Griz trees Glacier fisherman
Hungry Horse News
A Calgary man found himself treed by a grizzly last week in Glacier National Park.
Nick Darling, a longtime Hungry Horse News subscriber from California and a former court reporter, said he met Donald Quiring of Alberta Canada in Many Glacier last Friday (August 6) and Quiring told him the following tale:
Quiring, 44, along with Jake Goertzen, and Anne and Margaret Elmer decided to do some fishing at Grinnell Lake, so they took both tour boats from the Many Glacier Hotel across Swiftcurrent and Josephine Lake.
Once at the head of Josephine they hiked into Grinnell Lake and they sort of split up.
The women were going to relax and the men were going to fish.
Quiring made his way around the south end of the lake while the others went in the other direction. As he was fishing Quiring got a strange feeling that something was behind him and he turned to see a grizzly on the slope behind him, coming closer.
Quiring whistled loudly but the bear kept coming.
Quiring then decided to head back toward the trail. He was cliffed out by the headwall of the lake on one side and his only other option was to try to swim away from the bear. He chose to try to get back down the trail instead. Meanwhile, his other friends saw the bear as well and were yelling, "bear, bear, bear!"
As Quiring went down the trail the bear went in the same direction and ended up in front of him. It stood up and for a few seconds the two eyed each other.
Quiring then dropped his backpack and his fishing rod and shimmied up a tree with the bear now behind him.
The bear looked up at Quiring, but didn't pursue him further. The bear left the pack and fly rod alone and eventually ambled off.
Quiring didn't have bear spray and was pretty scratched up from climbing the tree in a hurry, but he was no worse for the wear otherwise.
Bear encounters in that area are not uncommon.
The Park patrolled the area, but didn't close the trail because the bear was never seen again after completing two separate patrols of the trail.