A sign that spring is here

It must be spring. The first grizzly bear of the year has emerged from hibernation in Yellowstone Park. I’m sure I ran into his relatives years ago.

Grizzlies, more than any other animal, are a hallmark of wild country to me. I love knowing there’s still a critter out there that just might stalk and eat me.

The first grizzly I saw in the park was at a distance. He was ambling through the sagebrush while I watched from the relative safety of a stand of trees a couple of hundred yards away. It was dusk and I was a mile from the trailhead. By the time I reached the truck it was dark and the bear had disappeared except in my mind.

A spring or two later, while crossing an open sagebrush hillside in the Lamar Valley, I spotted a young grizzly staring at me from a hundred yards. The closest trees were nearly a quarter of a mile away. I got out my camera and took a few photos to record my impending demise, then started slowly backing away. So did the bear. We kept close tabs on each other until he finally vanished over the ridge above us.

I’ve seen grizzlies in the fall, and experienced a few puckering moments, but in the fall I was always carrying a rifle. There’s some security in that. In the spring I was never armed. It was a different mind set.

The bears I saw in the spring usually turned and went on their way.

Usually.

Following an elk trail through the snow on a bench high above the Yellowstone River I looked up to see a huge bear headed my direction on the same trail. I started to pull out my camera when he saw me move and charged.

I dropped the camera and scrambled up the nearest tree. He ran to the base of the tree, looked up, decided I wasn’t worth the effort, and turned away, vanishing in seconds.

It took a few minutes to pry myself off the trunk of that pine tree and climb down.

That was about 1980 and I’ve only been back to Yellowstone in the spring a couple of times since. Maybe I got scared straight, but I doubt it. I always liked the thrill.

I live on the prairie now, far from the nearest grizzly, although a lot of folks around here are sure the bears are coming.

The first grizzly bear to emerge from hibernation was seen just last week in the Yellowstone Park. Forget the robins, out here grizzly bears are a sure sign of spring.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]