Image by Troy Nemitz, with permission
Posted on 06/22/2022 4:36:50 AM PDT by marktwain
On August 13, 1977, Cynthia Dusel-Bacon was working for her third summer as a geologist for the Alaskan branch of the United States Geological Survey. She was 30 years old and in excellent physical condition. She was field mapping, doing helicopter-assisted traverses of the Big Delta quadrangle. She had a geologist’s hammer, a walkie-talkie radio, and a rucksack with lunch, which she also used to stow rock samples she collected.
The project chief believed “guns added more danger to an encounter than they would prevent”. Her views became policy on the project.
Cynthia later said, in a taped interview for Larry Kanuit: “She had therefore strongly discouraged us from carrying any kind of a firearm.”
Cynthia had been dropped off by helicopter. She was hiking along a narrow path on a ridge a few miles from the Salcha River, about 60 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. A “small black bear” startled her with a crash in the brush. It appeared to her, staring at her, from about 10 feet away. She yelled at it. She pounded a rock with her hammer to make noise. The bear was not intimidated. Cynthia took a step back, which was also higher on the rock.
The bear moved out of her sight, then struck her from behind and knocked her down. She had been told playing dead was the best strategy, so she did. The bear proceeded to drag her for nearly half an hour. During that time, her right arm was disabled as the bear tore and chewed on it. She was able to get her radio out of her pocket with her left arm and signal for help.
The bear managed to eat and destroy much of both her arms before help arrived. She did not resist the bear. If she had a firearm, she
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Image by Troy Nemitz, with permission
“ Cynthia Dusel-Bacon ”
🥓😂
The supply of field geologists in this day and age is quite small; they can’t afford to lose them or have everyone jump ship and go somewhere else. :P
I’m glad I read this, otherwise I wouldn’t know it’s a good idea to carry a rifle in bear country.
Similar situation, structurally, to the unexpected attack on Kyle R.
Only differnce is if he were unarmed (prey) they may not have eaten his arms but he would not have survived.
I wonder What geologists taste like?
Well, she’s certainly unarmed now.
We used to hunt elk up near Gunnison, CO and saw bears all the time. Never really had any encounter with them. Mountain Lions, on the other hand, were a different story. I saw two in the years I hunted up there with my family. One was far away. We only happened to see it because my dad glassed it as it was headed up a rockslide on the other side of the valley. The other one... that one came up behind us. My dad doesn’t get rattled. He did that day. We were lined up about 50’ below the crest of a ridge eating lunch. My dad was on my right, I had two cousins and my uncle to my left. We were spaced out about 15 yards between each of us looking down the slope into a meadow. The wind was in our faces. All was good and I was actually kinda dozing off a bit. All of a sudden I hear my Uncle yell my dad’s name and all hell broke loose. I looked at my uncle who was pointing up slope. I didn’t see it. I looked at my dad who was on a knee and had a bead on something above us. I had rolled onto my belly and was just getting up to a knee when my dad said, “It’s gone. Start backing down the hill.” My uncle took point, then my cousins, me and dad had the rear. At this point, I still didn’t know what was going on. As a 16 year old kid, my thoughts were going anywhere from bear to Bigfoot. We got down about 100 yds and my uncle stopped. We gathered up and the first thing out of my Uncle’s mouth was, “He was close. How far you think?” This is when my heart skipped. Dad said, “10 yards... maybe. I didn’t see him at first but he took a step after the boys started moving and he saw everyone else, I guess he figured it was time to go.”
My dad figured the cat had smelled us, but instead of steering clear, it came up to see what was going on. My uncle said the only reason he turned to look up slope was because he saw a pine martin haul azz past him headed down slope and he turned around to see what had spooked it. Thank goodness for pine martins!!
“One of the advantages of using firearms as a defensive tool against bears is that problem bears are killed, and cease to be problems.
They do not come back for persistent attacks after being killed.”
Works for humans too.
I bet I know what the bear was thinking while it was mauling her!
"Mmmm, bacon!"
Regards,
Beware hyphenated women. They’re not right in the head.
—> Beware hyphenated women. They’re not right in the head.
👊🏽🥓
lol
Hope that gun shunning project chief was fired.
Cynthia is just plain stupid.
Cynthia is just plain stupid.It's not her fault. It's in their DNA
Women are guided by emotion. Their emotions will cloud any logical thought they may have.
I've also read that Alaskan guides like to carry 10MM pistols.
Very interesting and well-written story!
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