Unlikely Grizzly stories

Yes! Grizzly bears have been in the news lately. Editor Chris wrote about them last week and got good pictures. He also told of the pretty lady from Ireland who accidentally got hit with pepper spray during that encounter (June 30) involving The Over the Hill Gang on the Highline Trail.

Later when they all got down safely to The Loop on Going to the Sun, "Ann" was still suffering a little discomfort, so to cheer her up we gave her a Glacier Secrets book.

All these recent incidents with the big bears has led to recalling past run-ins including the time when a lady on the Iceberg Trail drove a griz off her husband by clobbering it in the snoot with her field glasses.

Happened to be sitting on the Iceberg Trail at Red Rock Point last week telling some visiting hikers griz stories and remembered one that occurred about that same place. Here's the way I wrote it 20 years ago:

"Barry Gamble was hiking to Iceberg Lake with his friend, Peggy Denial, when a Grizzly charged and started biting Ms. Denial. For reasons even he probably didn't understand, Mr. Gamble leaped on the bear and started socking it with his fists; and for reasons I'll never understand, the bear didn't gobble him up right on the spot. The confused griz backed off, and then came back for one final swat at Ms. Denial before heading into the brush.

This story was on the news the next day, and I hope some of you other husbands lucked out better than I did in talking about it with your wife.

Our breakfast conversation started on a fairly innocent note with First Wife Iris saying, "My! That man certainly was brave . . . wasn't he George?"

Without much thought I mumbled through my bacon, "Pretty dumb trick if you ask me."

"What do you mean DUMB? That man risked his life for the woman he loved . . . and they aren't even married."

"Yeah, dumber than I first thought."

The discussion took a bad turn. Iris lowered her voice, narrowed her eyes, and asked, "If a grizzly bear was chewing on me, would you run up and hit it in the head with your fists?"

"Well gee, I don't know honey. We still have kids in college. It wouldn't be right to leave them with no parents at all. As a practical matter you also know how much trouble I've been having with my elbow."

"G. George Ostrom! We are talking here about life and death . . . we are talking about immeasurable, instinctive, and unquestioning LOVE."

"Sorry Iris! I thought we were just kidding around about some Californian nut who thought he could whip a grizzly bare handed."

In spite of dazzling verbal parries and preponderance of logical testimony . . . I lost the argument. If Iris is ever attacked by anything from a gopher to a herd of grizzlies, I am committed to instant hand to claw combat.

I am only consoled by the hopeful scenario of Barry Gamble soon being married to Peggy Denial in their hometown of Cotati, California; and then him having to live out his remaining years bearing the guilty burden for all the trouble he caused to his fellow men, and of course . . . to himself."