No good title for this

If you haven't been reading this blog for too long you may not know about a certain incident that occurred in 2009 that has become cause for an annual remembrance run in Glacier National Park.  While it has become more of a celebration of friendship than anything else, it always serves as a bitter reminder of how a small error in judgment can literally bite you in the ass (or leg).  On that fateful June day, Tom, Callie and I planned to run in the Park, but Callie and I wanted to do a longer run than Tom.  There is a nice rolling/flattish trail that parallels Going to the Sun Road to Avalanche Campground -- you can then run to Avalanche Lake and back.  From Lake McDonald Lodge it's about 16 miles total, but there's a cut-in accessible from GTTS road that allows for a 10 mile version of the same run.  We devised a plan where we would meet at the cut-in and Tom would run 10 miles with Callie and me to Avalanche Lake.  We had two-way radios (since there is no cell reception in the Park) so that we could communicate.  When Callie and I arrived at the pre-determined meeting spot (fairly late I might add), Tom was nowhere to be seen.  We figured he either slept in or bailed.  He wasn't responding on the radio.  Ultimately, it was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great run and laughed and enjoyed ourselves.  Of course, later that night we learned that Tom had been bitten by a grizzly bear while out looking for us.  Unfortunately, he forgot both his radio and his bear spray.



Total stupidity

Above is a snapshot of my blog entry from that day written before I talked to Tom from the hospital.  As we left the trail we saw that it was closed due to bear danger, and obviously we thought nothing of it.  I mean, my "spidey sense" is obviously bullet proof and we were really good at identifying tracks.  Yup those are black bear tracks.  Nope, no sign of grizzly bears.  And, we did find out why it was closed.  And it was our collective fault.  (Do you like the foreshadowing about being "that girl?"  To this day, Tom gets to be "that guy."  He is good humored about it but it's still pretty embarrassing).  Certainly, we take these things a bit more seriously these days.  Yesterday was our annual group run along that same route. Now, we don't let anyone be solo.... I perform my poem (written by me and Ted together) "Bear Oh Bear" and Tom gets choked up that his friends are willing to go run in the pouring rain then snow to help be part of the ongoing healing process and friendship that ultimately makes it less bad to be mauled by a grizzly bear.

One minor but relevant lesson that I have learned from all this is that if you are engaged in an activity that is already subject to criticism, such as trail running in bear country, you'd better be careful to not give ammunition to your detractors.  Tom's incident, though he was actually standing on the trail not running when the bears became interested in him, has been used extensively as a great example of why trail running should basically be illegal and how trail runners are "wrong headed."  In these here parts there is a fair amount of dogmatic debate over "right" and "wrong" ways to enjoy nature and recreate, and this didn't help the trail runner's cause too much.  Of course, the worst bear incidents in the Park have been hikers, and more recently a guy hiking had a Tom-like incident.  It's tough to analyze how much risk is acceptable or appropriate and there is only mitigation of risk -- no total avoidance.  Sometimes these things are just dumb luck.  I still believe that recreating in grizzly habitat is just shades of risk and the factors involved are more numerous and complicated than running v. walking.  Ultimately, it's probably safer to get out there, enjoy nature and get some exercise than eat Cheetos all day and watch TV.