Trail Runner Collides with Bear

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llholmes1948
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Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by llholmes1948 »

I think the Huckleberry Mountain Trail is about the last trail I would want to do trail running, if I did want to do trail running:

https://flatheadbeacon.com/2020/07/11/t ... onal-park/
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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by Selkie »

I noticed quite a few of the cleared trails are posted for bears frequenting.
Haven't read anything this year about the Lake McDonald-Sperry Trail mountain lion that liked to linger between the horse barns and Crystal Ford -- for the views, most likely. :lol:
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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by Sue Z »

Ouch. Like running into a furry brick wall. Glad she's OK. Not the safest way to enjoy glacier.
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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by PeteE »

I was reporting the tent campers to a Ranger on the Avalanche lake trail when he got the radio report of that incident.
Trail runners aren't among the favorites of the NPS folks....understandably so since trail running in bear country isn't a smart thing to do.
The trailer runner incident was why they couldn't spare anyone to cite the campers until later on, if they did cite them.

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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by llholmes1948 »

I think that anyone who does trail running in Glacier and collides with a bear or other wildlife should be charged with harassing wildlife and should be banned from the Park for a certain amount of time if found guilty.

How much more should we expect the animals in the Park to put up with?

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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by paul »

A few years back, a trail runner nearly collided with me on the trail a few miles from Goat Haunt. She sort of burst through a bunch over grown bushes and surprised me as I was hiking. I didn't hear her coming. At the time, I thought it would have been a bad situation if there had been a bear there instead of me.

It's one thing to run on trails that are in the open with lots of visibility in all directions but if you are doing this in the woods that has overgrowth you are asking for trouble. Sooner or later someone's going to get severely mauled doing this.
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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by brindledog »

There is a fairly wide paved path from Apgar to West Glacier, with plenty of room for runners and bikers. It's about 5 miles round-trip. We have run on it for years, and have encountered (but not collided with) a few black bear at a safe(?) distance. Visibility is good, and if you keep your eyes open and your bear spray handy, it's a nice run. Likewise, you can run loops in the campgrounds in the morning. It's nice people-watching, and you sometimes get words of encouragement, which is nice.

As a runner, I understand the desire to do so while vacationing. I do not think it's prudent or considerate to hikers and walkers to run on many of the trails in the park. Not to mention the danger to man and beast. I can't imagine a pack of 3 or 4 runners on a trail, as was mentioned in the article.

Hopefully this was a lesson learned. That whole crew was lucky.
Last edited by brindledog on Wed Jul 22, 2020 6:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by orin »

Grizzlies are like cats in that they tend to chase fast moving objects. A year or two ago in Banff, a cyclist was chased down by a grizzly. He had a can of bear spray in his hip pocket and the bear grabbed and punctured it. He was lucky. If the bear had dragged him off the bike it is unlikely he would have been able to deploy it time to avoid a mauling.
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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by PeteE »

Good point Orin.
Speaking of cats chasing fast moving objects...

The forested area all around Lake McDonald is loaded with deer, the overwhelming favorite prey of mountain lions.
Runners, especially those who like to run during the cooler hours at dawn and dusk, might want to keep in mind that lions are crepuscular.

Some animals hunt primarily during the twilight hours of both dawn and dusk, rather than during full daylight or the dark of night, making them both vespertine and matutinal. Such animals are called crepuscular.
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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by Jay w »

I've cut out running due to some back problems, but if I can start up again, I'm planning to get some tans short and top, wear headphones, and run as many of the trails at Glacier as I can. What a story to tell the grand-kids. Wrestled a grizzly and threw it off the trail.

BTW, I've seen trail runners looping Swiftcurrent wearing headphones. Maybe they're trying to qualify for the Darwin awards.

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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by zozeppelin »

Not my cup of tea (that or biking or horseback riding), but have to respect others uses as long as they respect the park. That said, horses on trails is a pet peeve (hiking around the dung, trail erosion / degradation when wet, having to give way to a person on a large animal when I'm doing the work hiking .... but I digress).

In practice, trail running seems a recipe for disaster. I was passed once coming down from the tunnel into Elizabeth by someone doing a loop in Ptarmigan and out Red Gap Pass. That in itself is impressive for a day run, but a little crazy considering bears are very common on the first stretch out of MG (and that trail section is often closed because of that).

There also is the moose factor.
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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by llholmes1948 »

For the reasons others have stated I think that trail running in Glacier is very dangerous to the runner. It is also very dangerous to wildlife if wildlife understandably have an aggressive reaction to the runner, especially a collision with a runner. It could very well result in the animal being killed.

I also think that, as in Paul's experience, it is very disrespectful to other visitors to the Park. It is sort of akin to sounding an air horn or blowing a whistle every 3-5 minutes while hiking on a trail. It is probably perfectly legal to do so but rather disrespectful to others who are trying to enjoy the Park.

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Re: Trail Runner Collides with Bear

Post by Jay w »

Instead of being snarky, I guess I could actually state an opinion. If the trail is wide open, and you’re respectful of others, fine. Go ahead and run. I’ve done it. I headed up to Swiftcurrent Lookout late in the day and it was getting near sunset before I left. I ran big chunks of the downhill. I had good sight-lines, but running also gives you tunnel vision on the trail immediately in front of you, so even if you can see, it’s hard to see well. Once I hit the wooded section, I cooled my jets (and made it back before dark). BTW, no light.

I’ve also did ptarmigan tunnel, but I definitely slowed or walked sections on the way to ptarmegan falls. This was in spite of people having hiked in front of me. It’s like overdriving the headlights. I want to see what’s ahead.

Some of the trail runners I’ve seen carry their at home behavior to glacier. So running with headphones and running through the woods. This particular runner was running on the same afternoon that traffic was stopped on the MG road due to a bear by Swiftcurrent.

I also biked up in Watertown (What’s the trail through the rock, Crypt Lake?, I skipped the boat ride), and that scared the bad word out of me. Going up a slight uphill was fine since my speed was slow. On the way home, I’m clipping along at 15 mph or so, and the shrubs come right up to the trail. No one was out there, so I was yelling the whole way. Still, I won’t do that again. Boy did I stink when I was done.

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