Stories about trapping bears wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t tell you about a mishap, I had with a bear trap that unhooked itself and tried to pass me in a no passing zone.
I really thought I had hooked up the trailer the way I was shown by my supervisor that afternoon.
I was driving north on the Grand Loop Road toward Canyon when to my disbelief the empty bear trap was attempting to pass me on a curve near Le Hardy Rapids.
Sparks were flying everywhere and across the hood of my truck as the trailer tongue dug into the asphalt. I hit the brakes and steered right into a pullout. Lucky me. The bear trap came to a stop just a few feet short of going over the edge and down a steep slope into the Yellowstone River.
I got out of my truck and checked for damages. None that I could see.
After hooking up the bear trap again and making sure it was secure, I was on my way again to the Buffalo Ford Picnic Area where a grizzly bear had been treeing fly fishermen for days.
After several mishaps like this one, I decided it was time to do some research on my own to get the inside scoop on taking a bear trap on a road trip. I learned that some of the early bear traps were designed and constructed without quality control and standard technical specifications.
Consequently, some traps were fraught with problems and frequent malfunctions that would provide some of us rangers with great stories to share around a campfire or better yet over a beer.
A Ranger's Journal 