Comic from www.tundracomics.com, makes a great T-shirt.
Posted on 05/25/2005 8:27:59 AM PDT by thackney
Much of the detail surrounding the grizzly bear attack that left 52-year-old Joanne Saunders with a ripped-up leg and a broken nose is largely a blur in memory, but the Virginia tourist does recall the speed of the animal that grabbed her just above the ankle Monday in Denali National Park and Preserve.
"They're fast,'' she said. "I had no idea they could be so fast. They're just there."
Saunders and her husband, James, 54, were atop an 8- to 9-foot rock outcropping near Savage River looking for a hiking route back to the park road when the bear materialized out of thick brush below them.
"We weren't on that rock very long when he came running down and then came running back up," she said. "I didn't see him go by (the first time). My husband saw him go by. When I saw him, he was charging at me. He came right at the rock."
Both people started screaming at the bear to stop. It didn't. It kept coming, jumped up, grabbed Joanne's leg and pulled her down.
Her husband, she said, heard her body thump twice when she hit the ground, and he told her the bear tried to drag her off. That, she thinks, is when most of the damage was done to her leg. Doctors at the Fairbanks hospital spent several hours sewing up her wounds Monday night into early Tuesday morning.
"The doctor said I might need plastic surgery," she said.
She didn't know how many stitches it took to close the wound. She said she didn't want to know. Her first visit to Alaska had already proved eventful enough without that information, she said, adding: "I'm doing fine right now."
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Comic from www.tundracomics.com, makes a great T-shirt.
I don't have to be faster than the bear. I just have to be faster than you!!!
The couple had wandered away from a popular trail to hike onto a nearby ridge. They were heading back toward the trail when they found themselves in heavy brush.
"We didn't think we were really off the trail," Joanne Saunders said. "There's all sort of (animal) trails. But it was the wrong one, because we were getting into the brush.
How long before a lawsuit is filed against the travel agency all the way up the food chain to the ranger who didn't warn her in writing about the probability of becoming a snack for the wildlife.
I was walking across the parking lot of Lake Lodge when I saw a van parked out in the field near a herd of bison.
One idjit was outside snapping pics from abnout 30ft from a big bull. I yelled over that he might not wanna do that - and no sooner then I did, the beast started charging.
Well, mr shutterbug dropped his camera and made a dash for the door. He made the van, but the van didn't outrun the bull. He dented up that vehicle pretty damn good.
No wonder we used to refer to them as Tourons.
"I had no idea they could be so fast. They're just there."
Yep, bears are real quick especially when they 'materialize out of thick brush'.
Hate it when they do that.
Grizzly bears are just awesome. I would love to see one in the wild. I hope this woman knows how lucky she is.
I wish I had the incident on video - I'd send it to Vonage!
Whoops... not THIS incident, but the one in post 5!
Thanks to our wonderful Federal Government it's illegal to have a firearm in this park. We are all offically "bear food" while visiting.
I saw a TV program about grizzly bears a few years back that showed a grizzly run down a deer and kill it. They are fast !!
I wonder if she's ever been charged by a marsupial...
I was one year old.
What's this country coming to, now the bears don't even listen. I wonder if a .45 sidearm might have helped here.
Yeah....well...as I tell my grandkids.....I've lived through the BEST years of AMERICA! AND, NOW, I don't think they'd let a 17 year old work in Yellowstone, away from home, without some gov't worker following her around....we hitchhiked EVERYWHERE.....
:)
We advise the outdoorsmen to where noisy little bells on clothing so as to give advanced warning to any bears that might be close by so you don't take them by surprise.
We also advise anyone using the out-of-doors to carry "Pepper Spray" with him or her in case of an encounter with a bear.
Outdoorsmen should also be able on the watch for fresh bear activity, and be able to tell the difference between Black Bear scat and Grizzly Bear scat . Black Bear scat is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly Bear scat has bells in it, and smells like pepper.
It is identified only as a "single, adult-sized bear."
It must be difficult: "Supect has brown hair, black eyes, big teeth, and big claws. Report any such bear to the Park Authorities."
I remember reading a story about some idiot tourest a number of years ago who thought it would be cute to get a picture of his BABY girl sitting on top of a buffalo...needless to say by the time he walked away and turned around to get the shot, his baby girl had been trampled by the buffalo. I think this was actually in some of the literature we got at the park when we visited in the early 90's. Some people are just clueless.
Mama
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