The woman who was killed by a grizzly bear while camping in Montana earlier this week was a registered nurse and champion bicyclist on an “epic” summer ride along the great Continental Divide.
Leah Davis Lokan, 65, of Chico, California, had planned the trip for months and was on the excursion with her sister and a friend, according to a report by CBS News.
“She was talking about her summer plans — this wonderful wild adventure, riding her bike on, I don’t know, a 400-mile trip or something,” said Mary Flowers, one of Lokan’s friends back in Chico, CBS reported. “A woman in her 60s, and she’s doing this kind of stuff — she had a passion for life that was out of the ordinary.”
Lokan won the “expert women” category of the 2013 Bidwell Bump, a mountain bike race in her hometown of Chico, according to her bio on USA Cycling.
Two years later, in 2015, she took first place in the “Women’s Enduro 60+” category in the Mammoth National Championship Enduro race.
“When I saw that USA Cycling was offering women 50+ and 60+ an opportunity to race this caliber of an event in their age groups, I could not pass it up,” Lokan said after her victory, according to a Facebook post by Hammer Nutrition, which sponsored the event.
Her successes on the professional circuit were unequaled by a penchant for personal adventures that didn’t offer trophies or titles, friends say.
“I think she was competitive, but that was secondary to the journey or the adventure she was on that particular day,” said Mike Castaldo, president of the Chico Cycling Club, according to CBS.
By all accounts, Lokan was an experienced outdoorswoman who would often make long-distance journeys like the one she was on Tuesday along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route — described as “the most recognized and important off-pavement cycling route in the United States, if not the world,” by the website bikepacking.com.
The route crisscrosses the Continental Divide from north to south starting in Banff, Alberta, Canada, and finishing at the U.S.-Mexico border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Through Montana, the route traverses mountain passes, open meadows and rugged terrain, including gravel trails and dirt roads.
“A lot of the towns on the route, small towns in the middle of the mountains, tend to be really welcoming to divide riders coming through,” said Dillon Key, who works at Great Divide Cyclery in Helena, according to CBS. “There’s a couple farms and ranches along the way that allow riders to come stay with them. It’s kind of a communal feeling to it. Everyone’s really welcoming.”
Lokan and her fellow cyclists were sleeping around 3 in the morning when a 400-pound grizzly bear roamed onto their campsite near the post office and museum in Ovando, east of Missoula, according to Montana wildlife officials.
Lokan was “well versed in what she was doing. She knew the dangers,” Castaldo said, suggesting she may have let her guard down because she was camping near town, rather than in a remote area.
After the close encounter, Lokan and the other cyclists removed the food from their tents and went back to sleep.
But an hour later, the bear returned, pulling Lokan out of her tent. The other campers used bear spray to finally scare the animal away. Powell County Sheriff’s officials arrived on the scene shortly after 4:15 a.m.
Wildlife officials have been trying to trap and kill the bear but have been unable to find it.
Lokan’s friends, meanwhile, said they’ll miss her genuine friendship.
“She always greeted you with a smile. She was one of those people that was always up for an adventure and always made you to feel like you were the center of her attention at all times,” said Leesa Stefano, who remembers Lokan in 2006 when they both joined a bicycling club in Sandpoint, Idaho.
“We were all really excited for her, because we know what it meant,” Stefano said about Lokan’s latest ride. “We couldn’t wait to hear the stories. It’s considered an epic ride.”
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