When the question come of whether climbing a tree can save you from an angry grizzly comes up, Jerry Nelson of Casper says he’s living proof that it can.
He and a friend were chased up trees by an irate momma grizzly just north of Yellowstone National Park in 1972.
They were stuck there for what he figures was about 45 minutes while the grizzly tussled with two courageous black Labrador retrievers.
Fortunately, the men, the dogs, the grizzly and her two cubs all walked away from the confrontation unscathed.
He and his friend didn’t have guns with them that day, Nelson told Cowboy State Daily. And if bear spray existed back then, he hadn’t heard about it.
“If I were still young enough to regularly work in the field, I would definitely carry bear spray now,” said Nelson, a retired geology professor.
Not Many Grizzlies Back Then
Heading into the backcountry of Wyoming, Montana or Idaho now without either bear spray, a firearm or both would be considered foolhardy.
But grizzlies were scarce in 1972, so it’s perfectly understandable why Nelson and his friend ventured out without carrying anything for bear defense.
For much of human history in North America, running into a grizzly was a strong possibility.
Grizzlies once roamed pretty much everywhere west of the Mississippi. But by the 1970s, they’d been killed off and pushed back to just a tiny sliver of habitat, mostly inside Yellowstone National Park.
It wasn’t until 1975 that they were put under federal protection, and their numbers and range have increased steadily since.
Grizzlies In The Huckleberries
In 1972, Nelson had just returned from serving in the Vietnam War and was working on an advanced degree in geology.
He and his friend, a mining engineer, were doing assessment work on some mining claims in a remote and rugged area in Montana just a few miles away from Yellowstone.
They stayed in an old mining cabin and ventured out every day to go about their work.
Despite the overall grizzly population at that time hanging by a thread, there were numerous grizzlies in that particular area.
It was a privilege to be among the few people who got to see grizzlies in the wild back then. Nelson said he was awe-struck by the big bears, but not particularly concerned.
“I’d get up every morning, grizzlies would be cruising in the huckleberry patches just a few hundred feet away, maybe 100 yards away. They didn’t seem to pay us much mind,” he said.
Claw Marks
One day, the men had to go on a long hike to work in a neighboring mountain drainage.
Laden with heavy packs, and with the two labradors, they set off, climbing nearly to the summit of one mountain.
They passed through a cirque – basin carved out by glaciers – and crossed over into the next drainage.
There, they started to notice numerous claw marks left on trees, probably by grizzlies.
The claw marks “were all the way up above our heads,” indicating that they’d been made by big bears, he said.
They still weren’t too concerned, and just kept hiking.
‘This Sounds Like A Cartoon’
But then in the blink of an eye, utter chaos broke out.
“This grizzly sow came busting out of the brush with two cubs. They were big, yearling cubs, not small cubs,” Nelson said.
“We both dropped everything we had and started climbing trees,” he said.
The first tree Nelson climbed was a smaller lodgepole pine – that turned out to be a mistake.
“This sounds like a something from a cartoon. It sounds made up, but I swear it’s true. This stupid tree started to bend down, slowly, and deposited me right back on the ground,” he said.
In that moment, the bravery of the dogs likely saved him, he said.
“The bear and the dogs were mixing it up by then. So I ran over to a bigger tree and climbed up,” Nelson said.
Standoff
After that, a 45-minute standoff ensued, punctuated by occasional tussles between the mamma bear and the dogs.
As the men perched in the trees, the dogs vigilantly settled at the bases.
The grizzly cubs “were milling around in the background,” apparently unsure about what to do, Nelson said.
Every few minutes, the female grizzly would rush at the trees, and the dogs would rush at her.
“I didn’t know dogs would mix it up with a bear like that,” Nelson said. They were much faster than the bear. She would try swiping at one, and the other would come nip at her heels from the other direction.”
Finally, the mother bear gave up and ambled away, and her cubs followed.
Nelson and his friend climbed back down out of the trees, strapped their backpacks on and just kept going.
‘Come Armed With A Couple Of Good Dogs’
There were no other run-ins with grizzlies during that trip. And Nelson said in the years since, he hasn’t had another bad encounter with either grizzlies or black bears.
Recalling being stuck in the tree all those years ago, he said wasn’t terribly frightened at the time.
It was great having dogs that were willing to fend the bear off. And at the time, he wasn’t aware of grizzlies’ ability to climb trees.
“I always thought they couldn’t climb very well, so I felt pretty safe once we were up in the trees,” Nelson said.
Having later learned otherwise – that grizzlies indeed can climb trees when they want to – he’s all the more thankful that the stalwart Labradors were there that day.
“I guess it (climbing a tree to escape a bear) is most effective if you come armed with a couple of good dogs,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
