Saturday, October 2 - Columbia Falls, MT
Bear Release
Bear release day! We loaded up in the two trucks, this time Heather and I had the dogs and the boys went on their own, and off we went to the bear release. We drove up a long unpaved road, far away from houses and civilization, and found a good spot to release Bob. We met Tim - Heather’s supervisor and uber grizzly expert - one of their technicians-in-training Lindsay, and a woman named Connie who had some bears on her property early in the season and wanted to see what a release was all about.
So. Here’s what it was all about. Since Bob is a male grizzly who hasn’t previously been trapped this would be a “soft release”, meaning we would all sit securely in our trucks and Tim would lift the culvert door and Bob would run out and - ideally - down the hill toward the river and into the wilderness. This is different than a “hard release”, where they position the dogs outside to bark like mad and when the bear is released everyone yells “GO AWAY BEAR!!” and other annoying, noisy things to dissuade the bear from venturing near humans again. They often do this for female grizzlies; especially when she has cubs. Heather says that grizzlies are so smart that they learn after one hard release - they stay far away from people and houses in order to avoid the annoyance.
But Bob didn’t need this. Though he was more agitated than yesterday and filled the air with his deep rumbling growl, he was still a zen-like bear. Poor guy just wanted to get out the culvert and back to his huckleberry lunches. I’d be annoyed too.
State Truck Gear: tracker, GPS, satellite radio, CB radio, and a tranquilizer gun
Heather, Mike, Tim, Lindsay, and Connie
Setting up the culvert trap
The release was over in five seconds; Bob climbed out the culvert and raced down the hill as hoped. Unfortunately he did so out of our line of site so this is all Mike and I saw of the entire release:
View of the release - no Bob.
Mike, thinking "this is still better than a day at the office"
Re-setting the Snare
After the release we returned to the property from the day before and set an even more advanced snare to catch Mark the Naughty Grizzly. And when I say “we”, I mean Heather, Derek, Tim, and Lindsay. Mike and I went out for a long walk around the property for about an hour. Heather made us take bear spray since Mark was still in the area, and we agreed to stay within shouting distance in case we needed to… well… shout “BEAR!!!!!!” We didn’t, though after 45 minutes of hiking around and taking pictures our ears started to toy with us.
Mike: “I’m probably imagining this, but I feel like I’m hearing a bear growl.”
Me: “Really?” My ears perked up.
Mike: “It’s probably just trucks on that road.”
Me: “Probably. But now I’m hearing it too. Let’s head back.”
I’d had all the pictures of wildflowers I could take anyway.
Grizzly Man
Auto-timer!
Pretty aspen
Foliage
As part of our walk, Mike and I wandered around the outside of the log cabin/house on which the snare was set. It's a lovely property and we were talking about how we'd decorate the inside if we lived there. So we wandered up to the front porch to peer in the windows. Out of nowhere, this horrible piercing noise filled the air:
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
We'd set off the motion alarm, which - judging by the laughter of our friendly biologist team - was put there specifically to keep bears from wandering onto the porch and into the kitchen. The noise turned off shortly after we backed away, holding our ears protectively, but the gang out back kept laughing. We're such civilians.
There are two snares expertly set in this site. Can you spot them?
Swan Lake Park
On our drive back to Columbia Falls, Heather suggested we stop anywhere I wanted for photo ops. This was nice since we weren’t on a schedule because a bear was in a snare or needed to be released, so I could stop as long as I wanted. We pulled over at a lovely park on Swan Lake and had a walk around the gorgeous scenery on this lovely day.
Lake watchers
Typical.
Pretty
Heather and Derek
Heather and Heidi
Mike and Heidi
More pretty.
The Raven
Dinner that night was a waterside, sunset view of Flathead Lake at a place called The Raven. We ordered drinks and - get this - yak meatloaf sandwiches from the local Montana yak farm. No offense to the Tibetans, but this yak meat is much tastier than what I ate in Tibet years ago.
I’m taking full advantage of Derek as a photography teacher and am stuffing every photographic trick possible into my pea-sized brain. What this means is loads of photos for the journal.
Derek and Heather
Cute doggies, waiting for their owner
The gang and The Raven
Heidi and Mike
Heidi, Mike, and Heather
Microlight and the sunset
Sisters
Us!
The Raven at dusk
In front of a cool bison statue
We ended the evening parked out in the middle of some random field, the four of us staring up at the endless stars in the Milky Way and calling out each time we saw a satellite or a shooting star.