One more grizzly tale

Chris and Mindy Honcoop met a pair of grizzly bears last week that did not yield them the right-of-way, so they curled up and played dead on the Grinnell Trail because that seemed their only option.

The scary Grinnell Trail incident of Aug. 18 where a female grizzly attacked a San Diego man and his daughter has mostly run its course for the local media, with the victims now returned to their home in California to recover from serious wounds; however grizzly bears remain a germane topic here because they are still up in the mountains, they are hungry, and they remain unpredictable.

Last week a large contingent of the Thursday Over the Hill Gang decided to hike the Grinnell Glacier Trail … not because we're interested in running into grizzlies, but because it is one of the most spectacular hikes in Glacier; and certainly one of our favorite places in the world.

It was Jim Folston's first hike since his heart attack up Gorge Creek in June. He and I were taking our sweet time behind the others when we reached the first major switchback below the cliff section about 1:15, decided to have lunch.

Just finishing when a group of 13 young folk from "Trek-America" came laughing down the trail, led by a small blonde lady named Betsy Olsen. These young people were from all over the world … Germany, Australia, New Zealand and America from L.A. to New York. While we were visiting, a couple of "The Gang" who were climbing Grinnell Point called on our walkie-talkie network from near the old mine tunnel to report "two grizzlies on the way down." That brought up the topic of bears for our visit with the "Trek-America" group, and I gave them a copy of my animal book, "Wondrous Wildlife," because it has a picture of a standing grizzly on the cover.

Jim and I wondered what the rest of our gang were doing and a short radio check revealed that a good sized group was going on past the Glacier to climb the Angel Wing, three who gave us the griz report had spun off to climb the precipitous south face of Grinnell Point, and a half dozen others were scattered along the beautiful trail between us and the Glacier.

Must have been 2:45 when Jim and I met Chris and Mindy. They were coming down the trail under control but certainly frightened and upset. They had just had a nerve-shaking meeting with two grizzly bears. Asked them to describe the bears and Chris did so and tried to show me a digital picture he'd taken, but we couldn't make out much. From his description however, I decided the bears were not the same ones who attacked the man and his daughter in August.

Chris and Mindy said the bears had not "charged" them, but had showed no fear and just started walking right at them. That is when they went into the curled-up and play dead act … prepared for the worst. "The biggest one stood up and looked at us for a minute then got down and moved away."

I took off one of my extra Counter Assault canisters and told Chris to put it on his belt. About then Ivan O'Neil and Jim Galvin called from near the Glacier to report two griz were below them, going on down toward Grinnell Lake. We thanked them for that info.

Mindy and Chris were pleased to learn the bears were not still up where we were but they wondered who all those guys were on the radios. Jim and I explained about the "overly mature people" who have to hike every Thursday.

The Honcoop's decided they would walk out to the trailhead with Jim and me. Told us they work for computer companies in Seattle and Mindy is also a dancer for a ballet company. O'Neil and Galvin caught up with us between Josephine and Swiftcurrent Lakes. It was there we met three folks just heading up. Ivan asked one, a very big man, "Where's your bear spray?"

The very big man replied, "Don't need any … got on my Hawaiian shirt."

There are many different kinds of people visit Glacier Park.