Bear complicates rescue of injured woman in Wyoming

A grizzly bear hanging around a trail complicated but did not stop a search and rescue team’s efforts to help an injured woman out of the backcountry in northwest Wyoming.

Park County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lance Mathess says the team successfully avoided the bear while hiking toward the victim by going off-trail around it. He said team members were at the ready with bear spray just in case as they made their way around the bear.

Mathess says the incident occurred last Friday in the Beartooth Mountains after a 49-year-old woman had broken her ankle on a hike and needed to be extracted.

The Cody Enterprise reports Patria Johnson-McGee of Lafayette, Colorado, was retrieved and taken to West Park Hospital in Cody where she was treated and released.