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Thread: Bear kills woman in Ovando, Mt.

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    Bear kills woman in Ovando, Mt.

    This really hits close to home.
    The Tour Divide mountain bike race for the most part follows the Great Divide Mountain bike Route. I've ridden most sections of it in Canada as well as the majority of the upper parts of Montana. In 2018,my son and I finally pedaled into the small town of Ovando. It is a speck on the map but the guy who runs the Blackfoot Angler fly Shop started catering to cyclists by stocking bicycle repair components. As a point of interest, in long distance cycling, we use satellite trackers which report our position every 5 to 10 minutes. He also has a webcam so people following the racers dots on a map can see them come through town. My son and I stopped and waved at the webcam before we went into his shop where I bought some trout spoons for use here at home. Gotta help the small businesses.

    My wife told me about the woman being killed but hadn't read the part where she had been on a long distance cycling trip. Us long distance cyclists have lost one of our community.

    https://www.foxnews.com/science/griz...tana-kills-her
    “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy badguybuster's Avatar
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    I was near there a month ago looking at a farm. Makes me kinda glad I didnt buy it

  3. #3
    Boolit Master
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    Sorry to hear about the attack. It’s a shame that some folks go out into bear country and have no protection. Glad some of them at least had bear spray and ran him off and didn’t become the 2nd course. Why they moved food away from their tent after the bear woke them is sad too.
    You always hang your food high and away from your tent, right ?

    Mike

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by myg30 View Post
    Sorry to hear about the attack. It’s a shame that some folks go out into bear country and have no protection. Glad some of them at least had bear spray and ran him off and didn’t become the 2nd course. Why they moved food away from their tent after the bear woke them is sad too.
    You always hang your food high and away from your tent, right ?

    Mike
    Did you read the article? The attack was sudden enough to happen before anything could be done. And it also happened next to the post office in Ovando - not 15 miles from the trailhead.

    Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

  5. #5
    Boolit Master scattershot's Avatar
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    Sorry.
    Last edited by scattershot; 07-08-2021 at 09:51 AM.
    "Experience is a series of non-fatal mistakes"


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  6. #6
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    They were camped near the post office not next door to it and the bear woke them the first time through. The campers then decided it would be wise to move their food out and away from the tents what they should of done to start with not after. The bear came through twice the second time cost a life after the first time there would of been a roaring fire going for the rest of the night and me and a couple of my boys would have been spelling each other on watch.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master
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    When a bear decides that he will make a meal of you, options diminish in a hurry. Cyclists, being very careful of the weight they carry, are not likely to be armed. And town bears who exist on garbage are not particularly wary of humans. Bears who visit town should be put down. Being in town, they most likely had let their guard down. Awful way to die.

  8. #8
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    From a reply posted to the article in the OP's link:

    MoseyPCT writes 2 hours ago:

    I was riding with her on the Great Divide Trail that passes through Ovando. Leah was my best friend and she lived in northern Idaho for many years before moving to California for a job. I'm a Montana native but have also lived and worked in California. I now live in Eureka, Montana near the boarder. During our trip from the Canadian boarder to Ovando we camped in different settings from campgrounds to wilderness camps and Leah was very bear aware. One night, in a wilderness camp, she and her sister, cooked well away from their tent and then hung their food about 3 hundred feet away. Other nights, in campgrounds, we used food storage boxes that are provided in some campgrounds. She didn't have any food in her tent the night she died. Know, that she was out doing what she loved and that she was a loving person, a friend, a daughter, a sister and a nurse, who at one time may have helped someone you love. The community of Ovando is devastated at this time but on the morning of the bear attack all I saw there was love and compassion for myself, Leah's sister and all who were present. So, have some compassion and let us mourn for the loss of our friend.
    The bear has not been located and will be killed.

    FWP wardens and bear specialists will continue to monitor the area closely, and efforts to find the bear are now focusing on traps near Ovando, they added.

    "At this point, our best chance for catching this bear will be culvert traps set in the area near the chicken coop where the bear killed and ate several chickens," said Randy Arnold, FWP regional supervisor in Missoula.

    DNA from the bear was also collected at the scene of the attack and will be analyzed, wildlife officials said. They added that if the bear is caught in one of the traps, DNA can be "quickly" compared to determine if it was the same animal.
    _____________________________________

    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...
    Last edited by DougGuy; 07-08-2021 at 10:26 AM.
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  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    In the years that I have passed through these areas, we are ALWAYS bear aware. Bear spray is a must but as we've flown into Canada, carrying a firearm is not an option.
    I am surprised that Ovando doesn't have bear boxes. Most places where I've stayed have them and we use them every time. When my son, myself and a friend rode through in 2018, we camped off of the WigWam river in the heart of grizzly country. All food went into a bag way up the air away from camp.
    They likely felt that they'd be safe in town.
    Very sad.
    “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

  10. #10
    Boolit Master
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    I’m very sorry I stand corrected ! I read the artical but did not see what Doug guy posted.

