Posted on 07/25/2011 4:55:29 PM PDT by Titus-Maximus
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - As the grizzly furiously thrashed him about in the Alaska wilderness, all Sam Gottsegen could think about was what he would miss: college, traveling, life.
"I thought: `I'm going to die,'" the 17-year-old Denver resident said. "I thought, `This just can't be happening to me.'"
Then the bear left, only to return a moment later to continue mailing him and his other teenage friends. When the minute-long attack ended, four teens, including Gottsegen, were injured. Three others were unhurt.
The attack Saturday night in the Talkeetna Mountains north of Anchorage came as the group was nearing the end of a 30-day course to learn how to survive in the backcountry. The teens were at the stage of the course where they could try out their skills without adults around.
Authorities believe the bear was aggressive because it was with its cub. Gottsegen said no one ever saw a cub.
The group was hiking through bushes that got so thick they decided to wade through a river, walking in single file. Around a bend in the river, Joshua Berg, 17, of New City, N.Y., began yelling "Bear! Bear!"
The bear took him down first. The animal made angry, snarling noises as it attacked, Gottsegen told The Associated Press from his hospital bed in Anchorage, recounting the attack.
It was so sudden. There was no time to pull out their bear deterrent spray and no one had a gun. Berg, badly wounded, called for someone to set off the personal locator beacon they carried for emergencies.
Gottsegen said everyone scattered and he ran, even though the students had been told to play dead.
His instincts wouldn't let him, though.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Oh, that’s not real luck, real “LUCK” is the old Eskimo woman who dropped a Griz in her yard with one shot from a .22 bolt action rifle!
She hit it through soft palate and into the brain when it roared at her, from about fifty feet.
Ex Alaska native who told me the story related that the old gal refused to believe she needs a bigger gun.
I also recall a report of some kids in Oregon?
They managed to kill a black bear with a 9mm after dropping the shotgun in the river.
They could well be anti-2nd Amendment City Kids. A brush with Reality might give some of them second thoughts about their assumptions.
Precisely
My sister’s stepson was a guide in the wilds of Alaska. A man asked him “what should I do if I see a bear?”. Steve answered “whatever you do don’t run in my direction!”
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