Lingenpolter Travels

It's as if grizzly bears are on exodus (from implants in the Flathead haha). Everywhere I look I see bears, on the news, on security cameras, even walking down the street. Over the summer my dad and I took a couple trips up Gold Creek, the Gold Creek by Drummond and the Gold Creek up the Blackfoot, and both times I wondered if grizzlies were in those parts.

Since then, it has been revealed to me that, yes, there are indeed grizzlies in those parts. I imagine the bears starting in Glacier Park and then crossing Marias Pass and working their way south to Hungry Horse and then through the Bob Marshall and Mission Mountains and then crossing the road near Arlee and into the Rattlesnake and then onto Missoula. 

My girlfriend is terrified of bears or botsikwee (blackfoot word) as she calls them and when walking the dog prefers to do so in-town. I prefer to walk in the wilderness, so am always offering-up suggestions in bear country. One day, to compromise, we took a walk in Missoula's North Hills, away from the woods, where I didn't think a bear would be. Everything went fine, however upon returning home we read that a female grizzly and her two cubs had been spotted in, of all places, Missoula's North Hills. And this makes perfect sense.

Then there's this - a map showing a grizzly bear in the other Gold Creek.

The FWP formally refers to this bear as Grizzly Bear 11072874 and informally as Lingenpolter. He is a 4-5 year-old male grizzly and was captured after raiding a chicken coop. Reading the map it appears that he was relocated somewhere up Cap Wallace in the Garnet Range, then collared, and then for the next couple months he attempted to get back to that darn chicken coop, but was thwarted by Interstate 90. It does appear, however, that he finally made it across under the bridge at Bearmouth and then was gone.

Lingenpolter's route from Glacier would be a little different than the mother and her cubs. For Lingenpolter, instead of taking the Missions he might have stayed left at Hungry Horse and traveled the length of Bob Marshall and maybe into the Scapegoat and maybe he emerged from Monture Creek, cruised through Ovando on his way to Helmville and eventually Gold Creek. 

Whatever the case, I wonder where Lingenpolter is right now. And it makes me think that it would be nice to have access to these collared bears' whereabouts, so I can plan accordingly.