Photo-BRENDA GRUNDT, WWW.WAWA-NEWS.COM
Posted on 07/22/2006 5:30:03 PM PDT by kanawa
A Waterloo man and his dog made a harrowing escape from the clutches of a vicious black bear Thursday while portaging near Wawa, Ont.
Tom Tilley, 55, killed the nearly 200-pound bear by jumping on its back and stabbing the aggressive animal with a six-inch hunting knife after his dog alerted him and distracted the bear.
"Love is a very powerful emotion and my thought right away was, 'You're not going to kill my dog,' " Tilley said yesterday.
"I really consider my dog a hero. Without that first warning I would have had the bear clamping down on my neck."
Tilley had planned on spending 12 days portaging through the area near Wawa with his American Staffordshire, Sam.
Four days into the trip, as he was making his third trip back to the water near Abbey Lake to retrieve his gear, he heard his dog growl and noticed the bear closing in on him. He said he did what he's been taught to do when a bear is close -- he starting waving his arms and slowing started backing away from the animal.
The bear moved off the trail, but a few seconds later reappeared, cutting off Tilley's escape route.
"That's when I knew I had a serious problem . . . I was lunch," he said.
Sam, who was behind Tilley before the bear moved up the trail, was now between the bear and his owner. Instead of taking an aggressive stance, the dog stood sideways blocking the bear's route.
"The bear took a few steps down the trail and clamped its mouth on the back of my dog," Tilley said. "By attracting the bear's attention like that and distracting the bear from me it gave me the quick opportunity I needed to run around to the back of the bear, get on its back and with my knife start stabbing it."
Tilley had recently purchased the knife that would save his life after reading the story of Jacqueline Perry, the young Cambridge doctor who was killed by a bear last September.
Perry's husband attempted to fend off the animal with a Swiss Army Knife -- the only weapon he had.
"When I read the report about her death, it really hit home to me that these things are possible," Tilley said.
"I owe her husband a real debt of gratitude because if I hadn't heard her story and got that knife, I wouldn't be telling this story."
After making sure the animal was dead, Tilley realized he had suffered a wound to his hand and Sam had two puncture marks on his back. He needed to get help, but was a two-day portage away from civilization.
Dragging his canoe across the short portage, Tilley paddled for about an hour before he came across a pair of Americans who happened to have a satellite phone.
They called for help and two hours later, a cargo plane arrived to take Tilley back to Wawa for medical attention.
He was treated and released from hospital.
News of his feat passed quickly through the small community, with a population of just over 3,000.
"He had a lot of cojones to do what he did," said Brenda Grundt, who operates the local news site Wawa-news.com and drove Tilley two hours back to where he'd left his van after the incident.
LUCKY TO HAVE KNIFE
"It's pretty amazing. Here's a guy that wouldn't be here if he hadn't happened to have a knife on him."
As for Tilley, it wasn't until he was back in his van alone with Sam that he took in the gravity of the situation.
"I just thanked God I was alive and that my dog was alive and cried a bit, but they were tears of thanks and relief," he said.
The Ministry of Natural Resources has sent the bear's body to Guelph and Ottawa for testing.
"It's very unusual for a bear to attack a person (and) pretty amazing this gentleman was able to kill it just with a knife," said Jolanta Kowalski, spokes-person for the ministry.
Because Wawa doesn't have a veterinarian's office and a specialist wasn't available to treat his hand, Tilley decided to push through and make the long journey home that night.
Back in Waterloo, news of his experience trickled back to amazed friends and family. Despite the danger, Tilley said the incident hasn't erased his love of the outdoors.
"My daughter says I'm not allowed to go up there anymore," he said with a laugh. " But I left my canoe there knowing I'll have to go back to get it."
Photo-BRENDA GRUNDT, WWW.WAWA-NEWS.COM
"Mark Steyn once said that conservative women in Ireland are thinner on the ground than Jews in Arafat's cabinet - I want to prove him wrong! (Though, not easy to prove Steyn wrong...)"
Then you may as well get your passport and buy a one-way ticket now...
