Almost My Last Photo

Almost My Last Photo
I'm really lucky that it was not my last image.  The small viewpoint was full with a photography workshop, so I asked if I could take this quick shot in front of them, then head down the hill to a different spot.  I ran to get out of their view quickly, startling a huge male grizzly bear away from the service berry bush he had been feeding on.  Two things you never do to a grizzly are startle them or give them the impression that you're challenging them for their food!  I saw his massive dark form and heard him crashing off through the brush about 50-70 yards.  I froze.  I figured that I should let the bear know that I was a human, not a bear, so i called back to the photographers above that if I started screaming, I was getting mauled by a grizzly bear.  Later I learned that bears can interpret yelling as an aggressive act, as a challenge.

I heard nothing, not a leaf rustling or a stick cracking, until the bear's head popped up from behind the bush, where he was now standing.  It was a large bush on a steep hill, so his head must have been 9 or 10 feet off the ground.  He was clearly pissed off, frothing at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and raking his plate-sized, knife-lined paws into the bush, as if to show me how he'd disembowel me, just as soon as he caught up with me.  He was so worked up, he started hyperventilating, his body shaking, making a loud huffing noise.  I later read that the huffing noise was the last thing many bear attack survivors heard, right before before being mauled!

Fortunately the bear was directly behind the bush, and didn't have a straight shot at me.  I started backing slowly up the hill.  I had read some bear attack books, so I was calculating what clothing and gear I could drop to give the bear something to attack before reaching me, if he came around the bush.  I don't remember how I retraced the 100 yards or so back to the top.  On a scale from 1 to 10 my adrenaline was pegged at 11, and I was concentrating so hard on the bear I totally blacked out on hiking back.  But I took some more photos from up there, figuring that I had much better odds near the crowd.  

You're supposed to tell rangers when you have a bear incident, so I headed Up to the visitor center on Logan Pass.  Everyone I told the story to said, "You're really lucky (to be alive)!""

Next time I'll definitely carry bear spray.  I didn't think that I'd need it only a few steps from a major viewpoint!  Live and learn.  I almost didn't get that chance.
#glaciernationalpark   #grizzlybear   #travelstories  

Originally shared by Jeff Sullivan

Wild Goose Island at Dawn
Sunrise at Lake St. Mary, Glacier National Park, Montana.
#Montana   #landscapephotography   #montanamoment  
www.JeffSullivanPhotography.com