Allen Minish was alone and surveying land for a realtor in a remote wooded area of Alaska, entering some numbers into his GPS unit, when he looked up and saw a large brown bear walking about 30 feet (9 meters) from him.
“I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s terrifying,” Minish said by phone from his bed at an Anchorage hospital on Wednesday, a day after being beaten by the bear in a chance encounter.
After the attack, Minish was left with a crushed jaw, a puncture wound to the scalp so deep that the doctor said he could see the bone, lacerations and many stitches after a 4 1/2 hour surgery. He also wears a patch over his right eye and says the doctors are concerned.
All of that happened during an encounter that he estimates lasted less than 10 seconds after Minish surprised the bear Tuesday morning off the Richardson Highway near the small community of Gulkana, about 190 miles (306 kilometers) northeast. from Anchorage.
Minish says it was bigger than the 136 kilogram (300 pound) black bears he’s seen before. In a matter of seconds, the animal reached him.
The man tried to evade him behind small fir trees. But that didn’t stop the bear, it went right through them.
As he approached, Minish lifted the pointed part of his survey pole and held it towards the bear to try to keep it from getting any closer.
The bear simply tossed her to the side and the force of the blow knocked Minish down.
“When he got on top of me, I grabbed his jaw to push him away,” he said, and said that was how his hand was pierced. “But he threw me to the side, he grabbed a quarter of my face.”
“He took a little bite and then he took a second bite, and that second bite is the one that fractured my bones … and basically crushed my right cheek,” he added.
And then the bear just walked away.
So Minish called 911 on his cell phone.
First responders arrived 59 minutes later and airlifted him to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. His general health is reported to be good.
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