View Full Version : Bear attack in the Bob
One of my coworkers was mauled by a black bear today. So far the news reports say he was in his tent when he was attacked. The bear has been found and put down. He apparently had blood on his claws and pepper spray on his fur. My coworker was airlifted to the hospital. He has had surgery to clean the wounds, and is doing well.
The news reports say he was south of the Spotted Bear area(!), in the Black Bear Creek (!) drainage.
BTW, he is an extremely experienced backpacker, and was at the start of a ten-day hike, which absolutely sucks. I'll be interested to talk to him when he comes back to work and see what he thinks led to the attack.
Rain Man
09-14-2012, 21:00
Was this on the AT? I'm not familiar with "the Bob."
Rain Man
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Furlough
09-14-2012, 21:11
Was this on the AT? I'm not familiar with "the Bob."
Rain Man
.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness in Western Montana
Wise Old Owl
09-14-2012, 21:12
Marta and friends are out west Click here. (http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_4fc4d24a-fe8d-11e1-980d-0019bb2963f4.html)
LOCATION
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flathead_National_Forest
coach lou
09-14-2012, 21:15
South of Spotted bear is deep in. How did he contact help?
coach lou
09-14-2012, 21:18
The Bob Marshall is huge and beautiful. Maybe 150 miles N/S X 80 miles E/W
South of Spotted bear is deep in. How did he contact help?
Thats one of the things I don't know yet. We think he was probably hiking with someone who used to work here. I assume that guy hiked out for help.
garlic08
09-14-2012, 21:29
My best wishes for a quick and full recovery.
The CDT runs through "The Bob", a challenging and remote section of trail. The Chinese Wall is one of the many features. As I recall, there's about 160 miles of CDT in there between Marias Pass and Lincoln (home of the Unabomber cabin). I had close encounters with two grizz in there, and lost count of black bear. The pepper spray was often in my hand, thumb on the safety.
I've been told the worst injury is to his pride. :-)
I've wondered whether bears are crabbier in spring and fall. The weather tuned a lot colder a few days ago. The squirrels are running around like maniacs now, storing up food. Are bears doing the same thing?
Wise Old Owl
09-14-2012, 22:26
Marta - men are crabbier.... now add hair---- lots of it... Hang in there. We all have your back.
fiddlehead
09-15-2012, 09:57
That's a bummer for sure and I'm glad it wasn't a griz.
There are griz in the "Bob" but I never saw one there.
(hiked it's length twice)
I've seen wet tracks on rocks and griz paw marks on trees.
In fact, took this picture in the "Bob" in 2002:
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I remember the rangers telling me I probably wouldn't see a Griz.
Of course that was 10 years ago.
But, this sounds like a black bear attack.
I hope your friend is OK Marta.
fiddlehead
09-15-2012, 10:02
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Pedaling Fool
09-15-2012, 10:21
I've wondered how many more attacks there are to the number of pepole actually killed by bears as listed here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America
Seems like there must be a database somewhere. As for bears being more crabbier in spring/fall, I don't know, but it would make sense, since in the spring they're hungry from their winter sleep and in the fall they're getting ready for another winter sleep.
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Nice picture!
The attacked-while-in-your-tent scenario is particularly nightmarish. Since this guy has lived in grizzly and black bear country for a long time, I can't imagine he would have practiced poor camp cleanliness.
I am sorry to here about your friend.
Spirit Walker
09-15-2012, 12:58
Marta - have you read Steve Herrera's book, "Bear attacks, their causes and avoidance"? It has been a while, but I seem to remember that black bears that attack like that are usually not attacking for the usual reasons (food, defense of young, or defense of kill). More like they're psychotic for some reason. Sometimes they stalk people for a while, before coming back in the middle of the night. We had a black bear on the PCt that made me really nervous because it paced us for a couple of miles - walking beside us about 50' to our side, totally unafraid. We crossed a highway and lost him, but other hikers mentioned seeing him that day.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness is a real bear alley. We were there after an early snowfall in 2006, and saw tracks of dozens of different bears in the mud. It can be hard to find safe places to hang food, because a lot of it has burned and the trees don't have long branches.
coach lou
09-15-2012, 13:23
Marta - have you read Steve Herrera's book, "Bear attacks, their causes and avoidance"? It has been a while, but I seem to remember that black bears that attack like that are usually not attacking for the usual reasons (food, defense of young, or defense of kill). More like they're psychotic for some reason. Sometimes they stalk people for a while, before coming back in the middle of the night. We had a black bear on the PCt that made me really nervous because it paced us for a couple of miles - walking beside us about 50' to our side, totally unafraid. We crossed a highway and lost him, but other hikers mentioned seeing him that day.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness is a real bear alley. We were there after an early snowfall in 2006, and saw tracks of dozens of different bears in the mud. It can be hard to find safe places to hang food, because a lot of it has burned and the trees don't have long branches.
The Female Griz with 3 cubs that attacked the campers in Cooke City, Mt. 3/4 years ago, was not only starving, but she was sick with a parasitic infection. The details I can't recall, but if you find the facts, bear attacks, Black, brown, or Grizzly usually have a reason. They just don't go out hunting humans.
