Bear dinner bells...." here comes food.."!😎
Posted on 06/22/2020 11:00:39 AM PDT by SJackson
HENRYS LAKE — Gregory “Thor” Godar thought he was going to die.
As the 500-pound bear slashed his back, swung him to the ground and bit his stomach, he looked into its eyes and was sure this was the end.
“I said to myself, ‘Well, at least I’m getting killed by a pretty bear.’ She was very beautiful,” Godar says.
How the attack happened Godar and his wife, Sherry Groves, had been hiking on the Aspen Trail at Henrys Lake State Park on Friday afternoon. The West Yellowstone, Montana, couple had hiked in this area of the park before but never seen any bears. They were carrying bear spray and bells.
“I hear ruffling in the brush and the aspen trees. I look over and see brown and assume it’s an elk but out of the trees run two big fat cubs – large grizzly yearlings,” Godar tells EastIdahoNews.com. “Then I look, and there’s mama bear staring at me from 20 feet away. I go, ‘Oh s***!’ and yell to warn Sherry.”
In an “unbelievably quick” second, the bear charged at Godar. He reached for bear spray he carried at his chest but couldn’t get it in time. What happened next in something Godar says he’ll never forget.
“She paused for a split second 5 feet away from me and looked me straight in the eye,” Godar recalls. “I think she was trying to figure out the best way to attack.”
Before he knew it, Godar was on the ground, and the bear was swatting and biting. Groves turned around and saw the grizzly lying on her husband.
A bear attacked and bit Gregory “Thor” Godar in the stomach while he was hiking in Henrys Lake State Park on Friday, May 30. | Courtesy Gregory Godar “I was convinced I was dead. After she chewed on my belly, I thought she was going to crush my neck and kill me,” Godar says.
He grabbed his throat, thinking that’s where the bear would bite next, but instead, she paused, got up and ran away.
After the attack Groves released bear spray in the direction of the animals, but they stayed put. Now the couple had to get out of harm’s way.
“We pretty much assumed she would attack again, and we had to walk a mile and a half back to the park entrance station expecting she’d charge at us,” Godar says. “On the way down, we warned a lady walking her dog that there was a grizzly up there, and she didn’t believe us but then turned around and left.”
Despite the attack, Godar says he was never in extreme pain – “it was a 2-to-3 on a scale of 1 to 10” – but the tooth marks in his stomach stung, and there was a lot of blood. Finally, the couple arrived at their car and drove to the park entrance.
“I thought I was going to throw a little water on it, get dirt out of the wound and drive home to West Yellowstone,” Godar says. “I was descended upon by dozens of people asking questions – ambulance people, park rangers, the bear specialist, Fish and Game – they all had to ask the same questions over and over again.”
Godar was loaded into an ambulance and then transferred to a helicopter so he could be flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. He was conscious the entire time and remained in good spirits.
“Once the bear got off of me, and I could see I might have a shot at getting out of there, I was very happy because I thought I wasn’t going to die. I was pretty cheerful through most of it,” he says. “But my heroic wife, who helped me hustle of there, she was hyperventilating and felt like throwing up. We were both scared the bears were coming back.”
Godar was released from EIRMC late Friday night and will see a wound specialist in Bozeman, Montana, a few times a week for the next month. Big bruises are all over his body, and he puts ointment and gauze over the tooth marks on his stomach.
The couple says this won’t stop them from hiking, but they will now carry large cowbells on their backs and bear spray in their hands.
“I would advise anyone in significant bear country to not depend on having your bear spray on your hip or in your backpack. Mine was on my front, and you’d think I’d have time to get it out. I didn’t. Most of the attacks are from very short range,” Godar says. “I don’t think I will ever put it in a holster again. I’m going to hold it in my hand.”
From 20 feet a holstered handgun might not have helped much either. Pictures of wound at the link. Obviously defending the cubs, glad he's ok
Good luck with that.
I heard it was a grizzly scene.
I couldn’t bear to watch something like that.
Sorry.
I always thought I might get thrown off of here for my cussing.
I hope bad jokes and quips aren’t the final straw :)
I stopped cussing.
Ping!
I know you have an interest in these.
My friend who hunts in that area carries a holstered 10mm handgun, in case his rifle is slung on his back.
Its much faster to draw a magnum from a holster than a can of bear spray. A superblackhawk has a natural hand grip, bear spray does not. You can practice and dry fire with snap cartridges all day, but you cant dry fire bear spray. You stick with the spray, I’ll stick with my Ruger. Im in the woods almost everyday in Northern Idaho. Im sure there are instances where there is absolutely no time to draw, but if someone is with you, they will.
I knew someone who was killed and eventually eaten by a bear. Very, very horrific.
Inferior weapons just piss the bear off...
I’VE GOT A FEVER FOR MORE COWBELL!!!
There's a great picture out there/here with a gal fishing with a 44 in a chest holster. That's what I would want if I were in Grizzly country.
Bear dinner bells...." here comes food.."!😎
I always carried a 44 magnum Ruger in a shoulder holster when in grizzly bear country.
Wait....so you see a couple most likely distressed and at least one of them is bleeding from the stomach..and you’re told a grizzly is up there...and you think “nah...they’re just distraught about something else and he is bleeding profusely from something else. He probably has some disorder where he just bleeds from the stomach sometimes”. I would freaking believe them.
There's got to be a Gary Larson take on that somewhere...
I live in between Big Sky and West Yellowstone, MT, in prime bear territory, on a number of acres. I usually carry a 10mm or a 45-70 when I am working on the property. Just last week, I came across a grizzly in the woods and wasn’t carrying. He was about 30 yards ahead of me, I stopped, and he decided to keep walking the direction he was going (left to right, in front of me). I was very fortunate and highly disappointed in myself for not being protected/prepared. In 25+ years, it was my closest call on this property.
How about a .44 mag or S&W .500?
Poor bear will have a hard time passing that cowbell.
You took a swipe at humor. Had me in stitches. You really clawed your way out of some ridicule.
Probably something to do with a dinner bell.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.