innermountain
2008-04-22, 14:28
In 2001 my brother and I hiked from south-central Wyoming to Canada. It took us 4 months and we hiked/snowshoed over 700 miles - hands down the best summer of my life! The first 2 months we encountered a total of 2 groups of people, and one group was a NOLS instructor training group.
In early June we hiked through the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, which is the most remote area in the Continental US and also prime grizzly habitat. We set up camp one night, had dinner, and then decided to go for an evening stroll. We were switchbacking up a White Pine hillside, when I suddenly felt a poo coming on strong. I ran up the hill, in between the switchbacks, and dropped trow. I was "in the act" when a small black bear pounded across the hillside above me. Instantly, I knew it a grizzly cub. Without pulling up my britches, I began waddling (half jumping) down the hillside having fortunately completed the first phase of "the act" when I caught my pants on a branch and toppled head over heals down to the trail.
My brother looked at me like I was an idiot and said "dude, what are you doing - that was a black bear." We argued about it for a moment as I was standing up, when suddenly a huge brown grizzly bear walked out from the trees sniffing the air about 30 yards uphill from us. She hadn't seen us yet when my brother said outloud "oh shit." She heard his ignorant muttering and looked down at us. Her hair bristled, and she began jumping up and down, pounding the ground with her paws. I could physically feel her rage in my body as she swung her head, slobber spraying out from the sides of her mouth. It was the most terrifying moment of my life, as I stood watching her prepare to kill us with my pants (and underwear) around my ankles.
Thankfully she retreated back into the trees without charging us, and in the end it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life - a raw, vulnerable (to say the least) encounter with one of the most amazing animals on our planet. As we walked back down the trail, I nearly collapsed, not because of my pants around my ankles, because I pulled those up, but because my knees were so weak from being scared they barely held my weight. Moral of the story: don't poop in grizzly country if you can help it.
In early June we hiked through the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, which is the most remote area in the Continental US and also prime grizzly habitat. We set up camp one night, had dinner, and then decided to go for an evening stroll. We were switchbacking up a White Pine hillside, when I suddenly felt a poo coming on strong. I ran up the hill, in between the switchbacks, and dropped trow. I was "in the act" when a small black bear pounded across the hillside above me. Instantly, I knew it a grizzly cub. Without pulling up my britches, I began waddling (half jumping) down the hillside having fortunately completed the first phase of "the act" when I caught my pants on a branch and toppled head over heals down to the trail.
My brother looked at me like I was an idiot and said "dude, what are you doing - that was a black bear." We argued about it for a moment as I was standing up, when suddenly a huge brown grizzly bear walked out from the trees sniffing the air about 30 yards uphill from us. She hadn't seen us yet when my brother said outloud "oh shit." She heard his ignorant muttering and looked down at us. Her hair bristled, and she began jumping up and down, pounding the ground with her paws. I could physically feel her rage in my body as she swung her head, slobber spraying out from the sides of her mouth. It was the most terrifying moment of my life, as I stood watching her prepare to kill us with my pants (and underwear) around my ankles.
Thankfully she retreated back into the trees without charging us, and in the end it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life - a raw, vulnerable (to say the least) encounter with one of the most amazing animals on our planet. As we walked back down the trail, I nearly collapsed, not because of my pants around my ankles, because I pulled those up, but because my knees were so weak from being scared they barely held my weight. Moral of the story: don't poop in grizzly country if you can help it.