I seldom go to Glacier Park when I do not learn something new about the things that are part of nature.

For example, there is a wiry grass-like plant with a slender stalk about three feet tall having a creamy white bushy spike of florets. I didn't know it then but later found out this plant called "beargrass" is actually a member of the lily family
(Liliaceae) -- Xerophyllum tenax.

There is also the solitude
the clear skies
and the late sun and early sunrises
the sudden storms
trails where a mile out
there is no one else in the world but you.

Then of course there is the animal life
as varied and unexpected as one could imagine
in what we call wilderness.
My particular thrill is to be in the same landscape
as the mighty Grizzly Bear.

There were many times that I have been in Glacier and not seen a "Grizz".   There are other times when I have seen them from the comfortable distance of "a ways away".   That is of course the best way to see them.

But the truth is the minimal pump of adrenaline that accompanies you upon seeing a bear when you are in the back country, is electric. The back country is, after all, the Grizzlies' kitchen, or bedroom, depending when you come across them.

There are many things that I know about this great animal. I know that they can and will eat anything. I know that they are big. I know that they are temperamental. And I know that they are so fast that you will never believe it. There are many animals that have been clocked at such and such a speed. The Cheetah is a good example: sixty miles per hour over certain distances.

Well, the speed of a grizzly is FAST. Period.   If you are less than one hundred yards from a bear you are too close.   If that bear is a female with cubs you are dangerously too close.

There are pluses though. A grizzly attack seldom lasts more than 15 or 20 seconds.   The people who have been mauled believe that it goes on longer than that. And the doctors and plastic surgeons who put them back together take years doing it. But on the upside, seldom do grizzlies eat or even kill the unsuspecting human who stumbles onto them.   In fact if we invoke the analysis of statistics, which we people are so fond of doing, it is safer to run across a grizzly bear than to fly in an airplane.

When I say such things they are really not that foolish. What is foolish is the casual way many people act toward this animal. I myself have had no trouble finding and climbing a tree when there was a bear near me (remember the 100 yard rule). Why then do I go to such places, where this danger is real and possible?  It is rather like going to a horror movie, but not really.

There is a heightened sense of awareness
of my surroundings,
I watch things a little more,
I listen a little farther,
and I pay greater attention to what is happening
in that world
where I am only a visitor.
I am aware that I am only passing through and
there are things in the night that make no sound at all,
unless they don't care that I know they are there.