Swiftcurrent Trail

June 2012



All was well when Dani, Gail, Nikki, and I set out on the Swiftcurrent Trail.





~Nikki and Dani~



We climbed up the mountainside to a rock in order to get a better view. We spotted two grizzly bears about a mile away across the valley, but didn't worry about it because they were not very close. As we climbed down the rock, several hikers told us about a moose and her calf at the waterfall up the trail. We hurried along, excited to see the moose.

We hiked for 20 more minutes and reached the shore of the lake.

Upon arriving at the lake, we watched the moose and her calf for all of 10 seconds before we saw something approaching from the woods. The two grizzly bears we had watched through binoculars came out of nowhere and began running towards the moose. The initial attack took less than 20 seconds, but it felt like slow-motion. We stood there in shock until it registered that the bears were going after the moose calf.  I knew bears were fast, but I had no clue they could cover that much ground in such a short amount of time! The mama moose raced to get between the calf and the bear, but the second grizzly circled around and grabbed the calf by its neck. The mama moose looked completely surprised to see a second bear. She thrashed around in the water trying to reach her calf, but the first grizzly fought her off while the second bear began eating the calf.



The poor little calf was making heartwrenching noises as it tried to escape the bear's jaws and swim to its mama. We were crying and my hands were shaking. The raw power, force, and speed of the attack was shocking.



The mama moose was absolutely furious and valiantly fought the bears for 30 minutes in an attempt to reach her calf. The calf didn't last long. I saw a leg go flying when the bear was ripping the carcass apart on shore.



We watched the battle until the bears ran off into the woods with what was left of the calf and the mama moose wandered off looking distressed. I have always been cautious and aware of the dangers when hiking in the wilderness. However, witnessing the grizzly attack made me fully realize just how quickly things can turn dangerous. We had seen the bears and thought they were a safe distance away (at least a mile). They were 75 yards away from us taking out the calf before we could even register what was happening.