The summer had been hot and dry so the silt on the riverbank was bone-dry and dusty. I saw a large, round, dry patch of silt along the path and noticed large grizzly tracks. I stopped to look at them. I sensed bear. I felt as though I should not continue down the trail so I turned back and stupidly asked my companions if they wanted to see some fresh grizzly tracks. Sure, they said and followed me, talking as they walked.

It must have been the voices that woke him. As soon as we got to the spot where the tracks were, a large grizzly bear got up from his afternoon nap, not far from where we were standing. It was as though I was watching a large screen television and that the entire screen, each pixel, was filled with brown fur. I don't remember seeing a head. I remember only moving brown fur. The adrenaline pumped. So did my legs. I turned before that bear was on all fours. I ran for the cabin door.

I stood at the doorway for a couple of seconds and then decided to get back in the boat. I had no idea what Ken or Brenda or the bear were doing. When I got back in the boat I shouted for them to do the same. After what seemed like an eternity, Brenda and Ken approached the boat. We exchanged glances but no one said a thing. They climbed in and Ken pushed the boat away from shore. We drifted for some time in silence. I was nauseous from the adrenaline. Eventually I spoke. "Jesus, if I'd have kept going I would have walked right on top of him." I said.

"You pushed me right out of the way," Brenda said.

"What? I didn't. Did I?"

"Ya, pushed me right out of the way and hid behind a tree." she repeated with indignation.

"Did I really? I don't remember hiding behind a tree. I remember running for the cabin door. Jesus, I feel sick to my stomach. Gimme a cigarette. Please." I wanted a beer but didn't have one.

The only warning I had was a loud crack below the ridge that I attributed to natural causes and ignored. Then I saw him. He was bounding, all four feet off the ground, and coming at me like a racehorse. My first thought was: this can't be happening to me, the bears were supposed to be down at the river catching salmon. It was unbelievable. I got behind some maple saplings to stop the charge and reached for my bear spray, only I had no spray. The maple saplings weren't big but they were tough. When the bear hit them he had to stop. The bear tried to get a hold of me behind the saplings. All I had was my brush cutter. I hit him on the back of his neck as hard as I could. He was too close for me to hit on the head. His muzzle was inches from my stomach, slobber was flying while he turned his head left and right trying to get a hold of me. I had to angle my blows in order to make contact but it was like hitting an old dry piece of wood. I don't think he even noticed them.

After a few blows with the brush saw, I got really worried. And then I remembered Ichi, my dog. I screamed, "Ichi, Ichi, Ichi." On the third call I heard her coming. With a growl she attacked the bear. I couldn't see her as I was too busy to look down but the bear immediately pulled out of the saplings, turned and trotted off in the direction he came with my dog chomping on his heels. He didn't exactly run away, it was more like, "Well, if you don't want to play this game my way, I'm gone." After they disappeared over the ridge I called my Ichi back. I could tell by her behavior that she knew she had accomplished something pretty significant although several, 'good dogs' was all she got from me. Later I told the story to Gary Shelton, who had once told me that if I ever get charged to get behind a tree to slow or stop the charge. He figured it was an 800 pound boar whose territory I'd invaded. If he'd gotten hold of me it would have taken a lot of thread to sew me back together. I continued on my route determined to pick some mushrooms. After this incident I thought it appropriate to make my will. When I close my eyes at night to sleep I can still see that bear.

I walked through the gate 20 feet from my house and as I closed it I glanced to my right and saw a large grizzly bear in full gallop six to eight feet away. There was no time to do anything. If I'd had a loaded rifle in my hand I wouldn't have had time to use it. He ran full tilt into me. I ended up face down in the mud with him on top of me. He grabbed a mouthful of scalp near the top of my head and peeled hair, skin and meat down to below the top of my left ear and around the front to the corner of my left eye and behind my head near the center of my neck. Then he let go of that and got my left arm between wrist and elbow and dragged me a few feet, then departed.

The whole thing took only a few seconds. It was a cold night and I was wearing a shirt, two long-sleeved sweaters and a thick padded coat but even with all that over my arm he got his teeth through it all and down to the bone and crushed and cut the tendons and muscle so much that the arm was paralyzed and useless from hand to shoulder. When he left I returned to my house. I lost a lot of blood from the head wound so I put a folded towel over the area for a compress bandage to slow the bleeding and phoned Trudy to get a ride to the hospital. Her phone line was busy so I phoned for an ambulance. I waited 40 minutes for it to arrive. My arm was still totally dead and useless.

I got to the hospital about 11 p.m. They cleaned the wound and gave me a tetanus shot and antibiotics. I flew to Vancouver by government air ambulance the next morning. I spent 16 days in a Vancouver hospital getting skin grafts while they tried to control the infection in my arm. For six months my left hand was numb and the thumb quite useless but gradually it improved as the muscles and tendons healed themselves so it's almost normal now, though not as strong as it should be for gripping things. Fourteen months later I still can't lay on my left side, what's left of the ear is too deformed and painful to take the weight and will probably remain that way as long as I'm alive.

I got off easy. When I felt the teeth grating and grinding down my skull I figured my chances of getting out of it alive were pretty poor. But the skull is so round and slippery his teeth slid down rather than digging in and puncturing it. Funny thing, I had no pain at all from my head or arm until the next day. I've had lots more pain from a small cut or sliver. It's the adrenaline I guess.