Maine Man Mauled by Grizzly
By V. Paul Reynolds
“Climbing over the logjam, I spotted two cubs on the other side of the river. From the brush I heard the huffing sound. Then I saw her, the sow. From 20 yards she was coming at me, huffing and growling – a full charge.”
Hamish Stevenson, a native from Mt Desert Island, is an Alaskan Fishing guide. He is 28 years old and an experienced Maine outdoorsman who cut his teeth hunting and fishing as a youngster at his father’s hunting and fishing lodge in Patten.
A tall, in-condition, easy going young man, Stevenson has been guiding in Alaska for an outfitter on the Kenai River called Alaska Rivers Company. His girl friend is a rafting guide on the famous Alaskan River.
Although he lived to tell about it and recovered fully from his his grizzly bear mauling, Stevenson confesses that there were a couple of years of bad dreams in the wake of his encounter. “ I got beyond that after a while,” he says.
It was July 17th, 2021 on a beautiful clear day. On his day off he biked and hiked to the upper reaches of the Russian River, a tributary of the Kenai. A few years before he had made the same trip alone and had hit the mother lode of great fly fishing for big Rainbow Trout. This would be a chance to relive it.
Little did he know.
The Charge
“Her mouth was open as she came at me. I stood my ground thinking it might be a bluff charge, all the while reaching for my bear spray. She was on me before I could even get the cap off the bear spray. As I tried to back off with my hands covering my head and all the while making loud noises. But in an instant she was on me with one claw over my shoulder and a mouth into my rib cage.”
Stevenson, all 200 pounds of him, was thrown off the logjam onto the river bank and then into the water by the angry bear. He was face up in the river with the bear on top of him pressing down. He played dead. “It was over in a minute,” he recalls. “She stopped roaring and walked away, but she never took her eyes off me as she departed.”
What went through his mind during those terrifying moments? He says that, during the attack, his life did not flash before him. Instead, he thought to himself that he had really screwed up, that he was probably done for and he felt sad for those friends who would find his battered body.
“ I knew that I was hurt, but I was able to stand up. My arm was a mess and my side hurt bad,” he recounts.
Stevenson managed to walk the trail back to his hidden bike but he was in no shape to ride. He walked his borrowed bike back six miles to his truck and was able to drive himself back to his outfitter’s camp on the Kenai. “I had been in an adrenaline haze and as it wore off it hit me,” I am alive!”
“Eric, the boss ripped off my shirt, took one look at me and said,”Holy ….you’ve been bit by a bear!”
At the hospital and after x-rays, it was concluded that he had sustained deep claw wounds on his shoulder and arm, as well as puncture wounds around his torso and badly bruised and fractured ribs.
Blames Himself
Looking back at the encounter, Stevenson blames himself more than the bear. He says that he should have been fishing with a buddy, and should have avoided the low visibility area near the brush-chocked stream, and have been more practiced with the uncapping of his bear spray. A short time before the encounter, Stevenson noted that the mud along the stream edge was peppered with bear tracks.
Alaskan Game Wardens did investigate the mauling and at Steveson’s urging, abandoned the idea of culling the bear, which is often done in cases like Stevenson’s.
Soon, after turkey season in Maine, Stevenson will be returning to his guiding job on the Kenai for the season. Today he is more familiar with the activation of his bear spray and he also carries a loaded Taurus Judge, which is a .45 caliber long colt revolver.
“Will you go back to fish that same area?” I asked. “Ah,” he said with a slight smile in his voice, “I really don’t think so.”
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