Bear kills woman in Ovando, Mt.

[bakerjw]

I am going to speculate and say there is now one less democrat who is obviously smart enough to know better than to go into the wild without a firearm. You can't teach these people NOTHING they know all they need to know already.

On the other hand, isn't that kind of cycling a bit extreme for someone 65 years of age? I mean, what is left to prove at that age? So at first you wonder why she (or at least one or two others in the party) didn't have a gun, and then you back up and wonder why was she even out there in the first place?

Sorry, just thinking out loud...

She was actually from Idaho and recently moved to California so no assumptions can be made that she was a liberal.

In 2018 when my son and I arrived in Helena, we met Candace. IIRC, she was 67 and had spent the previous 3 to 4 weeks cycling up from Antelope Wells N.M which was in the range of 2,000 miles. She eventually finished in Banff at 2,800+ miles. I say kudos for anyone that can put in that kind of mileage and doing it solo no less. If they are older, then even better.

Every trip up there, I have only had my bear spray. Were I to fly directly into Montana, I'd probably bring along a handgun; however, bear spray would be my first choice. Put a cloud between you and the bear and it is very effective.

[dverna]

Just a sad story and should serve as a wake up call for folks. I am a firm believer in being armed in bear country if you can do so legally.

[gpidaho]

This is exactly why I don't support the transfer of more Grizzly bears into central Idaho wilderness so the Greenies can have a more balanced ecosystem. If they want the bears, put them in there back yard. Gp

[cwtebay]

Lots of transitory bears near Ovando. A few miles east is a long corridor heading up to the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wilderness areas. W of there hunters have been stalked and killed near the Blackfoot drainage. Ovando has about 40 frost free days a year, bears eat what they can find. The town dump is a ways out of town, IIFC about 5 miles south. No hard vehicle to get into or store things, stuff happens.
What isn't mentioned is that MT is full up with squatters these last two summers. Every turn out you see in the hills has outsiders staying there. Water sells out at Costco as fast as it gets in. What these folks are doing with their garbage and waste isn't being checked. There are hardly any places for working folks to camp as the invaders have taken all spots to squat in for the summer. Bears are becoming accustomed to human food.

You ain't just whistling Dixie!!! Where we run our cows has had dozens of permanent squatters since last May.
We finally took it upon ourselves to clean up the heaps of trash left - and it continues to be a problem. I do believe that the past year will affect bear behaviour for years to come.
The bears that have formally been transients are figuring out that these places are a lot easier place to make a living.

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[david s]

As you travel east on highway 200 from Missoula Mt. to Orvando if you turn left down the forest service road called Montoure instead of right into Orvando after about 7 miles you'll come to a drainage called Dunham/Lodgepole. This drainage has the highest concentration (not the highest number but more per square mile) than any where else in the lower 48 states. When hunting during the early season rifle control elk hunts in September on Two Creeks Ranch about 4 miles from Orvando down Montoure road you'll be told that when you get an elk don't go out and gut it but go get the ranch manager and he'll take you out on there tractor to get your elk and help keep an eye out while you gut it. Your told this because there will be a grizzly on your downed elk in 15 minutes or less. The last fatal grizzly attack was about 15-20 years ago about 20 miles west on Boyd mountain by the Clearwater junction turn off of highway 200. A bow hunter had killed a cow elk and was dragging it to his rig when he was attacked and killed be a sow with cubs. This whole area isn't Alaska but there are more than a few grizzly in the woods here.

[popper]

yrs ago @ molas lake I met a couple on their honeymoon, cycling. Couple back met a guy cross country cycling from Vermont IIRC on his way to Ca. via Tx. Mid 60s. Not my style but hey, their life.

[Gator 45/70]

Hey in the free state of Louisiana we have no limits on grizzlies and no season so that means its 365 days open season on Grizzlies.

[david s]

Montana's tapir seasons open year round no limit either.

[bakerjw]

As you travel east on highway 200 from Missoula Mt. to Orvando if you turn left down the forest service road called Montoure instead of right into Orvando after about 7 miles you'll come to a drainage called Dunham/Lodgepole. This drainage has the highest concentration (not the highest number but more per square mile) than any where else in the lower 48 states. When hunting during the early season rifle control elk hunts in September on Two Creeks Ranch about 4 miles from Orvando down Montoure road you'll be told that when you get an elk don't go out and gut it but go get the ranch manager and he'll take you out on there tractor to get your elk and help keep an eye out while you gut it. Your told this because there will be a grizzly on your downed elk in 15 minutes or less. The last fatal grizzly attack was about 15-20 years ago about 20 miles west on Boyd mountain by the Clearwater junction turn off of highway 200. A bow hunter had killed a cow elk and was dragging it to his rig when he was attacked and killed be a sow with cubs. This whole area isn't Alaska but there are more than a few grizzly in the woods here.

In 2018 after leaving Seely Lake, my son and I climbed onto a plateau up that way and took it parallel to the highway. Ranches and stuff up there. It's sights like that that make me love Montana.

[david s]

If you get up around Seely again take the Cottonwood road (it ties into Montoure road) out of town to the Cottonwood lakes, there's a forest service road between the first two Cottonwood lakes off to the left (can't remember the name at the moment) that takes you up to a fire look out cabin. From up there to the west you can look down on whole Seely/Placid lake area and to the south east it looks out over the whole Blackfoot Valley area. It's a pretty amazing view.

