Karen wrote:
I was at mile 23.5 per Garmin and coming up a little rise just before that terrible off-trail uphill. There was some sort of seep or pond or mucky area at the top of that little hill and when I topped it a bear was charging me. She was about 15 ft away. I raised my arms and yelled "NO!" then saw the cub. Then I was on my ass and being raked with claws and bitten. I cried out in pain and Mama bear did not like that so she hit me with a left hook and bit my neck and started to try to shake me. I rolled into a ball and played dead. She went off about 25 - 30 feet and stopped at the base of a tree and huffed at her cub that was up about 30 feet.
The cub cried a bit while trying to get down the tree. Mama bear kept glancing my way to make sure that I was still "dead". I was at that point afraid I might die. I didn't know what the wound on my neck was like because I did not move for fear she would come wail on me some more. I waited about 10 minutes until the huffing she was doing was gone and I couldn't hear the cub anymore. Then I tried to look around but was having trouble seeing much. I tried to sit up but was nauseated and my arms didn't seem to work right.
After 14 hours at UNMH and a cool helicopter ride and a very bumpy ambulance ride prior it turns out that I have a fractured right orbit from the mean left hook, missing parts of eyelid and eyebrow, injury to the belly of my left bicep and a lot of punctures and lacerations. But I am alive. Unfortunately the bear is not. Game and Wildlife found her and she is being tested for rabies. They are hoping to catch her cub/cubs.
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