Park hiker attacked by grizzly

A 50-year-old hiker from St. Paul, Minn., was attacked and injured by a grizzly bear in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park on Friday, Aug. 5.

The man was hiking alone on the Piegan Pass Trail when he encountered a sow grizzly with one subadult cub as he rounded a bend in the trail.

Park officials report that he was making noise as he walked and had bear pepper spray but was unable to use it before the bear attacked. The man sustained bites to his left thigh and forearm before the bear grabbed his foot, shook him, released him and then left.

On his way back to the trailhead, the man encountered a naturalist ranger who notified the dispatch center. The man continued hiking to the Many Glacier Ranger Station where he was treated and then transported by Babb Ambulance to the Blackfeet Community Hospital in Browning.

The trail from Piegan Pass to Feather Run Falls was closed while rangers investigate the incident. The Grinnell Glacier Trail was also closed because of bears, and a sow and three cubs nearly closed the Iceberg Lake-Ptarmigan Tunnel Trail on Saturday.

The incident was the first grizzly mauling in the Park since June 2009, when a Kalispell man running on the Lake McDonald Valley Trail had a close encounter with a bear near the Avalanche trailhead.

Glacier Park officials advise hikers to carry bear spray and know how to use it, and hikers are urged to travel in groups and make noise when hiking.