[Krag 1901]

Well, I don't think the woman was foolish to think she could sleep in so close to town unmolested. That was just her luck, bad, but her's. It might have been good for her to have bear spray, but she probably didn't have time to find it and use it if a 400 pound Grizz was dragging her out of the tent.
Stuff happens.

[david s]

There use to be an old video like VHS/VCR old video of a teen doing ranch irrigation work in an alfalfa field on an ATV just outside of Orvando during the early spring. The video follows the kid on the ATV as he rides along and shows animals out in the field grazing like cattle. Except there not cattle the alfalfa field is full of grizzly bears. The bears don't pay any more attention to the ATV than the kid does to the bears. For the life of me I can't find it. Every time you type ATV and bears into a search engine you get the Yamaha Grizzly ATV. It's an interesting video though.

[1hole]

Wilderness living has gotten so protected and tame in the last hundred years that it seems like an entirely different planet. It's sad that some bears haven't gotten the word.

I've long been surprised that so few incidents occur with black bears in the Great Smokey Mountain Park and Applachian trail; there's a LOT of people and a LOT of bears.

[Mal Paso]

A small portion of the corners of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho are the only places you will find brown bear in the lower 48 states. Sometimes they wander a little farther, and I've heard of them just over the border into Washington.

And the one on South Fork Ridge in California. The photo I posted of his poo pile was my most downloaded photo. LOL His paw prints were over 8 inches. After years of just signs I finally saw him sneaking past camp. The 44 Redhawk he talked me into years before was on my hip with Elmer's full load and his #503. He was huge with a mottled coat, like he was shedding. He was stealthy but there were a lot of dry cedar branches under the oak leaves and when he put his full weight on one it would crack like a 22. I had been hearing him for the last 40 minutes and didn't know it. More familiar with deer sounds. I pulled up short when I saw him about 30 feet away, below me and headed away. He was gone by the time I got around the cabin. The neighbor says some hunters shot and left him, I'll have to ask where and see if I can find the bones. He was never a problem and there were no black bears when he was around. One of the blackies ate my dish soap last trip. One more thing to hide.

[cwtebay]

It's a bear, you are food! Bears have been eating folks for a long, long, time. Dumb people behavior, food in a tent, really?

There are so much info on what a human should do when traveling in 'bear country' (which is most of the USA) that this is really worthy of a Darwin award.

(she was 65, pretty sure age already gave her that award)

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[waksupi]

From a reply posted to the article in the OP's link:

MoseyPCT writes 2 hours ago:




On the other hand, isn't that kind of cycling a bit extreme for someone 65 years of age? I mean, what is left to prove at that age? So at first you wonder why she (or at least one or two others in the party) didn't have a gun, and then you back up and wonder why was she even out there in the first place?

Sorry, just thinking out loud...

Not so extreme. A lady friend of mine is 63. In the past few years, she has hiked the full length of the Pacific Crest Trail, walked over to Montana, then hiked the Continental Divide Trail to the Mexican border. This year, she is doing the Appalachian Trail. She just loves the wild country.

As far as bears being limited to a small area, they have expanded their territory clear over to the Sweetgrass Hills in Montana.

[megasupermagnum]

The sweetgrass hills is pretty much right in where I would expect them to be, based on what I've seen of reports. They weren't there 10 years ago? Either way, you have to admit the area you will find brown bear in the lower USA is pretty small compared to the guy who said " 'bear country' (which is most of the USA)".

Northern California, now THAT is impressive, although surely one that wandered off. It always amazes me how animals can make it such distances without being seen. To get to Mal Paso's home turf, it would have had to cross the bulk of Idaho, thorough a chunk of either Nevada or Oregon, much of which is very open country, and still make it through a decent area of California.

I still stand by my first post that hunting probably wont change much, but it would be a good way to keep them in whatever range the states want them in. I'd apply for a tag for sure, I bet they taste good.

[trebor44]

I stand corrected: https://geology.com/stories/13/bear-areas/
I just don't understand why those "ghost bears" are in Boise and other 'non populated' areas! Those "experts" might know, or did they (the bears) not check on the internet where they are supposed to be?

[gpidaho]

Black bear meat can be very good if taken and prepared properly but Grizzly isn't something one would want to consume short of a survival situation. Their diet consists to a much greater extent of carrion than that of black bears and the grizzly meat is full of worms, not to mention the cysts of trichina. Gp

[megasupermagnum]

Black bear meat can be very good if taken and prepared properly but Grizzly isn't something one would want to consume short of a survival situation. Their diet consists to a much greater extent of carrion than that of black bears and the grizzly meat is full of worms, not to mention the cysts of trichina. Gp

Bunk. You do realize brown bear are regularly hunted in Alaska and eaten? Every person I've ever heard describe it, puts it as decent to very good taste. Who cares about Trichinosis? Tons of animals I eat can have it, including black bear, you simply have to cook them to 160 degrees. In pork, the new recommendation is 145 degrees. They are not hard to kill. It's the same stuff pigs get, and nobody ever worries about bacon. Even squirrels can have it.

Me thinks an Idaho local is trying to scare others from applying if they ever go through with a hunting season. Yep, and our ducks eat nothing but weeds and lead shot, they taste like mud. No need to eat ducks or hunt South Dakota.