When hiking in bear country, it’s wise to always pay close attention to your surroundings.
Joshua Wade Covill and his wife Stephanie were exploring Montana’s Glacier National Park recently when they spotted a grizzly bear following closely behind a hiker who seemed unaware of the looming threat.
The Covills were hiking Hidden Lake Trail on June 25, and were a quarter-mile away when they witnessed the close encounter.
Covill later wrote on Facebook, “We watched this young grizzly bear walk right up behind this guy and he HAD NO IDEA!”
The unidentified hiker probably was fortunate that this was not an adult grizzly bear. When the man finally turned around, he and the critter were startled.
“When he turned around, they both jumped backwards and the bear ran off downhill,” Covill wrote.
Covill updated his Facebook post this week to explain that the encounter ended before he had time to shout a warning to the hiker. “By the time I noticed the guy in the background when I was taking photos of the bear, it was over and the bear was going off down hill,” Covill wrote.
The National Park Service cautions hikers to “be alert while on the trail, and always be on the lookout for bears.”
The agency suggests hiking in groups and making noise while on trails to lessen the chance of a surprise encounter.
–Images used with permission of Joshua Wade Covill
