City officials are again urging the public to avoid the Rover's Run trail in Far North Bicentennial Park because of a brown bear sow with three 2-year-old cubs that have been seen travelling it several times in the past week.
A surveillance photo of the trail shot last Wednesday -- and posted on a municipal website, bears.muni.org -- shows the four bears walking single-file down the winding trail. City officials say there is "a high probability of encountering a brown bear on this trail" and are urging people to "avoid using Rover's Run under any circumstances."
Brightly colored warning signs have been posted at Gasline and Rover's Run, Rover's Run and Moose Meadows and Rover's Run and Viewpoint Trail.
The majority of trail users are bicyclists who are more likely to encounter a bear because they move quickly and quietly, city officials said.
The city has closed Rover's Run the past two summers after two bear maulings in the summer of 2008 and continuing concerns over bear encounters there. Those encounters involved a bicyclist and a jogger.
Other government agencies that manage land in Alaska, including state and federal parks, regularly have closed trails or sections of parks because of bear danger.
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com