubs, thankfully.

Now a little paranoid, I backtracked a ways, and decided to drop down and cross the creek, which was thick with willows. I would get around the bears this way. While doing so, down along the creek, I parted some willows, and walked right into a black bear, maybe 10 feet away, if that. I was right in his line of sight, but he had his head down grazing, and never saw me. Because of the wind, he had no idea I was there. Of course at this point I was freaked out. I some how backed up, crossed the creek, and hiked along the opposite shore. It wasn't until I was a little ways up wind of the black bear that he winded me. He stared momentarily, before taking off.

That was 5 grizzlies and 1 black bear, all within 100 yards or closer, in a 2 hour stretch, late in the day, in a very strong wind, where any noise I made was worthless, and I was solo. I saw more bears in the backcountry that day then I did the rest of the summer combined. I don't think it was dumb luck, I just think all the factors where in force. (And for the story, I ran into another grizzly the next day hiking out.)

 

[Joey]

This isn't a personal account but related to my personal life in a few ways.

I work at Rutgers University in NJ and one of our students was killed last week by a bear while hiking in Apshawa Preserve, a place I have hiked several times which is about a half hour from my house.

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/natio...r-receive-posthumous-degree-article-1.1949581

NJ is notorious for bears and I have seen bears hiking in those very woods before. I'm currently re-thinking my stance on carrying bear spray while hiking.


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Yea this is a sad story. Its pretty rare for a black bear to attack an adult male, especially in the lower 48 states. I wonder how much running had to do with it.

 

[Joey]

Also, since its been mentioned in this thread, and I hear different opinions quite often, I'll give mine. I've been chased by more than one moose, and I've been put up a tree by more than one grizzly. When it comes to moose versus Grizzly Bears (not black bears), I'll take moose all day. Don't get me wrong, moose can be dangerous, as can all large big game. I certainly don't trust them. And at close range all large animals can be deadly. But grizzlies are a whole different ball game. Not just their speed, but velocity. Stomping is the least of your worries.

 

[Artemus]

I've never been attacked by anything bigger than insects. Been chased by a few range bulls, had a broom tail stomp my speaker flat once while calling coyotes, been stalked by a mountain lion, delayed in my walking by a moose, had a black bear take a deer I had killed with my bow, lot of stuff like that, but never anything resembling an attack.

- DAA

Those all sound like good stories Dave. The thread is for encounters too. I think you documented your mountain lion story here didn't you? If not please share. OK, I will bite. What's a broom tail?

 

[Bob]

he is horse-in around........

 

[Artemus]

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.

I guess I have to agree with you there, @Joey.

 

[Artemus]

Another story:...

Sitting there in that tree, looking up at the stars, with blood dripping down my legs, and listening to the bear below me, I felt the most alive I've ever been. Its the adventure I'm after when I go into the woods.

The newest, ultraclassic trip report quote on BCP.. :twothumbs:

 

[DAA]

Those all sound like good stories Dave. The thread is for encounters too. I think you documented your mountain lion story here didn't you? If not please share. OK, I will bite. What's a broom tail?

Art, lion stand off is here: http://backcountrypost.com/forum/threads/the-stalk.2142/

Broomtail = mustang .

It didn't involve me in any way shape or form, but the most violent thing I have ever witnessed were two wild stallions fighting. I've seen a lot of violent stuff, involving both people (have unfortunately witnessed murder...) and animals. But nothing else I've personally seen has ever come close for just sheer raw violence. Those two horses were FAWKING each other UP! Both lathered up like crazy, biting and kicking, foam and blood flying every where, raising huge dust, horses screaming at the top of their lungs the whole time. It was incredible.

- DAA

 

[John Goering]

My wife and I live on a small ranch at the base of the Bridger Range in SW Montana. We pretty much heat with wood and obtain way more than we need directly from the ranch. About 5 years back, my wife was headed up the drainage east of the house with an ATV and trailer to cut a load of wood. She came around a blind corner on the trail and was met by a cow moose on a full charge. It put both front feet into the ATV and instantly reversed it's direction, jack knifing the trailer. My wife got a good case of whip lash from the experience but fortunately didn't incur any other damage other than psychological (moose dreams). The saving factor was the plywood and steel milk crate strapped on the front luggage rack. The moose feet landed with one foot on the milk crate (containing chainsaw gas/bar oil and maintenance stuff) and the other on the corner of the plywood which immediately broke off throwing her off balance at which point she had to jump over the jack knifed trailer-and kept right on going.

