The Bear Encounter I Think About Every Single Season
Howe's The Hike?
295,170 views
Ten years of backcountry travel. Dozens of bear encounters. One grizzly on Divide Pass that I still think about every time I step into bear country.
This is a behavioral case study from a solo encounter I documented in real time — Clearwater-Red Deer Circuit, Day 4, 58km in. Three charges. One bear. Four behavioral flags that still don't match anything I'd seen before or since. And what I found out two and a half years later that changed the weight of that day entirely.
This isn't a dramatic retelling. It's what I documented, what I observed, and what I think is worth adding to your vocabulary if you travel in bear country.
What this video covers:
→ Why your voice can escalate a bear encounter instead of de-escalating it
→ Reading posture, not just movement — the stiff-legged stare and what it actually signals
→ Post-retreat surveillance as behavioral information worth acting on
→ The four flags I've thought about every single season since
→ What it means to encounter a resident animal with a lifetime of territory on a specific passIf you're planning a route in this area or anywhere in bear country — drop it in the comments. I answer every one.
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🐾 WATCH NEXT ON THIS CHANNEL
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The six encounters that led to this video — including the first time this grizzly appeared on the channel:
▶ 6 Wildlife Encounters From 10 Years in the Backcountry → The Wildlife Encounters I Still Think Abou...For the decision-making framework behind how I navigate terrain like this:
▶ Why Most Backcountry Rescues Aren't About Bad Luck → Why Most Backcountry Rescues Aren't About ...
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📍 ABOUT THIS CHANNEL
────────────────────────────────────
Howe's The Hike? documents remote Canadian backcountry travel — the routes, the decisions, the gear, and the wildlife. As a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, I aim to give you something more useful than a highlight reel: real terrain, honest assessments, and the frameworks that actually keep you out there safely.Subscribe if that's what you're looking for.
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Join the Patreon community → Patreon: howesthehike
🛍️ MERCH — Howe's The Hike?
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🔗 AFFILIATE LINKS
These cost you nothing extra and help keep the expeditions going.
🇨🇦 MEC (Canada): https://alnk.to/btnkVxS
🇺🇸 REI (USA): https://rei.pxf.io/DyB6qq
#grizzlybear #grizzlybearencounter #bearsafety #backcountryhiking #canadianrockies #banffnationalpark #wildlifesafety #hikingsafety #solobackpacking #backpacking
0:00 Intro
0:15 The backstory
0:42 Revisiting the Divide Pass encounter
2:01 Day 4: The Clearwater-Red Deer Circuit
3:08 The encounter begins — three charges
7:42 Four behavioural flags
10:57 What happened after
11:52 What I found out two years later
13:28 The weight of that day
15:04 What to add to your vocabulary
17:53 What I take from all this
20 Comments
Grizzly: "Well, I smelled him a long time before I heard him, and I was just going to leave him alone, but you can only hear "Hey bear" so many times before it really starts getting on your nerves.
Something I should have included in the video — and it matters for the full picture.
The bear was approximately 25 years old and in poor physical condition at the time of this encounter. She was likely in, or approaching, hyperphagia — the state of extreme caloric demand bears enter in the weeks before hibernation. A bear under that kind of physiological stress is operating under a completely different set of pressures than a healthy, well-fed animal.
Standard deterrence assumes a bear that has options. A food-stressed animal in poor condition, late in the season, may not respond the way the protocols predict — which is exactly why her behaviour didn't fit any pattern I'd seen in ten years out there.
This context reframes every behavioural flag I described in the video: the stiff-legged posture, the repeated charges triggered by voice, the sustained surveillance after I'd already given significant ground. She wasn't behaving erratically. She was behaving like an animal under extreme physiological pressure, with very little margin.
Know your area. Know the season. Know the condition of the animals in it. And pay close attention when something feels fundamentally off — because sometimes it is.
This is why I still think about this one.
I’ve had only one encounter with a bear that repeatedly charged me. It was not in the back country but on a golf course — on the green of all places. It was a 3-year-old black bear, probably first summer without mom, and people had been feeding it. I walk when I golf and I was alone in the half light of that summer night. The bear came silently at me from behind and I had to fight it off with my putter. I would swing it like a baseball bat when the bear repeatedly entered my personal space. It would stop just short of getting hit, but it kept coming. Fortunately a guy in a riding golf cart finally came along and we scared it off. It was killed by authorities a few days later when it got aggressive with other golfers.
You never know what bear you are going to get. I remember mostly its cold, black indifferent eyes.
I follow Stan Mills a grizzly videographer on YouTube and you never see him waving his hands and yelling out bear. He is extremely observant and respectful of the bears and most often just removes himself quietly from the scene. Just sayin’…..
The Bear Encounter I Think About Every Single Season
Howe's The Hike?
295,170 views
Ten years of backcountry travel. Dozens of bear encounters. One grizzly on Divide Pass that I still think about every time I step into bear country.
This is a behavioral case study from a solo encounter I documented in real time — Clearwater-Red Deer Circuit, Day 4, 58km in. Three charges. One bear. Four behavioral flags that still don't match anything I'd seen before or since. And what I found out two and a half years later that changed the weight of that day entirely.
This isn't a dramatic retelling. It's what I documented, what I observed, and what I think is worth adding to your vocabulary if you travel in bear country.
What this video covers:
→ Why your voice can escalate a bear encounter instead of de-escalating it
→ Reading posture, not just movement — the stiff-legged stare and what it actually signals
→ Post-retreat surveillance as behavioral information worth acting on
→ The four flags I've thought about every single season since
→ What it means to encounter a resident animal with a lifetime of territory on a specific passIf you're planning a route in this area or anywhere in bear country — drop it in the comments. I answer every one.
────────────────────────────────────
🐾 WATCH NEXT ON THIS CHANNEL
────────────────────────────────────
The six encounters that led to this video — including the first time this grizzly appeared on the channel:
▶ 6 Wildlife Encounters From 10 Years in the Backcountry → The Wildlife Encounters I Still Think Abou...For the decision-making framework behind how I navigate terrain like this:
▶ Why Most Backcountry Rescues Aren't About Bad Luck → Why Most Backcountry Rescues Aren't About ...
────────────────────────────────────
📍 ABOUT THIS CHANNEL
────────────────────────────────────
Howe's The Hike? documents remote Canadian backcountry travel — the routes, the decisions, the gear, and the wildlife. As a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, I aim to give you something more useful than a highlight reel: real terrain, honest assessments, and the frameworks that actually keep you out there safely.Subscribe if that's what you're looking for.
⛺ SUPPORT THE EXPEDITIONS
Join the Patreon community → Patreon: howesthehike
🛍️ MERCH — Howe's The Hike?
https://howesthehike.ca/shopping
🔗 AFFILIATE LINKS
These cost you nothing extra and help keep the expeditions going.
🇨🇦 MEC (Canada): https://alnk.to/btnkVxS
🇺🇸 REI (USA): https://rei.pxf.io/DyB6qq
#grizzlybear #grizzlybearencounter #bearsafety #backcountryhiking #canadianrockies #banffnationalpark #wildlifesafety #hikingsafety #solobackpacking #backpacking
0:00 Intro
0:15 The backstory
0:42 Revisiting the Divide Pass encounter
2:01 Day 4: The Clearwater-Red Deer Circuit
3:08 The encounter begins — three charges
7:42 Four behavioural flags
10:57 What happened after
11:52 What I found out two years later
13:28 The weight of that day
15:04 What to add to your vocabulary
17:53 What I take from all this