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conrad74 Member
Joined: 10 May 2009 Posts: 85 | TRs | Pics
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conrad74
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Mon Nov 26, 2018 8:46 pm
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If anyone is interested, the entire documentary titled Night of the Grizzlies is available on Youtube. For those who do not know, it's about an infamous night in 1967 where two Grizzly attacks occurred in two operate areas of the park within the same time frame.
***SPOILER ALERT BELOW***
For those who have seen it, or read the book, feel free to chime in. I find the documentary disturbing on so many levels.
1) The relaxed attitudes toward the potential dangers of Grizzly bears. ie., feeding of Grizzlies as a nightly occurrence at the Granite Park Chalet and leaving a bag of cookies out overnight at Trout lake after a bear had ransacked the camp.
2) The words that were said and whispered during the attacks. i.e.., "Play dead..."
3) Just the way the documentary was made. t was creepy, the way it was narrated, some of the imagery, etc. I know they tried to make a couple Grizzly horror flicks but all they had to do was make this one into a movie and it would have been the Jaws of the Wilderness.
Interested in your thoughts.
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Songs2 Member
Joined: 21 Mar 2016 Posts: 200 | TRs | Pics
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Songs2
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Mon Nov 26, 2018 9:39 pm
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I have avoided reading the book or watching the film.
The events at Granite Park campground did lead to a change in bear management, which I gather was almost nonexistent previously. The Park is now managed in sections: some where human use is uppermost, some where animal use is uppermost. The many ranger-led hikes are also intended in part to manage visitors and reduce the possibility of bear-human interactions.
Trout Lake is still heavily grizz habitat. Many seasoned Glacier NP hikers of my acquaintance won't go there.
Here is a 2008 article on grizzly bear population density in Greater Glacier Area:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229874190_Grizzly_Bear_Density_in_Glacier_National_Park_Montana
The unhygienic (particularly for bears) practice of leaving open garbage dumps was also prevalent in northern New England. I never saw black bears when I started hiking in northern NH because they were all fat and happy at the town's garbage pit! A few years ago I began seeing and hearing them on the trails or in nearby woods.
A really interesting account of bear-human interaction is in Fate Is a Mountain, by Mark Parrott. He and his brothers grew up in Glacier in the distant past. One brother was among a party of 3 or 4 severely mauled on what is now the Otokomi Trail. Near death, he survived, and IIRC became a park ranger. The book is a fascinating account of life in the early Park. I am unsure whether the cabin remains, possibly converted to ranger use, but if not, one can walk to the site, on the shore of St. Mary Lake.
(Edited 11-27 to replace Lake McDonald with St. Mary Lake.)
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conrad74 Member
Joined: 10 May 2009 Posts: 85 | TRs | Pics
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conrad74
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Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:40 pm
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Thank you for the reply, the additional info and the resources!
Really interested in reading Fate is a Mountain, especially since it covers the park in the 50's and 60's.
When did they start being aware of the open garbage dumps in Northern New England?
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Malachai Constant Member
Joined: 13 Jan 2002 Posts: 16088 | TRs | Pics Location: Back Again Like A Bad Penny |
In the early 70’s the Whistler garbage dump was at the present site of Whistler Village at the end of the Olympic run (an access road). After skiing many skiers went there to watch the bears. Most were black but you could see an occasional Griz. So it goes. Read the book above when I was in working at the court house between college years. Disturbing read.
"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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monorail Member
Joined: 06 May 2012 Posts: 267 | TRs | Pics
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monorail
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Tue Nov 27, 2018 12:47 am
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I visited Glacier NP last June, while traveling across the country. I saw a grizzly wander across Going-to-the-Sun road, not far from the big campground near the east entrance/visitor center. A bit further along the road, I encountered a "bear jam." Dozens of people had left their cars in the road so they could venture up the hillside for a better photo of the grizzly that was grazing there. The grizzly seemed to be handling it quite well, but those people were waaaay too close.
Glacier gets 3 million visitors every year (by comparison, North Cascades NP gets 30,000, or 1% of Glacier's crowds). Most of those visitors don't go too far from the road. My observation is that their proximity to the road gives them a dangerous illusion of safety. I'm surprised there's not a lot more incidents, and I wonder if perhaps there will be in the near future, requiring another major adjustment to policy. I realize grizzlies aren't all raging maniacs, but they do like their personal space... and there is a LOT of human pressure in that park.
But I don't know what the solution would be, or if it's even a real problem.
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Songs2 Member
Joined: 21 Mar 2016 Posts: 200 | TRs | Pics
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Songs2
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Tue Nov 27, 2018 4:23 pm
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@Conrad74: I'm not really sure when towns in northern NH decided not to leave open garbage dumps for bears. I moved to Chicago and did not get back to hike regularly -- annually or semiannually -- until the turn of the century, when I quickly became aware of bear presence. What disturbs me most right now is the Eastern coyote.
@monorail: That would most likely be the St. Mary CG. It does sometimes close to tents because of bears frequenting. The low meadows one passes next are Two Dog Flats. 5 miles from the entrance, right about at Rising Sun CG, there is a bear route across the road to access the lake. Their route was disrupted quite a bit during multiyear work on the road, which pushed them into St. Mary CG. All in all, I feel sorry for what the bears have to put up with.
Those lakes are fine for swimming, by the way. The Parrott boys worked on some of the early tourist boats. The book has a few photos in it.
Most bear jams occur near the pullout for viewing Wild Goose Island, a few miles more up GttSR.
It's a beautiful and exciting place, even if large parts are burnt to a crisp after the last 3 summers' wildfires.
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BigBrunyon Member
Joined: 19 Mar 2015 Posts: 1450 | TRs | Pics Location: the fitness gyms!! |
Those guys in the documentary were trying to lure the bears in! There was a known heavy bear presence in the vicinity on the camp, goin' into nightfall and they put out food and slept outside in sleeping bags!! If its grizz you can't be doing that!
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