I hiked to Trout Lake for the first time earlier this month. It was an erie place for me to be because of the 1967 attack. I tried to locate the exact location of the campground and attack. I also thought that I would find some kind of memorial identifying the site. Does any exist?

1967 was a weird summer in Glacier Park. You have the story of my encounter. At the time, no one seemed to be isolating possible offenders. To this day, I wonder about the identity of the large, light colored brown/greenish grizzly (in the waning sun) who crossed my path, then followed me, and finally chased me. I got the sense toward the end that a charge was near. I could not have escaped that.

It was a very big, light colored grizzly. A blonde, almost. I would be interested to know if this bear was on anyone’s radar for the “most wanted” list. I did hear afterward of a bear matching this descripion who had been going through trash at both Many Glacier and Swiftcurrent around the time of my encounter. It was unusual for any bear to come down that far, especially a grizzly, but then, there it was. And the forest fires were forcing new strategies for survival.

My guess is that there was only one bear in this particular populated valley matching the general description. It was just my luck, apparently, to accidentally happen upon it, and to call him or her out (unintentionally) in a direct confrontation. I never got the sense there were any cubs around.

There might have been some other reason for the bear’s curiosity and then, pursuit. Bears are not into random violence.

During the days, I waited tables at Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. At night I was the keyboard player for a seriously middle of the road pop band at the big hotel about two miles south. I walked the distance between the two locations three to four times a week. It was kind of draining, but I was young, and I was having the time of my life. (My twelve string guitar was stolen from my cabin, but that was the only major bummer, until one night in the middle of August).

The end of the summer is fire season in most parks, and the summer of ’67 is still on record as one of the top five worst fire seasons in Glacier Park. By the end of July, the smoke was thick all over, and night was like the day, lit eerily by the red moonlight. It was totally bright out night after night, it was just like the day, except it was all red, and there was perpetual foggy haze of smoke. We breathed it for three weeks.

On this particular night, one of my musical nights, I was about halfway down the road from Swifty to Many Glacier. The weird light, the smoke and red haze. It was hard to see in distance. I was totally alone. No cars (a very isolated spot). I heard something in the woods to my right. And then the huge grizzly lumbered out onto the road no more than fifty feet from me.

We had been warned that the bears (browns and grizzlies) were being driven down from their usual spots because of the fires, and that they were likely to be looking for food anywhere they could find it in unusual places (trash dumps and the like).

At any rate, I immediately turned around and began walking very slowly and very quietly back toward Swifty. I could actually hear the grizzly’s claws on the pavement. I could tell it was about halfway across the road when it stopped. It apparently caught my scent, turned in my direction and began to slowly plod in my direction. Grizzlies can move very fast. As soon as I heard it change direction and pace I took off running as fast as I could, and the bear started sort of loping behind me. I doubt it saw me, but it smelled me.

It was at the point of panic the car actually did approach from behind the bear.(coming from Many Glacier). The driver saw what was going on, and hit the horn. The bear freaked out and headed back into the trees.

It was the only car I had ever seen in any of my walks to or from the hotel on countless evenings. If it hadn’t been on that night, just at that time, who knows what might have happened. It turns out that it was my boss returning from a business trip in Babb. He stopped of course. When I got in the door, I collapsed. He drove me back to the hotel where I was originally heading because they had rudimentary medical facilities. I was white as a sheet. They gave me oxygen.

I spent the night there recovering. And when I got back to Swiftcurrent the next day, I stayed in my cabin, and no one pried. Later on in the day I told everyone exactly what had happened.

But this not the end of the story.

The same night I was followed (chased?) by a grizzly, two girls (also employees at various locations in Glacier Park) were mauled to death, on the same night, twenty miles apart, by two different bears, while camping with groups.

There was actually a book about this night (not about my experience) called “Night of the Grizzlies.”

On…the…same…night. It totally freaked me right out when I heard this. A few of the rangers covering the Ganite Park Chalet incident were daily habitues of Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. They made sport of the time I was decompressing at Many Glacier. I left the park and came home a couple of weeks early.

So what had been a beautiful, gorgeous summer experience turned very weird fast. Not exactly the Summer of Love. More like the summer of weird.

There is more to this tale, but my fingers are sore.

Wow, what a night!