We run into moose not infrequently on the place and just back off with no problems. That was the only confrontation to date. I've also been within 15 feet of a couple of black bears on the place without any attack although one of those greetings had me thinking maybe a can of pepper spray or something else would have been highly desirable at the time.

We generally give grizzly's a wide berth when we can. The only close encounter with those critters we have had was in the Tobacco Roots at about 150' with a sow and 2 cubs. As with other posts here, we were downwind a she had no idea of our presence until the canines went ballistic. All ended well but that could have been messy. We had both the pepper spray and the backup plan B in-hand until she decided to run.

I don't worry too much about big kitties although we did have one with it's nose pasted on the kitchen window a few years back-sizing up what was for dinner and I don't think it was what was cooking on the range. That one may have ended up with a few 20 gauge pellets in it's rear after it wouldn't take any other hints to leave.

 

[DAA]

I saw a moose beat the crap out of a new car on the Mirror lake highway once too. That was one of the funniest things I ever saw. Moose was rearing up on its hind legs and bringing both front hooves down together on the hood. Just caving it in. Started working around the side up towards the windshield and the roof, guy behind the wheel punched it in reverse to get away, peeled out backwards right off the road and smashed the rear end into a giant boulder. Moose walked over and resumed beating up the car. I had the means to end this at hand, if required, but it didn't get that far before the moose lost interest and walked away. There was a couple of foreign tourists in the car, young married couple from Japan. When things really started going sideways with the whole deal it sounded something like a scene from an old Godzilla movie going on. When I walked up to make sure they were okay, she was giving him such an earful in Japanese, I don't understand a word of the language, but didn't need to in order to get the gist of what kind of verbal abuse she was pouring onto that poor bastard. Made me glad to be a bachelor (at the time...).

- DAA

 

[balzaccom]

Here are a few from our side....most happened in car campgrounds, but one was backpacking 40 years go in Little Yosemite Valley...

