by Woodsbum
Here is a first hand account of someone that was attacked while thru hiking the Appalachian Trail. Here is his story:
This goes to show a few things in regard to bear encounters. Bears do what they want, when they want. It first attacked the guy in his sleep and bit down on his leg. When the guy fought back, the bear really didn’t go anywhere. It kept on messing with him. Once the guy finally got the bear to leave for a short period of time, he was able to escape. The bear came back after he left for help and destroyed his gear. It would have destroyed the hiker if he was still there. If the guy had some sort of personal protection to fend off the bear he might have faired a bit better. Of course it is not “politically correct” to carry a pistol for protection, but a .44 mag through the face of a bear chewing on my leg would have been my #1 choice. This guy punched the bear and screamed at it as his only form of protection.
This guy also was the cause of the bear destroying someone else’s tent due to the blood trail he left on the way to find help. When they went into some shelter, the bear shredded the tent of the girl that was helping him.
So, let’s recap this whole thing:
- Guy gets bit.
- Bear shreds tent
- Guy punches bear
- Bear shreds tent
- Guy yells at bear
- Bear shreds tent and chews gear
- Guy takes off to another tent
- Girl helps guy and they go into some shelter
- Bear shreds that tent and chews all his gear
- Cost of bear attack on humans well over $1000 due to no active protection against bears
- Bear will probably be shot because it hurt a human
- Guy needs EMT to give him a bandaid.
If it had been me:
- Guy gets bit
- Bear gets shot
- Guy bandanges himself up and makes breakfast (bear tenderloin and backstrap)
- Guy patches half dozen holes in tent and continues hiking
- Bear still dead, guy taken care of, no further damage to guy or girl like previous story and lots of bear jerky for the rest of the trip
Seriously people, don’t go all touchy/feely because you want to save Yogi. Yogi was a fake bear. Protecting yourself in the wild is exactly that: protecting yourself. Get serious about it and actually make certain that you are going to come home.
