Posted on 09/11/2005 4:46:29 PM PDT by Archidamus
•As he's mauled by the bear, the marathoner can think only of his youngster's safety
In the split second before he saw the grizzly's fangs, Johan Otter heard his daughter Jenna's startled voice.
"Oh NO!" Jenna Otter, 18, had been hiking just ahead of her dad as they zigzagged up the steep switchbacks of the Grinnell Glacier Trail at Glacier National Park on Aug. 25. As she turned a blind corner just above the tree line, she stumbled into the path of a sow with two cubs.
The mother bear surged straight for the man. Her teeth sank into his right thigh, and her long claws raked his face, shattering his right eye socket.
In the surreal moments that followed, he tried to keep the bear focused on himself.
"Stay with me," he remembers thinking. "Just don't go to Jenna."
And so the bear, and the 43-year-old hospital administrator from Scripps Memorial Hospital, locked in an ancient battle hardwired into each of their genes: Protect your young at all costs. Even your life.
Otter, a marathoner, threw himself 30 feet down an embankment with the bear in pursuit to try to get further away from his daughter. The bear, estimated at about 400 pounds, landed on top of his back.
She had an "out of this world strength," said Otter. "I was like a rag doll, and I weigh 185 pounds." She flung him back and forth. By then, he could feel his spine had fractured. (Doctors would later find five breaks.)
Frantic, he tried to cover his head with his arms, as hikers are warned to do by park rangers.
"I felt her tooth go into my scalp," he said. Then he felt his scalp rip clean away.
Otter recounted his ordeal last week from Harborview Medical Center where surgeons bolted his battered body back together.
With his head clamped in the bear's jaws, he could hear his skull crack. And just as suddenly, he felt the bear release him.
He lay wedged into a stream, on a small embankment 50 feet below the trail. He couldn't move. What he couldn't see was his daughter curled into a fetal position, on a ledge 20-feet above him, her eyes wide open, facing the bear. The bear clamped down — biting first Jenna's face, then her shoulder.
Jenna didn't flinch, her father recounted later. "That's courage."
The bear, finally spent, left the two alone.
The pair, bleeding and shaken, yelled for help and within half an hour, four hikers discovered them.
Jenna Otter was treated at Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Montana, and released in good condition.
Johan Otter was airlifted to Harborview. Despite arriving with his skull exposed and having lost half his blood, he was conscious.
Doctors stabilized him until Dr. Nicholas Vedder and a team of plastic surgeons could transplant a square-foot of thin sheet muscle from his right side to make a new scalp.
Otter was released from Harborview. Doctors have said they're not sure yet how much of his eye function he'll recover, but he can already wiggle his toes, so they're optimistic about his recovery of movement.
The only thing he won't get back, for sure, is hair.
That doesn't matter to Otter. "I'm so lucky," he said.
Since you're not allowed to bring guns into a national park, why not a chimpanzee? I mean, they're not only incredibly vicious animals when they're riled, but they're pretty damn strong as well. Several months ago some poor guy was attacked by chimps at an animal reserve and he had most of his fingers bitten off as well as an eye, his scalp, his face and a foot- they even mutilated his genitals (who knows what that was all about). Anyway, if you could convince a chimpanzee to go hiking with you, it would at least give you a fighting chance if a grizzly attacked. I'm not saying a chimp could beat a bear, but it would give you time to get the hell out of there. Admittedly, there may be some drawbacks (he might decide to go jump in a tree or something), but it's food for thought.
Since I was born, raised, & live in prime bear territory, does this mean I have to have a chimp move in with us? ....and since I see numerous bears every year, I guess this means I'll need replacement chimps. Just great. The only problem in that pets are not allowed on unpaved trails in a national park. I guess you could say the chimp was some type of in-law. :o)
However, bears are very attracted to odors, so hikers should not wear perfumes or scented deoderants and the like ( city folk probably don't know this) Also, a menstrating woman should be nowhere near bear country. For some reason the bears really want to eat them! I'm not saying that's the reason in this case, but animals usually react in predictable ways to certain stimuli.
Is that like a pink elephant :)
Sorry, couldn't resist it, I know you meant rogue.
Hm, tough call. Judged by twelve, or eaten by bear...
I agree 100%. I'd rather risk a fire arms violation than getting "lucky" like that guy. Or unlucky, and have my mortal coil wind up as bear poop.
Bears's strength is in another universe. It can't be imagined.
Yes, sane people do violate that law with some regularity.
Personally, I have a two shot .45ACP derringer that's tucked into a hidden compartment on my full frame pack whenever I'm hiking. it's 3" barrel isn't going to give me much accuracy, but it's a desperation weapon...the idea is that any bear charging me will get two point blank rounds to the skull before he gets a bite. Even if it doesn't kill him, it should daze him enough to let me get away...or to reload again.
The gun sits in a hidden compartment in my pack, and isn't detectable unless you dump the whole thing and specifically search for it. Since I never pull the gun in the park, the rangers have no reason to search me. If they did, I would be charged with a felony, of course. If I ever had to use it though, it would be a worthwhile tradeoff...I'd rather be alive and arguing my case to a jury than be law-abiding bear spoor.
I do also carry pepper spray, and I've heard from other hikers that it works well. Still, I don't trust it enough to leave my gun at home.
Friend of mine carries a 44/70 with a nine inch barrel when he hikes. Still feels nervous. When I get the urge to hike, I lie down until it goes away.
Then there was the sad tale of a Polish and Czech researcher researching two(male and female) Polar bears in the arctic(they brought no weapons). There was a frantic garbled message from them over the radio. When rescuers went to look for them they found the bears had attacked the camp...tracking them they found that the female bear had attacked and killed the polish researcher. As for the second attack...you guessed it...the Czech was in the male!
No kidding! A Ruger Redhawk loaded up with 6 rounds of .44Mag filled to the brim with WW296, topped with a Sierra 300gr JFP, is a good recipe.
Mark
there are a lot of people who feel that a .357 is inadequet for hunting deer. A really heavy load in .44Mag should be considered the starting point.
Mark
Black bears eat more people than Grizzlys do. Fact. There are a lot more black bears than grizzlys, and they are much more commonly in contact with people.
At close range, the .300 WinMag bullets probably punched right through the body without expanding, leaving very small wound channels, unless they hit bone.
For something like a bear, you want a big, heavy, hard bullet, one that doesn't expand much in order to get penetration, but has a large surface area to open a large wound channel. 300gr and larger bullets are a good starting point. A good combination would be a heavy .444 marlin or a modern heavy 45-70 in a lightweight, handy carbine. These are both less powerful than the .300 WinMag on paper, but better suited for bear at close range, due to their balistic performance.
Mark
DAMN! Yes, you can shoot .45LC out of a .454 Casul (and it says so on the barrel). You practice with the .45LC, so you don't develop a flinch! I don't know that I'd want to shoot a .454 Casul out of a 2" barrel handgun! It was a challenge shooting one without a flinch in a Freedom Arms revolver!
Mark
Bears consider this something like salsa to spice up the main course (you).
ROFL!
[and you only gotta run faster than the guy behind you, right?]
"They just finished making movie about that incident."
Instead of "Jackass" are they calling it "Bearass"?...:)
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