Even better is a Ruger Super Black Hawk in .44 mag with a 7.5 inch barrel, if thats possible.
I'll have to get a passport - I don't want to be undocumented!
The cinnamon version of the black bear is a color variation, at least those in California. Dad shot a cinnamon black bear and I was quite surprised when I saw the rug made out of it. Looked like a bad bleach blond job. He had it mounted with the head on and the mouth open and made into a rug. It lay in my brother's bedroom until one night when Mom tripped and got her foot in the mouth. Now it is on the wall of the hunting quarters. I thought it was rather bristly, not soft at all.
His wife drove up to the camp with their baby and toddler in the minivan to visit him one weekend.
She took the kids out of the van first and went back for their stuff and a black bear had pulled himself up and through the drivers window and was eating the supplies in the van.
My buddy went and got his shotgun and dispatched the bear when it finally got out of the van (which suffered a few thousand of dollars in damage).
He caught some flak for shooting that bear too.
I thought they were very lucky his wife had taken both the babies out of the van first thing.
For my son, his wilderness experience was a right of passage, now he knows he can live and survive just about anywhere in the world because of it.He doesn't dissolve into depression when there is a lack of modern ammenities, he actually cheers up! When he was 12 years old he would swing a day pack on his back, take his then 5 year old Irish Setter male, and would disappear into the woods for a whole day alone, coming back a dusk with a bag full of trout or possibly a rack of grouse and a rabbit or two when he took his shot gun out in the fall. After the age of 8 0r 9 he wanted to go alone rather than tag along with the old duffer.
I commend you for giving such a gift to your family, for it is more precious than gold.
I think it's fair to say, kanawa, that with this posting you have established credentials that put you outside the norm of the average suburbanite!
Thank you for your concern about my dog. Hope you and yours are doing well.
Right you are if you are up for the carry. I have not taken one into the wilderness myself although I do have several, one is a hand forged Scottish basket hilt, as carried by my Scottish ancesters in the wilderness. An inexpensive full tang samurai knock off would make a good choice I think. A company called "BudK" carrys them.
Let us know about your trip when you get back, interesting things always happen.
Unless they are long in the tooth and trained to associate humans with food through people feeding them, then you have a killing machine. Tell it to the Missasauga Surgeon who had to stand by and watch a black bear kill his wife.
BUMP :)
In the southern part of Texas
In the town of San Antone
There's a fortress all in ruins that the weeds have overgrown
You may look in vain for crosses and you'll never see a one
But sometimes between the setting and the rising of the sun
You can hear a ghostly bugle
As the men go marching by
You can hear them as they answer
To that roll call in the sky.
Colonel Travis, Davy Crockett, and a hundred eighty more
Captain Dickinson, Jim Bowie
Present and accounted for.
....
Now the bugles are silent
And there's rust on each sword
And the small band of soldiers...
Lie asleep in the arms of the Lord...
In the southern part of Texas
Near the town of San Antone
Like a statue on his pinto rides a cowboy all alone
And he sees the cattle grazing where a century before
Santa Anna's guns were blazing and the cannons used to roar
And his eyes turn sorta misty
And his heart begins to glow
And he takes his hat off slowly...
To the men of Alamo.
To the thirteen days of glory
At the siege of Alamo...
Very glad that you're both ok. But now that it's over -
You should have sat down with the bear and discussed with him why he was being so aggressive. Quite possibly, the bear simply needed to get in touch with his feelings and express anger over a previous encounter with human beings that left him upset. :)
Then again, it's possible that the noise you were making wasn't quite enough to let the bear know that you were a dangerous intruder in his domain. Perhaps you should have shouted out "I'm not a tree-hugging, pinko environmentalist, you stupid bear - I'm here to skin bears and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of bubble gum!"
Awesome story, kanawa!
Tom Tilley BUMP!
American Staffordshire, Sam B U M P !!
Great story!
Thanks for the ping!
And here I was thinking I was sane.
I'm sure glad that Bear Strangler Kanawa is on our side!
Stainless steel moths?
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