A Wyoming elk hunter said things likely would have ended badly for her if she had been wearing her usual lace-up hunting boots when she was charged by a grizzly in the Beartooth Mountains.
As it was, Celia Easton was wearing her pull-on muck boots on Oct. 15, because it was rainy and wet that day. So, when the grizzly bit into her boot and started pulling, it ended up pulling the boot off her foot instead of dragging her away to become dinner.
The grizzly, a sow (female) with a cub, turned and fled when that happened, Easton told Cowboy State Daily.
“The boot came off, my foot came free, and that bear just swapped ends and ran,” Easton said.
“I’m not sure why she ran. I don’t know if it startled her. I don’t know if the boot snapped back when it popped off my foot and hit her in the face,” she added.
Easton later met and spoke with Wyoming Game and Fish Department personnel about the encounter, large carnivore specialist Dan Thompson told Cowboy State Daily.
It was an unusual scenario, and “luckily no one was hurt,” he said.
‘It Was Very Quiet’
Easton lives in Thermopolis and has hunted elk in the Beartooth mountains for several years.
She knows it’s bear country, and added that the level of grizzly activity in the area has seemed higher than usual this year.
“I almost always hunt by myself there. If I had somebody competent to go with me, I would take them, but I don’t. So it’s either stay at home or go hunting by myself, and I don’t want to stay at home,” she said.
As a precaution, an elderly woman that she’s friends with will sit in her truck while Easton is out hunting, and they each have two-way radios.
With her friend settled in, Easton started hiking into the woods at about 8 a.m. that day.
“It was raining and the ground was soft and wet, it was very quiet,” she said.
Branches Snapping
Since it’s grizzly country, Easton stays alert. In addition to her .308 hunting rifle, she carries a .45-caliber pistol on one hip and a can of bear spray on the other.
She moved slowly, stopping every few steps to look and listen.
She said she decided to make her way to a place where she’s frequently seen elk, a lush meadow that is bordered by thick trees, rocks and brush.
“It’s almost like a natural fence line, with one small opening leading into the meadow,” Easton said.
As she was working her way up the trail toward the opening, she heard a snap behind her.
“I heard a branch snap behind me," she said. "A big branch. Not a little twig, like a squirrel snapping something."
As she got to the opening, she heard another loud snap. She stopped and started carefully scanning her surroundings.
“Just as I scan back, right to where the trail was, here is this big old sow grizzly, with her baby, about 20 yards away, coming right at me,” Easton said.
“Her ears are pinned back, and she’s coming right at me. She’s not making any noise. She’s not growling or huffing,” she added.
Easton knew there wasn’t time to reach for her handgun or her bear spray, and she likely wouldn’t be able to get her rifle aimed at the bear either.
She also didn’t want to have to shoot the bear.
“I thought, ‘I’m not shooting this bear. She’s a mamma, and I’m probably right in her yard,'” she said.
A Split-Second Decision
Easton had a long career in law enforcement and recalled a good defensive position was to go down on her back, with her legs and her arms covering her torso.
“I was going to put my feet right in her face” in hopes that it would buy her enough time to pull the bear spray, she said.
The bear bit into one of her boots and started to pull.
“I was partly under a tree, she was trying to drag me out from under that tree, but then my boot popped off,” Easton said.
‘In Jesus’ Name, Don’t Come Back’
Then the bear and her cub turned and fled, and Easton was reminded of her spiritual faith.
“I thought to myself, ‘You idiot, you should be calling on Jesus,’” she said.
“I started repeating, ‘In Jesus’ name, don’t you come back. In Jesus’ name, stay away,’” she said.
Now wearing only one boot, Easton hunkered down behind a boulder with her pistol in one hand and bear spray in the other. She remained there for quite some time, continuing to call out to the Lord, and hoping the bears were gone for good.
Once she felt it was safe to do so, she rose and started looking around.
“My boot was right there where the bear had been, standing straight up, almost like somebody had set it there,” she said.
There were some puncture holes on the top from the grizzly’s teeth, but otherwise the boot was undamaged.
She slipped her boot back on and returned to her truck without seeing the bears again.
She's glad the encounter ended the way it did.
"She (the bear) got to stay with her baby, and I got to go home, praise God," Easton said.
“I think I’m going to put that boot on my wall where the head of the bull elk I should have gotten was supposed to go,” she added.
More Bears Than Ever?
There’s been talk among hunters this fall of an abundance of grizzlies in northwest Wyoming.
Wyoming legislator Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, recently told Cowboy State Daily that he’s hunted an area near the headwaters of the Greybull River for decades.
It’s in the Absaroka Mountains, in the same general area that Easton was in.
Earlier this fall, when he took a friend elk hunting there, it seemed like they were “wading through grizzlies,” Hicks said.
In one basin on the west slope of Francs Peak, they counted 26 grizzlies “scattered across about three-quarters of a mile,” he said.
The bears were turning over rocks and gorging on moths that were sheltering underneath, he said.
Then a sow grizzly and two cubs walked past them on a nearby trail.
“That was 29 grizzlies in one basin,” Hicks said.
A Matter Of Dispersal
Retired federal ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody told Cowboy State Daily that reports of an abundance of bears might not necessarily mean there’s been an increase in the population.
It could be more a matter of bears dispersing into more places as they seek food sources, he said.
“And they are definitely dispersing,” Neal said.
There’s a shortage of berries this year, so many bears are going into lower areas seeking alternative food sources, such as rose hips, he said.
And this time of year there is the tasty temptation of deer and elk gut piles left behind by hunters, Neal said.
Regarding Easton’s encounter, Neal said the female grizzly was likely acting defensibly, and left quickly once she determined that Easton wasn’t a threat.
“I don’t think it was because of the taste of her rubber boot,” Neal said.
Done Hunting There For Now
Easton said the run-in with the grizzly was enough to convince her not to go back into that particular elk hunting spot, at least not again this year.
She still has antelope and cow elk tags to fill, but those are in different areas, places where she’ll likely have other people to hunt with.
Easton said she’s really no worse for wear after tangling with the grizzly.
While the bear’s bite was enough to puncture her boot, it didn’t break the skin on her foot.
“I’ve got some deep bruising on my big toe. A deep purple half-moon right above my cuticle,” she said. “If that was just the tiniest taste of the power that was in those jaws, you can only imagine what it would be like if she had really clamped down on me."
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