The Easy Opening Volvo
There was a time when we spent a week at Lassen Volcanic National Park every summer. We love the place, and compared to some of the other parks in California, Lassen really is undiscovered.
This was in the days when we car-camped with the kids, and we usually stayed at Manzanita Lake Campgound. This was before bear boxes.
The first day we arrived, we set up our camp and had a lovely visit to the lake. At dinner, we grilled some sausages on the BBQ, opened a bottle of wine, and had a delicious dinner on the picnic table.
Manzanita Lake is over 5,000 feet in elevation, and we always feel quite sleepy that first night. We tidied up our campsite, put all the food carefully into our Volvo stationg wagon, and tumbled into bed by about 9:20, and were fast asleep in minutes.
As we slept, we kept hearing odd noises outside. Our older daughter actually expressed some concern about them, but to P they just sounded like someone trying to break up firewood by leveraging it between two trees. Creaking and breaking noises.
After a while, the noises stopped, and we all fell into a deeper slumber.
That's when our neighbors from Sweden woke us up.
"Excuse me," they said. "I think you have a problem with your car."
Hmmm. That didn't sound good.
It turns out that a large mother bear had climbed onto the top of our car, and had pulled open the sunroof. With one paw on the roof, she had used the other paw to peel back the sunroof like a tin of sardines.
She was too big to climb into the car through the opening, and so had finally given up. But the car was now wide open to raccoons or any other animal who wanted to visit, and so we knew we had to come up with a plan.
With our youngest daughter still asleep in the tent, we threw everything else into the car. At the last moment, we woke her up and tossed her sleeping bag in, and the tent on top. And we drove down to Redding to find a motel for the night.
The next morning we visited a rental car company, where we rented a nice Ford Explorer and headed back up into the park. After all, we only had one week of vacation, and we weren't about to kiss it goodbye.
As we entered the park, the ranger at the entrance station warned us about bear activity. "You know," she said, "last night a bear peeled open a Volvo station wagon to get at the food inside!"
"We know," we replied. "That was our Volvo!"
Epilogue:
At the end of the week, we returned our rental car and picked up our Volvo to drive it home. P got on top of the sunroof and jumped up and down with all his might and weight. He couldn't budge it a millimeter. We drove home with the roof peeled back--by a bear using only one paw.
The next year, Lassen installed bear boxes in its campgrounds. We'd like to think we are responsible for that.
Packs and People
In the good old days (ca. 1971), before they had installed bear boxes in the backcountry, P and his sister once did a pack trip into the Little Yosemite Valley, then camping at Merced Lake. This was an active bear area, but they were prepared, and not worried.
In the evening, they were cooking dinner, sharing a capmsite with a group of three other people and a dog. They began to hear the traditional sounds of a bear in the campground---people yelling, banging on pots, etc.
But they were not worried. There were five people in their group around the campfire, and a dog! Surely the bear would not dare to attack them.
Imagine their surprise when a bear arrived and walked calmly up to the campfire and helped himself to all of the food. The bear walked right through the group, and we scattered as he did so. The bear calmly ate the dinner, including some of the food in the pack on the ground. And then ambled off to the next campsite.
And at that campsite, the bear coolly surveyed the backpacks hanging in the tree, and followed the rope down to where it was tied off. The bear took one swipe with its paw, and cut the rope in two.
The packs fell to the ground, and the bear ate the second course of his dinner.
There are now bear boxes in the popular backcountry campsites of Yosemite, and bear canisters are required for all backcountry trips in the park.
Those Fearsome Grizzlies of Yellowstone
When our daughers were early teens, we took them on a long road trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It was a epic adventure with lots of memories for the whole family.
And of course we went hiking.
Each day in Yellowstone we would pick another wonderful trail--and discover that once we had hiked about a hundred yards, we simply didn't see any other people. Yellowstone isn't crowded: the roads in Yellowstone are crowded. The rest of the park is empty.
So one day were off on another hiking adventure, our youngest daughter leading the way with P; and M and the older daughter taking a more leisurely pace. And at one point, the pair in the lead noticed a big sign placed on the trail. Yep. There had been grizzlies seen in that area, and hikers were advised to use caution.
We did. The first thing they teach you about grizzlies is not to startle them. So the two of us in the lead began to chat away at the top of our voices, enjoying the conversation and also quite happy to be making the trail safe against any grumpy grizzlies. Blabber blabber blabber.
After a couple miles of this we called a halt and waited for the rest of the party to join us.
When they arrived, M expressed some considerable annoyance at the noise we had been making. "We'll never see any animals with all the noise you two are making with that jabbering," she said.
We smugly pointed out that we were scaring away any grizzlies in the area, and asked her if she hadn't see the sign.
"Yes," she agreed tartly. "And did you read the date on that sign? It was from more than a month ago."
Ah.
We continued, in a quieter vein, for the rest of the hike.
Never did see any grizzlies on that trail....
Bear Raid at Glacier Point
In the early 1970's P was working at a camp near Yosemite, leading kids on pack trips and exploring this wonderful park. At the end of the summer, he and a colleague decided that they were going on a grand adventure---hiking from Yosemite to Sequoia without the convenience of the John Muir Trail. They were young, they were strong, and they had no idea what they were getting into.
Their route started at Glacier Point, and from there they were going to ascend the Illilouette Canyon, cross over Red Peak Pass, and then keep moving south, sometimes on lesser known trails, sometimes cross country.
So they started in Yosemite Valley, and managed to hitch-hike up to Glacier Point by the end of the day. Not wanting to start out on the trail late in the day, they decided to camp (perhaps illegally?) around Glacier Point so that they could get an early start the next day.
And the weather was perfect. They simply put down a sheet of plastic, and laid their sleeping bags on top, sleeping under the stars. With a long night ahead, they were asleep soon after dark.
And were soon awake again, hearing loud noises in the area. As they looked around, they realized that they were in the middle of a bear attack. The bears, six or more of them, were racing each other to the garbage cans, knocking over the cans, and then wrestling and fighting each other over what they found inside.
In the moonlight it looked for all the world like a huge bear football game...and the players were not from Chicago. They were huge, they were feisty, and they were racing from one spot to the next. A scene from a horror movie, to be sure.
The boys didn't think twice. They leapt to their feet, grabbed their bags and packs, and raced for the only safe haven in the area--the restrooms. It was a hard sprint, but P was faster and made it first. He is a nice person, and did not slam the door in his friend's face. Once inside, they were both relieved to see that it was possible to lock the door from the inside.
What luck that the rangers had not locked the door the night before!
They spent the night in the restroom, resting. And got a very early start the next day.
(In the end, they never made it outside of Yosemite National Park. P's friend really, really didn't feel good on their second night, at about 10,000 feet at Lower Ottaway Lake. And the next morning, he announced that he really thought he needed to turn back. They hiked out that day, then spent a night in Yosemite Valley before hitch-hiking home to the Bay Area, where his friend found out that he was suffering from bronchitis. No mean thing at 10,000 feet, with sixteen miles to hike home.)
Strangers in the Night
Now we are going even further back in time--when P travelled with his parents and younger sister on an epic road journey through the Canadian Rockies. We camped our way through Banff and Jasper, and then down the Frazier River, all the time reading endless Tolkein books as entertainment. That's him in the photo below left...

