The second grizzly bear mauling in less than two months on the outskirts of Alaska's largest city has sent another runner to the hospital with serious injuries. The attack this time came in Bird Valley, just south of Anchorage. It follows on an attack at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in mid-May.
Both attacks involved people surprising grizzly sows with cubs. The JBER attack involved a sow with small cubs of the year. The latest attack was launched by a sow with two nearly grown cubs, probably 2-year-olds.
Runner Suzanne Knudsen, who lives in a roadside community called Indian south of Anchorage, was less than a mile down the Bird Valley Trail near her home on Monday morning when she encountered the sow and cubs, according to Jessy Coltrane, area wildlife biologist with the Alaska State Troopers.
This poor woman was hit from behind by the mother after almost running into her two cubs.
The bear really did a number on her, and after it left she still had to wait an hour before she was rescued. Not too many things I can imagine that are more frightening than that.
Like I said in the headline this is only about 28 miles from my house and it is very close to one of my favorite hiking trails near McHugh Creek. (Which itself was the scene of one of the most brutal attacks in Alaska history.)
I take kids into the woods all of the time to go hiking, and these stories always send a chill up my spine.
I am very cautious and make very careful choices as to where to hike, how big of a group to take, and how to behave on the trails, but of course there is always the chance that my precautions will not be enough to avoid a confrontation.
Living in Alaska has been described as being surrounded by terrifying natural beauty, and I think that about sums it up.
I love it here but part of living in Alaska is also living with the fact that the state is almost like a serial killer waiting to take me out if I ever let my guard down. (By the way we have a lot of serial killers too.)
Suckers! 79 here at the beach today! lol
ReplyDeleteDZ
Gee thanks Dennis.
DeleteI'm joking of course! Those last few years I figured the odds we're about to catch up to us hiking around around McHugh and Girdwood. Glad we made it out alive.
DeleteRunners can be the most clueless, don't they tell you to run with bells on your shoes or something?
DeleteStill sorry for the poor lady...
I just hope she didn't have fucking earbuds or something on...
you armchair quarterbacks are clueless, eh
DeleteAnonymous6:15 PM
Deleteyou armchair quarterbacks are clueless, eh
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Earbuds much 'eh? As it turns out if you read the article SHE DID have them on.smh
no shit asshole - read my comment at 3:26 numbnutz
DeleteO/T ...maybe...
ReplyDeleteJust to say that I don't like the new ADN.COM I knew Alaska Dispatch bought Alaska Daily News, but I didn't think they would change the online format.
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As for the subject at hand, they can take their open-carry restaurants and shove their guns up their ass.
Please disregard what I wrote. Wrong article! *sigh*
ReplyDeleteYeah, bears not baggers.
DeleteThis is why running outside in AK can be so dangerous. You either a) run up onto an animal such as bear mama and cubs, or b) trigger a chase response, such as what happened with the woman running who was killed by wolves a few years back. Didn't help she was wearing headphones at the time as well.
ReplyDeleteThere's certain times of year, and areas, where it just isn't smart to run, especially alone.
Or with headphones/earbuds anywhere.
DeleteToo bad it wasn't Palin.. oh hell, we all know she's to fucking lazy to go for a hike without having an entourage and TMZ on speed dial.
ReplyDeleteThere would be some sick wildlife just taking one bite. Plus, some wildlife, where prey is abundant, won't touch meat as rotted as Sarah is.
Deletethis particular mauling victim happens to be my girlfriend. I'm happy to say she's doing exceptionally well all things considered.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the trail goes that she was on she's been running, hiking and skiing it for 40 years and we've both encountered numerous bears on said trail for years.
IMO the earphone thing is a bad idea winter or summer and she knows that, you need to be able to hear the snow settling/collapsing in the winter when the avi conditions are high, summertime you need to be able to hear a twig snap behind the bushes off the side of the trail. Basically with Suz it's a moot point as she's half deaf from operating graders for years doing snow removal on the highway out of the Girdwood DOT camp, that and doing avi control work with high explosives along Turnagain Arm in conjunction with the railroad.
Earphones or no earphones this encounter occurred at extremely close quarters, along with the fact had she been armed with a sidearm or pepper spray I don't care who you are you'd never had a chance to unholster either, the attack was instantaneous.
Fortunately as said when all's said and done and she's all healed up she's going to have a hard time convincing someone she'd been mauled by an extremely protective/pissed off sow griz, other than a cracked eye socket and numerous puncture wounds she came out relatively unscathed. You want to see other less fortunate mauling victims google up bear mauling victims and you'll see some tremendously heinous lifelong physical alterations ..
Thank you for weighing in. I appreciate it.
DeleteI also hope that Suzanne has a quick recovery.
i'm annon @ 3:26 and i'd like to clarify a couple of inaccurate details; one, the sow did not hit Suz from behind, it came out of the grass straight over the top of her cubs, two, the cubs were not two year olds they were this springs cubs ...
Deletealso if you're scared of bears up here you shouldn't leave your house in the summertime - period, just know that when you're off the asphalt/concrete here you're on bear turf ...
Gryph,
Deleteyou're welcome and I'm glad you made mention of the story as we need to be hyper aware of our surroundings up here when playing in the backcountry ..
I live in black bear country. We get the juveniles that mostly get their heads stuck in fences and get caught in alleys behind bars ferreting for french fries. Sad, but I still find all bears horrifying.
ReplyDeleteI paid that bear to attack Sarah.
ReplyDeleteWhile bears will scavenge rotting meat they would never consume something as sickening as SP.
DeleteGryphen,
ReplyDeleteYou might like to read the book "Beyond the Bear", co-written by Dan Bigley,the victim of a bear attack. A heart rendering book about the attack, his blindness from the attack, and his struggle afterword.
We were on Eagle River Nature trail 5 years ago and 4 of us and our 4 dogs encountered a bear. One of the dogs bolted and slipped his collar, but remained with us. We and dogs were wearing bells and waved our arms and yelled and the bear ambled off ahead of us.
ReplyDeleteA runner was coming up behind us and yelled for us to get off the trail and he was being a real ass about having to go around us; meanwhile we were still in shock over encountering the bear and sort of immobilized in the middle of the trail. We tried to warn the guy about the bear but he just kept yelling at us to move so we moved into the woods and once again, as he passed, told him about the bear about 100 yards ahead and but he ran ahead anyway. Next thing we heard was him screaming. He ran right into the bear and it knocked him down and we were hiding behind trees and watched it bat him around and roll him down a hill. We had no cell reception so we high tailed it the other way and waited about an hour before hiking out and we didn't see the guy so figured he had made it back to safety.
Scary encounter and after 25 years here in AK with lots of backwoods travel, that is the closest I've ever come to a bear, thank goodness! Returned to some ruined camps and seen lots of fresh scat and lots of bears a safe distance away, but never one that close.
I wish Suzanne a rapid recovery and hope that this doesn't deter her from enjoying the outdoors!