    My limited interactions with “Sum” cyclers made me jump to a wrong conclusion!

    Mike

  11. #11
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    Bear Attacks are extremely fast and violent. I know. I searched many wounded Grizzlies and Black Bears during my Guiding Career.

    In Bear Country I always carry a powerful Gun. If I Tent, if at all possible I will set up a Bear Alarm trip wire (Bear Banger type) and hang a LED Light up a Tree all night so I be able to see when TSHTF during nighttime.

    Never ever ever cook in the Tent you are sleeping in, avoid smelly Foods and store your Food high up Rope suspended at least 15 Ft. high between 2 Trees at least 100 feet away from your Tent

    Cheers

  12. #12
    Boolit Master
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    This is predictable.

    We can either hunt these animals to create the fear they need to avoid us under benign circumstances (not a momma and cub issue) or expect much more examples until the common sense the good Lord gave new born babies kicks in .......

    I will stick with powerful wheel guns and avoid areas where personal self defense is restricted in the mean time.

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  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by cwtebay View Post
    Did you read the article? The attack was sudden enough to happen before anything could be done. And it also happened next to the post office in Ovando - not 15 miles from the trailhead.

    Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk
    I read it it was not a surprise as at 3 am the bear was scared off and then they removed food from the tent and went back to bed.

    The must all went to bed and left no watch and moving the food was way to late as it shold never been in the tent in the first place.

  14. #14
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    We have bears all over town that come in from the national forest that surrounds us. They love the garbage that the stupid people leave out in the trash bins. I always tell visitors to not put out garbage until collection day and if they must then pour some clorox on it to discourage the bears. Bears are getting bolder, we had one in the front yard on Monday evening before sunset. I yelled and and threw rocks at him but he ignored me.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by myg30 View Post
    I read the artical but did not see what Doug guy posted.

    Mike
    Above the solid line is pasted from the article below the solid line is my own text, not part of the article.
    Got a .22 .30 .32 .357 .38 .40 .41 .44 .45 .480 or .500 S&W cylinder that needs throats honed? 9mm, 10mm/40S&W, 45 ACP pistol barrel that won't "plunk" your handloads? 480 Ruger or 475 Linebaugh cylinder that needs the "step" reamed to 6° 30min chamfer? Click here to send me a PM You can also find me on Facebook Click Here.

  16. #16
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    This was about a hundred miles from my cabin. Ovando lies right next to the Clearwater Wildlife Refuge and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and it is a known bear corridor. Upslata Lake is a notorious area for griz, just a few miles away. I had never heard of bear problems right in Ovando before, but it has probably happened. For people living around bears, it is just a part of life you deal with. Always be armed and aware.
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  17. #17
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    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.
    West of Beaver Dick's Ferry.

  18. #18
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    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.
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  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by trebor44 View Post
    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.
    Some of you are so ridiculous, no compassion for a person who made a mistake. 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. Of course they are all over Alaska as well. Most of their range is in western Canada. They used to be through most of the western and central USA, but the Europeans couldn't live among them like the native Americans could, so they killed every last one of them, right along with the wolves.

    I'm not a tree hugging hippie, but they deserve to live, same as us. A hunting season would be a good start at stopping any more expansion of their current range. It won't give them any fear, no matter how macho you think you are. Realistically how many tags would be allowed? 10 per state? It would be an extreme trophy hunting gig, probably mostly resident only, maybe a single non-resident tag. Nobody is going to burn their once in a lifetime tag on the local garbage stealer.

    It really sucks that people will not accept what happened, and move on with their lives in a positive manner. Instead, now there is a giant trapping operation involving DNA testing to kill a bear. If the bear is not around anymore, let it be. It isn't evil. It's just... a bear. It didn't have a disease or a bad attitude. It wanted food, and it got food. The mistake this woman made was being in the way of the food, and not being the slightest bit of a deterrent.

    Don't corner animals, don't stand in the way of the food they want, and give them a reason not to be messed with. That solves 98% of the attacks ever by all animals. Over 1% more could be solved by shooting and killing them. There will always be a small portion that will get someone anyway. Drowning in your own fluid on a hospital bed (pneumonia) is a horrible way to die. Bleeding out inside of your skull in a hospital bed is a horrible way to die. Being burned alive is a horrible way to die.

    Being clobbered, and eaten by a brown bear is not that bad of a way to die.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master FISH4BUGS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DougGuy View Post
    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?
    My guess is you are one that sees exercise as something you try until the urge goes away.
    If you have to have it explained about cycling, then I would suggest you just sit in your recliner, eat your chips and wash them down with a beer.
    I know people in their 90's that still cycle and are probably in better shape than you are.
    Collector and shooter of guns and other items that require a tax stamp, Lead and brass scrounger. Never too much brass, lead or components in inventory! Always looking to win beauty contests with my reloads.

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