Postcard 6: Don’t mind the Grizzlies

Hello Diana,

Since you have lived America I have to warn you. When you ever go back to the States you should really visit the Glacier National Park in Montana. I am saying this because I’ve read this article about a man hiking there and what he describes is just incredible. A beautiful landscape, breathtaking scenery and a lot of wild animals.

Now I am writing this down I remember something in the article that was causing some trouble for the writer. It had something to do with wild animals if I remember correctly… Oh, right, it was about the bears in the region. The native people told him that they don’t go there because of the Grizzlies. In the past Grizzly bears had attacked and killed people, but that was way back. Nowadays the bears attack two people a year with rarely a fatal accident. A good quota if you ask me considering the amount of tourists and hikers.

Yet scared to death, the traveller went on his hiking trip into the Glacier National Park and didn’t encounter anything larger than a very large brown squirrel. What I am getting at is that the Grizzly threat is very slim now.

The hiker hiked along the Highline Trail to the historic Granite Park Chalet, from which you have a very beautiful view on the grassy plains below. Judging on the things the traveller told me, the Chalet is a good place to hike from and to tell great stories to each other about the bears living in the neighbourhood.

Since we are also studying to become teachers, I want to tell you more about one other thing the traveller wrote about. There is this teacher who has lived there in the summer for ten years straight now at Swiftcurrent Lookout and the view is remarkable to say the least. It is also very cold up there, so that’s why not many people go there.

Now that I think about it, the teacher wasn’t in at the moment, but where should she have gone to? That’s strange. You don’t think that she… No, there is no way that a bear… Had she become one of the two people that year that belonged to the people hunting quota? Hmmm…

Diana, before you run off to Glacier National Park, read this last bit: Remember to bring your bear repellent pepper gas canister with you, just in case!!