By Dave Hamilton
Publisher
A group of hikers, 15 in total were bluff charged by a grizzly bear on Heiko’s trail Last week. They were hiking down Heikos Trail along some huckleberry patches just behind Mount Fernie, when all of a sudden the leader in the group started yelling something random. As the rest the hikers approached the leader, he told them that a grizzly bear had just bluff charged him with her cub. Before they knew, the grizzly came crashing out of the woods to charge again. The hikers started yelling and blowing air horns and the bear ran back into the woods.
The Hikers then warned the 4 hikers behind them and their dogs about the bear and after contemplating on what to do, they backed off into a large field and calmed themselves down. After waiting in the field for 10 minutes or so, they heard branches snapping as the bear charged out into the field towards them for the third time. When the bear found out there was 15 of them, it quickly turned around, stopped to take a second look, and took off into the trees again. The hikers then decided that the bear didn’t want them to pass on the trail and it was probably in their best interest to hike around. So they scrambled up the backside of Mount Fernie to traverse across the west side of that range, to Island lake.
Kathy Murrayfrom Bear Aware reminds everyone to “Keep our community safe. Manage your garbage, fruit trees and other bear attractants responsibly.”