Today was the first race in the Ascent Cycling MTB Series put on by Sand Creek Sports. Mountain Bikers weren’t the only ones to show up. A mama bear and her 2 cubs wandered through the course during the Pro race during the afternoon.
I was out shooting photos of the race. My friend, Matt Simmons, was in 4th. I was expecting to come by and I kept waiting longer than I thought it should be. My first thought was he had crashed but no one else came by either.
All of a sudden my friend hanging out with me said to look behind. There was the mama bear and her 2 cubs walking across the course. They crossed a couple parts of the course and went down into a drainage.
Soon my friend came by along with about 7 other riders. By then I think the top 3 had a gap of nearly 10 minutes. In the end I doubt it made much difference if any difference in placing since the top 3 already had a fairly good gap.
Matt said he was close to the bears when he got stopped. The mama bear got up on her hind legs and was growling. He was happy when they moved on but knew they headed to where the course looped back. He wasn’t sure how long to wait to make sure he didn’t run into them again.
I also got several shots of the racers and will get some posted in the next day or two. In the meantime, here are a few more photos of the bears.
Update: I’ve uploaded several race photos. I’ve gotten questions about where I saw the bears. This map on SmugMug shows the locations of the bear photos.
– UltraRob
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Tags: bears, Colorado Springs, Mountain Bike, Palmer Park
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Cool encounter. I’ve only run across elk, mule deer and moose in the Rocky Mountains (the moose were west of the Divide), but never bear! My son has run into bear while hiking in the Colorado Rockies as well as here in California and in New Mexico.
Richard, we have a lot of wildlife here in Colorado Springs. I’ve seen a lot more the last few years than when I was growing up. I think a lot of it has been displaced as houses have been built into the foothills. A couple years ago there was a young bull moose that hung out for a couple months along the creek a few blocks from my house. There’s a fox that hunts through the neighborhood and the other night I saw a coyote just down the street. We also have lots of mule deer fairly far into the city. There are mountain lions too but I haven’t seen any.
Palmer Park where these bears were is totally surrounded by the city but it is a fairly large area. I’ve heard rumors that there were bears in it but hadn’t seen any or knew anyone who had personally seen them. I’ve run into bears a few times mountain biking or hiking at the edge of town. My parents have trouble with them stealing fruit off their trees in the fall.
Great shots….she looks like a really healthy Mama.
There’s a woman near where I live (Boulder Front Range)that got shots of a hibernating mama and cubs. With a remote setup got pics of them leaving the den for the first time. The firsat thing they wanted to do was play.
Thanks for sharing!!
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