Bear Encounter - August 7, 2001by Michael M
When we were getting our backcountry permits for the Floe Lake and the Rockwall Trail in Kootenany National Park the parks staff warned us of an "aggressive grizzly" in the area. They said this 3 year old, blond grizzly had approached groups of hikers and was apparently not intimidated by them. The bear had left the area and was last seen in the Banff area but I knew grizzlies have a huge territory and, when the parks staff recommended taking bear spray there was unanimous agreement amongst the group to buy a can.
On the third day of backpacking we were in some heavy brush and I was in the lead calling "Hello, Mr Bear" in a very loud voice. Jo said "Mike, you're going to lose your voice" but I merely pointed to the fresh bear scat on the trail and let out another "Hello, Mr Bear!".
We continued on for a ways and, when looking for a spot to cross a creek, we spotted not one but two grizzlies, one the blond. We had climbed about 25 meters in elevation up the creek (over about 75 meters in distance) when we came across a couple with a dog. The dog was barking, at the time we thought it was at us but now I think it was due to the presence of two bears. We spotted the first, a very large dark grizzly, about 300-400 meters distant. It moved further away. While my attention was on that bear Jo said "Mike, there's another bear crossing the creek". I looked up and spotted it crossing about 50-60 meters above us. It initially headed away but then turned toward us and we started making re-assuring noises (which it probably couldn't hear because of the roaring creek). It then stood up on it's hind legs, just like in the videos you see. "That's ok, just normal behaviour" I thought but what came next wasn't, instead of leaving when it saw us it continued to come toward us. I got the bear spray out and took off the safety telling the others to descend slowly down the creek. I followed trying to keep facing the bear. It continued to follow, gaining some ground and standing up two more times.
There was a rock that I couldn't back down safely so I had Bob descend it first then handed him the bear spray while I came down it and took the spray again. Jo lead the way down and found a crossing spot about 50 vertical meters (or 150-200 meters in distance) below where we had initially seen the bear. I had lost sight of it by this time, the last sighting was where we intersected the trail, approximately 75 meters above the position where we crossed.
We waited on the far side of the creek not knowing where the bear was. We gathered some rocks together to throw in case the bear came at us and I had the spray ready as well. We waited there for about half and hour before we decided to continue in the direction we were headed (which was away from the direction in which the bear had initially crossed the creek). We didn't know where the bear was at this time though so we were cautious in starting.
When we got past a small branch in the stream we spotted 4 backpackers about to cross the creek and head down to Numa Camp. We hollered to them to stop and we climbed up to them and explained the situation. They were glad for the warning and continued on cautiously with their bear spray ready. We continued on our way making sure we kept very close to one another and stopping frequently to scan the area with our binoculars as well as constantly calling out "Hello Mr Bear!". Thankfully we didn't see him, or any of his relatives, again during the trip.