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On Tuesday, June 11th, 2024, two hikers, whom we will refer to as Paula and Mike, wanted to take in the view of the valley around Ruby Lake. The best way to do that was to park at the trailhead and climb the steep route to the ridge. Just north of Waterton Lakes National Park, this trail offers a quiet and little-known route into primitive country and seemed like what the couple was looking for.
The climb is rated to take 2 hours on the entry route according to AllTrails.com due to the difficulty of the climb. By early afternoon the hikers were reaching the upper end of the timberline when they came face to face with a very large and unhappy grizzly bear.
Now these guys were not unprepared to venture into bear country, or at least as prepared as one can be. They had brought along bear spray but there was no mention of them bringing a firearm, so it is likely they didn’t bring one on the hike.
Upon seeing the hikers, the massive grizzly immediately charged toward them. As you can imagine Paula and Mike scattered at the sound of the grizzly's roar and separated by instinct. The grizzly streaked across the steep hillside as if it were floating and the hikers were powerless to avoid it.
As Mike screamed in terror at the approach of the bear it bit him repeatedly on his forearms and hands as he held them out to stop it. Its movements were so fast he had no way of anticipating where the bear would bite him next. Before it could bite him again, Mike could see it shift its focus in Paula’s direction.
Paula had watched the bear close in on Mike from only a few yards away and had done his best to get further away, but when you are trying to outrun a missile all of your efforts are futile. The grizzly closed in on Paula and gave her the same treatment as it had given Mike. Biting her several times over her forearms and hands before the entire situation was flipped on the bear.
Using the lag between his and Paula’s attacks, Mike managed to retrieve his bear spray. He hoped to high Heaven that it would work and this grizzly would leave them alone. Flicking off the safety cap, Mike pressed the button and the canister began emitting an orange billowing cloud of irritant.
As the cloud settled in around Paula and the grizzly, Mike watched as the bear began coughing and gagging. The irritant took only a few seconds to force the bear to reconsider the attack on the hikers. It backed up a few steps before disappearing around the slope.
The hikers were left bloodied and in pain, with deep puncture wounds covering their forearms and hands. Fortunately, the bear spray had stopped the grizzly before it could maim either of them. They gathered themselves and after a few minutes, began the hike out back to their vehicle at the trailhead.
As they made their way down the trail, they reached out by cell phone to emergency services. After a short wait at the trailhead, they were taken to the hospital where their wounds were sutured shut after being cleaned. They were both in stable condition shortly after being admitted to the hospital.
Following Mike and Paula’s grizzly bear attack, wildlife officers started a thorough search for the bear. They had collected DNA samples from the saliva on the hiker's injuries and preliminary results showed that the bear was a male. That excludes the protection of cubs as a potential cause for the attack.
Speaking of cubs, our cub tier membership on Patreon, linked below will give you ad-free early access to our episodes and the $3 per month goes a long way in helping me continue to produce content like this.
As with many forensic investigations, a recreation of the scene was completed to help investigators understand what happened and its causes. Investigators hiked into the attack site and found a cached bighorn sheep carcass while examining the evidence. The grizzly had laid up over the carcass to protect it after eating when the men walked up and interrupted its nap. It was determined that the bear acted in defense of its food cache, which is within typical bear behavior.
The DNA evidence did reveal some additional information about the grizzly though. In 2007 this bear was indexed as a denizen around Waterton Lakes, as a part of bear studies ongoing in the area. This attack was the only incident with people this bear had been involved in.
As of today, the search for the big grizzly boar is still ongoing and the trail system around Crandell Lakes remains closed to visitors. Authorities haven’t indicated what they will do with the bear once they locate it, but it is safe to assume it will not be harmed given its lack of regular problem behavior.
