This has been the year for bear encounters. Last month we reported two clashes near Poncha Springs, and the month before we reported an encounter near Gardner. In all three cases, the victims were asleep in their tents when the attacks occurred.
On August 21, it happened again at a campground near Hillside, about ten miles northwest of Westcliffe. Twenty-one-year old Jeffrey Flores, from Sawyer, Kansas, was asleep when a bear entered his tent, grabbed him, and pulled him outside. As Flores was being pulled from the tent, he grabbed an ax, and swung at the bear until the animal released him and ran away.
Flores was taken to the Wet Mountain Valley Clinic, then transported to St. Mary Corwin Hospital in Pueblo where he was treated and released. He sustained injuries to his face, back, left hand, and arm.
As has been the case in all of the aforementioned encounters, there was no food near the tent, but in this case there was a cooler full of beer. According to Custer County Sheriff Fred Jobe, the bear apparently opened the cooler and drank several cans of beer before entering the tent. A suspected bear was located and destroyed at about 7 a.m. the next morning.
Since our last edition, a woman in a tent near Frisco was also attacked by a bear. She was bitten on her forehead, and was treated for a nasty gash and released.
In addition, a man hiking on the Skunk Creek Trail near Boulder was injured when he inadvertantly got between a mother and her cub. When Kyle Walpole saw a cub in front of him on the trail, he started backing up, and had nearly backed right into the mother bear when he realized she was there. Mama slammed into Walpole and sent him flying, whereupon Walpole wrenched his knee. But by the time he was interviewed for the nightly news, Walpole was just happy to be in one piece.
Because the bear was not acting aggressively but merely protecting her young, wildlife officials announced that her behavior was normal and no action would be taken.
In August, bears were sighted in both Salida and Buena Vista and citizens were warned to take extra care with garbage cans, bird feeders, and other bear attractions.