Five days after a bear killed and dined on an elderly woman in Ouray, I am here myself. I don’t worry much about bears in Colorado mountain towns — they usually don’t want anything to do with you. Though a face to face with a Grizzly in Glacier National Park back in 2005 did get my heart pounding.
But this trip was booked a month ago and generally Colorado’s bears are pretty docile. Unless, apparently, you feed them. Take a gander at the article below:
Bear killed elderly Ouray County woman.
Monday, August 10, 2009
A Ouray County woman was killed by a 394-pound adult male bear, which investigators believe attacked the woman as she was standing on her back porch, dragged her under a wire fence and started eating her body, authorities said Monday.
With this knowledge far in the back of my mind I arrived at our hotel in Ouray and around dusk went to take a look at the on-site, spring-fed hot tubs. As I reached tub number three and stuck my hand in it I saw a bear running away under the deck I was standing on. Since he was small, maybe 200 pounds, and since he was running I didn’t think much about it. I continued on my quest when suddenly he appeared again, this time crossing straight in front of me at a distance of about 15 feet. And then he stopped and we looked at each other.
I froze. He froze. And time stopped. I have long known that A fed bear is a dead bear. But I also know that An eaten Greg is a dead Greg.
And then as time resumed, he took off again.
Our stay has just begin in Ouray, so I may see him again. I’ll try to get a picture.
