Grizzlies

Grizzlies

One afternoon while in Waterton Lakes National Park I decided to go for a hike. It was a drizzly, dreary day and my heart wasn’t completely in it, but I hit the trail anyway. I barely saw a soul during the four mile hike to the lake, but one of the few people I did see mentioned that they had hiked all the way in, however it was so foggy that they could barely even see the lake. After hearing that I seriously considered calling it quits and heading back to the van, but I’m stubborn and hate to leave a hike unfinished, so I kept going.

The first few miles were fairly flat and easy but the final push to the lake was really steep and I was praying that it’d be worth the effort. But, unsurprisingly, the lake was still fogged in when I arrived—oh well. I decided to have a snack, drink some water and enjoy the peace and quiet before heading back down the trail. But to my surprise, a few minutes later, the fog began to lift and the lake slowly came into view. Perfect timing! 

I had my camera held up to my face as I was photographing the left side of the lake, when suddenly I heard something very large splashing through the water to my right. I quickly turned and nearly had a heart attack when I saw two full-grown grizzly bears running towards me through the shallow water. I had never even seen one grizzly bear before, let alone two, and while I had been hopeful that I’d get to snap my first grizzly photograph at some point on this trip, seeing two of them heading my direction while I was all alone at a remote lake, with only a wide-angle landscape lens on my camera, wasn’t quite what I had in mind. At this point they were still about 100 yards away, so I wasn’t in immediate danger, but the sight of them still sent me into one of the classic ‘fight, flight or freeze’ responses. 

I firmly believe that you don’t really know how you’ll respond to an intense situation until you’re actually in that situation. It’s really easy to talk about what you’d do, but until you’re in it you don’t really know. And I wish I could tell you that my response was to remain calm, swap out my landscape lens for a wildlife lens, and wait and see whether they’d continue heading my direction or instead veer off into the forest once they got closer... but that’s not what happened. Even at a fairly safe distance I went into an instant fear response and a “get me the HECK out of here” sensation rushed through my body. ‘Flight’ it is.

I know enough about bears to know that running would be the worst thing I could do, and I’m proud to report that I responded particularly well considering how badly I wanted to flee. But I’ll be honest, for a split-second I wondered whether that would be my final day on earth. 

To my benefit, I had studied the lay of the land well enough to know that there was a smaller lake just down the hill, so with my bear spray in hand, I slowly backed into the trees and headed for the far end of that smaller lake, where I’d end up hunkering down for the next thirty minutes. I assumed that the bears would either follow me down to the smaller lake, in which case I was prepared to use the bear spray if they got too close, or they would just go about their bear business at the upper lake and beyond. Eventually, when I felt it was safe to do so, I began slowly making my way back towards the trail—my bear spray out in front, leading the way like a flashlight in the dark. But I never did see those grizzlies again.

Now, looking back, with less adrenaline coursing through my veins and having done more research on the subject, I’m actually a little regretful with how I responded—I believe I overreacted. At the time, in the midst of my fear response, I thought those bears smelled me and knew I’d be a tasty afternoon snack. When in actuality I’m not convinced that they even knew I was there when they began running my direction. And even if they did, I don’t think they were doing anything other than simply running along the lakeshore and I just happened to be standing along their chosen path. I certainly don’t think they wanted to eat me.

Even though this was a scary experience for me, I’ve since learned a lot about bears and am already looking forward to my next grizzly sighting. And, when it happens, I hope that there will be a much larger distance between us and I'll already have a big zoom-lens attached to my camera.

"Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds, and drink of the same waters. A bear's days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdosed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart pulsings like ours…" –John Muir