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.
Actually, there's a special breed just for this purpose -- the Karelian Bear Dog. For some bizarre reason, this product of Finland has no fear of bears.
**************
Good question. So far, so good with what I've got.
If it came to facing a bear, I'd give it my best.
This is true as long as 1) the bear is downwind, 2) wind isn't in excess of about 10 kts and 3) bear hasn't had a pepper spray before. Conditions 1 & 2 are ifs depending on local weather -- about 25% failure rate for the area around Glacier Park. As for the third condition, my neighbors went through two full bottles of bear spray trying to get a 2 year old black bear away from their porch. As soon as they'd stop spraying, the bear would turn around and come back.
S&W makes a .50 caliber revolver- weighs something on the order of 5lbs empty- it's so large it only holds 5 rounds- I live in bear country- only take a Winchester Defender- 3" inch magnum loads- much more likely to hit what you're aiming at unless you're an accomplished marksman with the pistol- a charging bear is no time for practice!
Sweet.
I would consider taking my S&W Mdl 24 w/3"barrel into the woods. It's only a .44 special, but should work well with some 'Keith' loads' (precursor to the .44 mag)
"Admittedly, there may be some drawbacks (he might decide to go jump in a tree or something), but it's food for thought."
I like the way you think outside of the box.
"For some reason the bears really want to eat them!"
There is no accounting for taste.
Ping for later reference.
The Ruger's hefty, but fairly small. Personally, I'd rather rely on a 45-70 Marlin with heavy bullets, or a 12 gage - but I don't think they'd do good in a backpack [Although one of my Marlins is a takedown]. And if they did, I'm not sure you'd get it together in time for Br'er Bear if he came a callin'.
Didn't need to, sometimes you have to make decisions and thus the meaning of my post........
I'm good with the Alaskan out to about 10yds in the 10ring. That's with .454 Casull.
.45 Long Colt are a piece of cake.
Ursus horribilis can run 100 yd. in 6 seconds. A bullet of 325 grains in the CNS is the solution.
I knew somebody was going to do it!
I just didn't know it would be so close to home! LOL
More COWBELL!!!!
Sounds about right - their top sprint speed is supposed to be about 35-40mph, and they get there in a hurry.
************
That's good to know. We almost made plans to visit Maine during bear hunting season this year, but our usual camp was booked. After an experience of having our dogs run off into the woods a few years ago and having to look for them in a wilderness area, we decided that having a gun might be a good thing in the event that we encountered one of those bears.
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.