But P was about thirteen years old, and not about to give up his mountain man image. While the rest of the family slept in a small 15-foot travel trailer, P slept like a real man, nestled in his mummy bag, lying out under the stars.
Ah!
It was a great feeling, until one night in Jasper National Park, when he awoke to find a bear standing on top of him, sniffing his face.
You might wonder what he did.
Did we mention that he was in a mummy bag, and the bear was on top of it?
He couldn't move, even if he wanted to. And somehow, in his sleepy mind, he knew that. So he closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. He smelled the bear's breath, which reminded him very strongly of garbage.
(Not surprising, considering what the bear had been eating!)
About twenty seconds later, he judged that the bear was no longer near him. He opened his eyes and looked around, to see the bear rumbling off to another campsite.
P leapt to his feet and carried his bag into the trailer, explaining to his family that there was a bear outside.
Not knowing the full story, they were not excited.
Then P stuck his head out of the trailer to check on the bear. And that's when he saw a small black animal scampering along the campground road, wailing for its mother.
"maaaaa!" said the animal.
P reported to his family that there was also a little black lamb out there.
His family was mightily amused.
But the next day, the story was verified by bear and cub tracks in the dirt.
That evening, P and his sister were BOTH out under the stars, surrounded by folding aluminum chairs and rope--hoping to catch a photo of the bear when it got near.
(This is a true story. really. )
The bear never arrived. Although it did find another campsite further along, where a mother and her daughter had gone to sleep with some food inside the tent. The bear opened up the tent and ate the food, sending both women to the hospital as a result.
FYI--this is a great story to tell young campers who might be tempted to sneak a candy bar into their sleeping bags for a late night treat.

 

[Jeremy C]

Not really an attack story, but a recent experience none the less. This past August I took a trip into Glacier National park for a photo/hiking trip. Drove down on a Wednesday and managed to get a site at the Two Medicine camp ground just before it filled up. As it was mid day still and a gorgeous warm afternoon (peaking around 90 or so I was told), I decided to grab my gear and head up the Pitamakan pass trail for sunset. I had my bear spray and was happily singing to myself up the trail enjoying not being in the office and beginning what I had hoped to be, a productive photo trip.
As the trail rounded the saddle of Rising Wolf Mountain and begins to rise, I heard a crash and a raucous from the bushes down mountain from the path. Slowing down a black bear walked out on the the trail to greet me, with less than 10 feet separating us.
First thought through my head was "oh Sh**". Second thought was "cool, black bears do have conical heads". The bear had (what I hoped) berry juice around it's mouth and was licking it's lips. Slowly I pulled the bear spray out and took the safety clip off. Trying to avoid looking it in the eyes and (keeping in mind I didn't measure this guy) judging that it was easily a good couple of feet taller than me if it decided to stand up, I pulled my best calm and soothing voice and said...
"Hey there big guy, you look like you have been enjoying some tasty berries in the bush. It's pretty hot out here in the trail, maybe you should head back in the shade. You probably don't want to deal with me, I am just a big raw chewy mess." I didn't really want to move or startle the bear since it was soo close that if I used the bear spray I was almost certain to get spray back and, well... that would have been trouble. Just stood there for a bit looking at each other until I started backing up slowly. The Bear swung it's head down the bush line and then back at me so I froze.

And, it turned and sauntered back into the bushes below the trail. I slowly backed away until I felt I was a safer distance to turn around. Hi-tailed it back to camp where I opened my cooler and grabbed a couple of beers that I had brought and proceeded to empty them into my shaking self. Walked over to the ranger station at the camp ground entrance and let them know about this bear that I found and they sent someone off to investigate, though I was there for the remainder of the week and no signs were posted, so perhaps I talked the bear into hiding, who knows.