Submitted by Abby McDonald (Colorado College)
Have you ever been 20 feet away from a 500 pound grizzly bear? Have you seen the whites of its eyes as it charges at you with the speed of a car? Did you feel the slow trickle of pee go down your leg as you stood there, frozen still? Me neither!! Because bears are beautiful creatures that try to stay away from humans more than humans try to stay away from the plague. And if you don’t believe this 19 year old girl who has seen five bears in her lifetime, believe the Glacier National Park Bear Bob’s!
Bob Schuster and Bob Adams are Many Glacier’s very own bear celebrities and Park Rangers. The two have been there for 30 plus years protecting the park and admiring its beauty. They know it better than the palm of their hand; so when they tell you to yell, clap, hoot and holler as you’re hiking through the park to avoid those 500 pound bears… you do it. Although, many people will risk a killer bear for a killer instagram post.
One day, as our group was walking along the trail to Redrock Lake, a couple told us that there was a black bear and her two cubs up ahead. As the Bear Bob’s told us to do, we started to make noise. We were walking down the trail clapping and yelling: “Heeeeeeeyyyy Bear,” when we came across a large group of people standing on the side of the trail. We all groaned in unison: “found the bear…” As we walked by we continued to make noise and the group did not like that. Videos were paused so that the recorders could turn around and scold us, some even added their own creative flair by aggressively giving us their sassy palm. Interactions like this continued to happen during our time in Glacier.
My favorite time was when we were working on Fishercap Lake. We had stored our gear behind some brush and trees in order to stay out of the way of other visitors. We had seen a large grizzly bear in the same spot just the day before, so when we went to get our gear we made sure to make a lot of noise. As we were doing this, a woman came up to me and said: “oh you’ll make sure that we don’t see any moose.” Of course, I awkwardly laughed and walked away, then proceeded to tell everyone in the group. The woman then waited at the lake in hopes of seeing a moose. When none came out after 30 minutes, she left. Five minutes after that, we saw a big bull moose. Karma is real, and our group had great karma.
During our time in the park, I saw 3 moose, 5 bears, 3 mountain goats, a herd of big horned sheep, 6 deer, and 2 marmots. The wildlife in Glacier is abundant and beautiful, especially if you’re respectful and remember that they were there first. Their animal instinct includes reading auras.
