The moment I stood face to face with a grizzly…
Written by: Louise Rainey
On October 2, 2021, myself and five women hiked into Tombstone Campground for a one-night adventure. We parked at the Elbow Pass Day Use Area and followed the Big Elbow Trail for approximately 8km until we reached the campground.
After setting up and having a quick early lunch at the campground, we decided to hike up Piper Pass. To access the trail, we would need to hike back towards Elbow Lake on Big Elbow Trail for about 2km. The Piper Pass trailhead was marked with a small pile of rocks and we used our GPS maps to ensure we were headed in the right direction.
The trail itself was quite overgrown and much less travelled than the other trails in the area. We noticed that someone had recently done some trail maintenance as there were small branches of trees that had been cut to make the trail more manageable. Even so, I kept warning whoever was hiking behind me when I had to push through a more intrusive branch that might lash back and hit them. After a short while, we descended the banks of the Elbow River and were able to use stones and branches to cross. Thankfully we didn’t have to put on our water shoes. The trail continued and we approached a small creek bed before descending slightly to cross Piper Creek and continue the trail.
The trail was a steady climb through some areas that were quite thick, with the odd clearing where we could take in the beautiful scenery around us. As we hiked we noticed somewhat fresh and old piles of bear scat (poop) on the trail; something that is not uncommon for us to see on our hikes. We continued talking and I was giving out hoots of loud noise quite regularly. I even joked to my companions that I was going to be getting on their nerves by the end of the hike because I like to yell out quite a lot. I was always taught to make a lot of noise so any animals in the area would be aware of my presence.
The weather was perfect for hiking, sitting somewhere around 6 - 8°C. The winds were quite strong with anticipated gusts of up to 70km/hour. This meant not only did we have difficulty hearing each other while we were chatting, but our voices would be taken by the wind. The trees around us were blowing heavily, bringing in pleasant gusts of cool air as we climbed further towards the Pass.
Since the trail was not well travelled and quite overgrown, we were walking in single file with minimal space between each of us. We reached a small clearing of damp earth that looked like it had been disturbed. At this point I was second last in our group. As we walked through the area of disturbed earth, I noted how this looked quite unusual and she agreed. I assumed it was likely from a bear digging in the dirt. As we exited the small clearing and went back into the forest we were still walking through quite dense brush. There were four women in front of me and Crystal was still behind me.
Only a moment or two later I heard a tree branch snap to my left. My first thought was that there must be an animal to my left. At the same moment I heard the branch snap I looked up wondering if the hiker in front heard the noise too, and as if she was reading my mind she was turning her head towards the sound as well. Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion…
With my next step forward around a small pine tree to my left, like something out of a nightmare, a huge loud crashing noise was coming towards me. The fright of the noise was so startling that I screamed and fell slightly to my right, using my hiking pole to steady myself from completely toppling over. I did not take my eyes off the area where the noise was coming from and charging towards me was not one, but two good sized grizzly bears. The larger of the two halted abruptly on her front paws and huffed while looking directly into my eyes. She was very close and very angry. Her face was round, her lips were black, and I could see her teeth. Her ears were down and back. She did not look like the cute bears you sometimes pass on the highway or see at the zoo. She looked mean and was sending a clear message. Beside her, on her right shoulder was another bear, which we presume was her cub, with the same face and same coloring who seemed to be almost mimicking her behaviour.
After that fleeting moment of looking right into each other’s eyes, she abruptly turned around and bounded through the brush away from us. As she turned I could see her brown fur with golden tinges along her shoulders and upper back. Her body looked strong and her fur shimmered as she moved herself in such a swift motion. The second bear was following her exact behaviour, almost like her shadow.
In the next moment I heard one of the women sounding confused and the first thing that ran through my mind was “remain calm,” while I yelled to everyone, “get out your bear spray!'' By the time I even had a second to realize what was going on, the encounter was over. I was so thankful the mama grizzly stopped those mere 10 feet away, because if she had wanted to take me out, she would have.
While I describe the events of what happened, it might sound like I should have had the opportunity to get my bear spray out, when in actuality this occurred over seconds, milliseconds even; before any of us had the opportunity to even realize what was going on. The brush was so thick that I could not see any more than their heads, shoulders and upper backs. The hiker in front of me saw both bears and agreed that it was a mother grizzly with an older cub, because the second bear was almost as large as the first. The hiker behind me, could only see one of the bears. The three women in the front could only hear the noises and see the brush moving, never actually seeing the bears at all. Even with our bear spray attached to the front of our bodies, no one even had the seconds it would have taken to pull it out.
By this time, you can imagine our adrenaline was pumping and we knew we needed to immediately vacate the area. Reorganizing ourselves, we started to retreat. By now we all had our bear spray out and safety clips removed. After several minutes into our retreat we came across the area of bear digs we had passed only moments ago. We kept moving for approximately 1.5km until we came to a clearing and take a moment to breathe, regroup, and have a quick drink.
As you can imagine, we were all coming down from this massive adrenaline rush. We talked ourselves through the event. Ultimately, we believe the bears were likely startled by our presence and wanted us to vacate the area. The loud gusts of wind through the trees both masked our noises and carried the sounds of our voices with it. We were also downwind from the bears, so our scent was carried away with the wind as well. The mama grizzly felt threatened by our unanticipated presence and gave us a very clear warning that she did not want us there.
I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if we were not in a tight group of 6. Did the grizzly only stop short of attacking because when she finally was able to visualize what she heard, she realized we were in a large group? If we were walking with further space between us would she have followed through with the attack? The abruptness of her halt and her swift movement to retreat could indicate she was startled when she saw our numbers.
We continued our way back down Piper Pass Trail towards Big Elbow Trail. We passed a few groups who were planning to go up to Piper Pass to camp and let them know what happened. Thankfully, everyone agreed to turn around and find somewhere else to camp.
On our way home the next day we stopped and talked to a Conservation Officer who had been pulled over on the side of Highway 40. We told him about the incident and within a few hours a notice was posted on the Alberta Parks website: Piper Pass trail from Big Elbow Trail near Tombstone Campground to Mt Romulus Campground would be closed due to the incident.