This is where I lived when I was in Mont.. Right on the edge of the Grizzly Habitat.
You just nudged a memory from my childhood
-- Once when I was a little kid, maybe 6 or 7 or so, my dad and I were out in the forest. We were crossing through a deep gulch full of mostly lodge pole pine when he pointed at a tree and asked me, "What do you think of that?". A bear had raked the tree with his claws... but it was maybe 25 or so feet up the tree from the ground. Of course what I thought was probably something along the lines of, "I think I never want to see a bear that big!", but I didn't vocalize that
I was pretty stumped.
After letting me stand there a while trying to sort out how big that bear must have been claw a tree at 25', my dad finally told me that sometimes a bear will come out of hibernation in the middle of the winter due to hunger. They'll venture out and tear up a few trees looking for bugs. --> the gulch had been full of snow and the bear was standing on several feet of it when he ripped in to the tree.
Totally off topic, I'm sure, but thanks for helping me remember that. It's a good memory.