Update: Got some details. He was sleeping in his tent when the bear attacked. He had not seen the bear the night before. The bear tore into the tent and grabbed him by the head. He has pretty nasty damage to his face and arms, including punctures in the cheeks deep enough that water poured out through them when he tried to take a drink as he was walking out. During the attack he managed to get out his bear spray, sprayed the bear, and it let go. He also got a photo of it!
He started hiking out. Fairly soon he heard voices. A Forest Service crew was coming along, including a friend of his who works at the Inn during the winter. The crew had a radio with them, which is how a helicopter evacuation was arranged fairly quickly.
Definitely a freaky situation, of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are loads of bears around here but in general they either avoid or ignore humans. I'll be interested to hear follow up about whether is bear was sick, or if there were other incidents with it before this attack
I haven't read the Bear Attacks book yet--I'm not sure I have the nerve. So far my backcountry camping has been confined to the Park, which has the handy poles for hanging food. I do have a canister, which I'll probably use when I venture into the Bob. As you say, though, I don't think this attack had any normal motivation, such as food or fear.
HikerMom58
09-15-2012, 21:50
Thanks for the update... I'm so glad he is doing OK.. :)
He also got a photo of it!
Amazing. Sounds like one of those "last thing I do" actions, and he did, and fortunately it wasn't the last thing he did.
For those that want to read more about the wiki entry John linked to, check out this old thread where we talked about it.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?71795-All-Bear-caused-deaths-in-N-america
Spirit Walker
09-16-2012, 10:32
What I found, after reading Herrera's book, was that the more knowledge I had the less fear I had. I came to realize that there are logical reasons for most attacks and if you understand them, you can prevent them.
Pedaling Fool
09-16-2012, 10:56
What I found, after reading Herrera's book, was that the more knowledge I had the less fear I had. I came to realize that there are logical reasons for most attacks and if you understand them, you can prevent them.Well what are the reasons? Seems like predation is a big factor in black bear attacks, by just looking at the link here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America
Granted that's just a peek at the issue and I'm not saying that as fact. But notice that many attacks are on small people, or at least on people that can be seen as weaker; just what you'd expect from a predator. Also notice how many are from northern regions where the black bears are bigger and under more pressure to fatten up for the winter.
P.S. Many think that my interest in this stems from FEAR. Not true, just find it interesting, so save me the statistics of other ways I'm more likely to be killed from whatever. I do not fear black bears and I believe most here that express curiosity also do not do so out of fear.
handlebar
09-16-2012, 11:08
Yikes! I camped on a saddle in the continental divide just before Spotted Bear Pass on Aug 20. My hiking partner and I had seen no bear nor bear sign in the Bob. Now that winter is approaching and the days are getting shorter, perhaps the bears are desperate for food. I know it has been very dry in that area and there are forest fires nearby that required us to reroute. Perhaps the bear in question was displaced. In any event, it's a good thing your friend had his bear spray handy. When In bear country, I always have mine close by the sleeping bag for just such an eventuality. Thankfully, we saw neither grizzlies nor black bears on our traverse through Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier NP.
handlebar
09-16-2012, 11:13
P.S., I don't know if the forest service does as complete a report on bear attacks as the National Park Service, but they might have one on this and I think it would be interesting reading.
http://missoulian.com/news/local/wildlife-agents-kill-black-bear-after-it-attacks-man-in/article_750aa8e8-feb7-11e1-89f8-001a4bcf887a.html
http://www.krtv.com/news/man-reportedly-attacked-by-bear-in-bob-marshall-wilderness/
Update: The attack took place five days ago. Today I was told the hospital expects to release him in four days. He has had several surgeries, to repair his face and to work in the big chunk missing from his thigh. The wounds were about as dirty as possible, too.
The pictures of the bear.... What I was told today was that the bear was circling around him and he was waiting to die, so he filmed the bear and himself as he said good-bye to his family and friends. That's what he was doing when the Forest Service crew came along and found him.
Feral Bill
09-19-2012, 22:43
That's sobering. Thanks, Marta.
Very sobering. He has quite a bit damage to one shoulder, too.
The newspaper also mentioned today that Fish and Wildlife is investigating an incident involving a grizzly bear near Trego last week. There may be a wounded bear st large in the Butcher Creek drainage.
To fill in a few more details:
After nine days in the hospital, he's home. Still has an intravenous antibiotic feed. A visiting nurse will be coming every day to check on him for the next few days. He's scheduled to be out of work until Nov. 1.
The interesting bit is about the food... The newspaper made it sound as if he was stupid with his food, which I just couldn't believe. In fact, his food was properly hung and he had a clean camp. The bear attacked him in his tent even though there was no food in there. He drove the bear off with bear spray, but it kept circling around him. He cut down his food and threw it to the bear, hoping it would go away and let him escape. It ate the food and still wouldn't go away.
Even after the arrival of the Forest Service Crew, the helicopter evacuation, and more time elapsed for a hunting team to come in, the bear was only about 70' from the campsite, so he was easy to identify and kill.
Nightmare scenario.
HikerMom58
09-23-2012, 22:04
Wow, thanks for the continued update!!
Rocket Jones
09-23-2012, 23:43
Definitely not normal behavior. Nightmare scenario is spot on.