Montana grizzly city attacks popular cyclist station – Twin Cities

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Written by Amy Pete Hanson and Matthew Brown

Helena Montt. (Associated Press) — The small town in western Montana where a grizzly bear pulled a woman out of her tent and killed her this week welcomes year-round visitors to a riverside mountain valley community best known for the “River Runs Through” movie he-she.

They come to Ovando for fishing, hiking, camping, river floating in the summer, and snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing or snowshoeing in the winter.

The warmer months also bring cyclists traversing the scenic Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail, which this year stretches nearly 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) from northern Montana to southern New Mexico.

Her friends said a break on the much-anticipated road trip was what brought Leah Davis Lucan, 65, of Chico, California, to town on Monday for a one-night stand.

Officials said she and her team were staying near the town’s post office and museum when a grizzly bear pulled her out of her tent and killed her early Tuesday morning. This was the second time the bear had been at camp that night, they said.

Wildlife officials spent Thursday trying to find and kill the 400-pound (181 kg) bear, but it turned out empty for the third day in a row.

The sheriff closed informal campgrounds across the city at least through Sunday and the city opened a fire station and church for cyclists to sleep inside. Kathleen Schwendwerfer, who owns fishing shop Blackfoot Angler with her husband, Travis Thurmond, said the town already had an old prison remodeled with some cribs.

Ovando sees about 1,000 cyclists a year traveling the Great Divide Road, according to Schoendoerfer’s estimates, with varying numbers staying overnight.

Dillon Key, who works at the Great Divide Cyclery in Helena, said the track loosely follows the Continental Divide, sometimes meandering over it on gravel roads, dirt roads, trails and some single tracks. There are also some highway miles.

Key said the route is “absolutely cool” through Montana, taking riders over mountain trails and across large open prairies.

“A lot of the towns on the road, the smaller towns in the middle of the mountains, tend to really welcome the division of the oncoming riders,” Key said. “There are two ranchers and two ranchers along the way that allow the passengers to stay with them. It kind of feels like a collective. Everyone is really welcome.”

Mike Castaldo, president of Chico Cycling Club, said Lucan, a registered nurse who worked at a hospital in Chico, California, would be a perfect fit.

“She had a really good spirit. He always had a smile on her face. She always lights up when I see you. He always hugged you a lot,” said Castaldo, who has known Lucan for about 15 years. “But I think most of her identity was, you know, out on the The bike, and enjoying the outdoors was her thing.”

She competed in mountain bike races and was an experienced road biker and outdoorsy rider.

“I think she was competitive, but that was secondary to the journey or adventure she had on that particular day,” he said on Thursday.

Another Chicco friend, Mary Flowers, said Lucan had been looking forward to his bike trip in Montana for months. Flores said Lucan took long bike rides and was with her sister and friend on the trip.

“She was talking about her summer plans — this amazing wild adventure, her bike ride, I don’t know, a 400-mile trip or something,” Flowers said. “A woman in her sixties, doing this kind of thing – she had a passion for life that was out of the ordinary.”

Another friend remembered Lucan as a free spirit with several friends.

“She always greeted you with a smile. Lisa Stefano, who met Lucan when Stefano moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, in 2006 got involved in a cycling club that Lucan used to belong to.

Stefano said Lokan was the type who would find a way to check in with everyone at some point to make sure friends knew they were still a part of her life.

“We were all really excited about it, because we know what it means,” Stefano said of riding the bike. “We can’t wait to hear the stories. It’s an epic journey.”

Wildlife officials in Montana said Lucan and two others were camping when a bear surprised them at 3 a.m. Tuesday before they roamed. Officials said the cyclists removed food from their tents, stored it and went back to sleep.

At about 4:15 a.m., the mayor’s office received a 911 call after two people in a tent near the victim were awakened by the sounds of the attack, said Gavin Russell, Powell County Sheriff. They released bear spray, and the bear ran away.

Lucan “was well aware of what she was doing. She knew the dangers,” Castaldo said, suggesting she may have let her guard down while camping in a town, rather than along the road.

“The fact that he was right in town – that’s very frustrating,” Thurmond told the Missoulian.

People camping in grizzly bear country—whether in the depths of the woods or in an advanced camp—are advised to keep food and scented products such as toothpaste away from their camp at all times and cook elsewhere.

If a bear comes across a camping site, it’s important to stay alert for the animal’s return, said Greg Lemon, a spokesperson for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Wildlife officials initially used helicopter flights to hunt grizzly. They also set large traps – made of sewers and feeding them road killers – in and around Ovando. This included traps near the chicken coop that the bear raided on the night Lucan was killed, as well as near the camp site.

The investigators obtained the DNA left by the bear in the attack and could compare it to any bruin they could trap. Greg Lemon, a spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said bear specialists and game rangers were stationed near the traps to shoot the animal if the opportunity presented itself.

“Our best chance is for the bear to come back and try to get another chicken or more food around town,” said Lemon.

Lemmon said rangers feel they can easily identify the bear, which was recorded on a store’s surveillance camera in the minutes after his first visit to Camp Lucan.

“If they see that bear in the trap and shoot it a clear shot, they may choose to do so.”

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This story has been updated to correct the last name of a Blackfoot Angler hunting shop owner. It’s Kathleen Schoendorfer, not Lundwerfer.

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Brown reported from Billings.

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