Aspen is known for celebrities, apres ski and endless luxury; however, I will always remember the morning I almost ended up as a momma bear’s breakfast at my condo downtown.
I know this statement sounds like a tale from a nursery rhyme, but I have the video evidence to prove it, which you will see shortly.
Before we get to my story, let’s review a few facts about bears in the Aspen area in general.
According to the City of Aspen website:
Aspen is centered in prime bear habitat, and therefore, the Aspen Police Department frequently is summoned to situations involving bears. Bears are wild animals and are unpredictable. While they prefer to avoid human contact, many bears have become used to spending some of their time in Aspen. Habituated bears will enter urban areas in search of human food sources. So, it is common for bears to venture into the middle of downtown Aspen during both day and night.
Even The Aspen Times wrote a story in September 2024 commenting that "Bear encounters on the rise in Aspen."
In the article, the reporter describes the increasing interactions with bears in the area:
Rachael Gonzales, public information officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, reported that from June 1 to Sept. 5, Pitkin County received 463 bear reports, with 173 involving food and non-food source property damage. This marks a significant increase from the previous year when there were 263 reports and 113 cases of property damage.
MY PERSONAL BEAR ENCOUNTER
The date is May 28, 2019, and it is the Tuesday immediately following the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
My alarm goes off at 5:45am, and I groggily get out of bed.
Today is going to be an important travel day for me - I am due to be in Vancouver, Canada for a business trip beginning tomorrow morning.
My travel itinerary is as follows:
Walk to the Rubey Park transit center to board the free bus from downtown Aspen to the Aspen/Pitken County Airport.
From Aspen, I will fly to Denver and then connect to Vancouver.
Or so I think at the time.
Before I can set off on my business trip, I need to finish the errands at the condo in order to get it ready for my next visit. My lengthy to-do list includes taking out the trash and recycling, unplugging any electrical devices and turning off all the lights.
After brushing my teeth and tying up the trash and recycling bags, it’s approximately 6:00am.
The dawn sun is just starting to rise as I leave the condo building to head outside across the parking lot to the trash and recycling dumpster.
Compliant with regulations, the condo’s dumpster is surrounded by a ten foot high wooden fence with a bear-proof lock and electrical wiring running across the top of the fence.
Foolproof against bears right?
WRONG.
As I unlock the gate to open the fence and prepare to throw the trash bag into the dumpster, I see a bear struggling to claw its way out no more than five feet in front of me.
It’s now 6:05am, and I still haven’t even really shaken the sleep out of my eyes yet.
Perhaps it was my drowsiness or perhaps my eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing, because I stood at the entrance to the trash area FROZEN IN PLACE.
For what seemed like an eternity, but was probably no longer than five seconds, I was in a trance.
I remembered the advice to slowly back away from bears, and my brain finally was able to send a signal to my legs to start exiting the area.
As the bear reached the crest of the dumpster, I slammed the wooden fence door shut and raced towards the safety of my condo building.
As I glanced back, I looked up into the tree hanging directly above the trash area and saw another, much smaller bear swinging from a branch.
All of a sudden, I realized the situation.
The clever bears had realized a way to hack the bear proofing and were simply dropping into the dumpster from the overhanging tree branches, avoiding the electrical current and fencing altogether.
The momma bear had dropped into the dumpster first, and the baby bear was up in the tree waiting to join her until I rudely interrupted their breakfast buffet.
Safely watching from my ground floor window with an unobstructed view of the parking lot, I am seriously shaken now, because the bears seem to know exactly where I have gone.
The momma bear is pacing back and forth in front of the very window where I am standing taking an amateur video.
While this is great footage, I now start to think about everything I need to do in the next fifteen minutes to catch my flight, including walking outside with my luggage where I will certainly be crossing paths with my new best friends.
I have been in lots of ridiculous situations in my life, but this one is starting to creep to the top.
What the heck am I going to do?
I make the decision to wait them out, and if I have to run to catch the bus to the airport, that’s what I’ll do.
At 6:45am, it’s been exactly one hour since I awoke and five minutes since I have seen the bears.
Thinking they must have moved on, I decide to go for it.
As I’m wheeling my roller bag across the parking lot, I notice no sign of the two ursines.
I turn the corner onto East Durant Avenue and there they are, pacing the parking lot at the condo building adjacent to mine at a distance of thirty yards.
Thankfully, the momma and her bear cub don’t see me, and I am moving at a serious pace now trying to vacate the scene (think of the 1978 Hertz commercial with OJ Simpson in the airport).
Yeah, that was totally me with my luggage in "feets be moving" mode.
Miraculously, I made my flight, but I have become very BEAR AWARE since then.
Please enjoy your trip to Aspen, Colorado and be safe out there!
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