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50-year-old Todd Orr is an experienced hiker, well-versed in safety practices and procedures to keep himself alive in dangerous situations.
His most recent run-in with a grizzly bear, however, wasn’t a situation that he ever expected he would experience – and live to tell the tale.
On Saturday, Orr set off on a solo hike near Ennis, Montana, to scout for elk. He knew bears were common in the area, so he made sure to call out, “Hey, bear,” about every 30 seconds to avoid surprising any bears that might be close to his path.
About three miles into his hike, Orr stumbled across not one bear, but three – a mother and her two cubs – in an open meadow.
Upon seeing Orr, all three bears ran up the trail and disappeared.
But then the mother suddenly turned tail and charged straight at Orr.
He yelled, hoping to alert the bear that he was human and getting her to turn away. No luck. When the bear was 25 feet away, he sprayed bear spray, but by that point, the grizzly had too much momentum to stop.
The bear charged into Orr and sent him flying to the ground.
Orr huddled on the ground, face pressed into the dirt with his arms wrapped protectively around his neck and waited for the bear to stop attacking. “She was on top of me biting my arms, shoulders and backpack. The force of each bite was like a sledge hammer with teeth.
“She would stop for a few seconds and then bite again. Over and over. After a couple minutes, but what seemed an eternity, she disappeared,” Orr wrote in his Facebook post.
At that point, Orr quickly assessed his injuries and determined that he was still able to make his way down the trail and drive himself to safety. He hurried back along his original path, but not ten minutes later – the bear had returned.
Once Orr spotted the bear, he felt his heart sink. He’d been so lucky the previous time; he couldn’t imagine having the same fortune again after a second attack.
The grizzly resumed its attack with vengeance, breaking Orr’s forearm and causing him to “gasp for breath.” The sound only encouraged the bear to continue biting and clawing at Orr’s prone form. “The blood gushed over my face and into my eyes. I didn't move. I thought this was the end,” Orr recalled.
But then, suddenly, the bear stopped.
Orr didn’t waste a moment in grabbing his pistol and hurrying back down the trail to his truck. He filmed a video on his return trip, to document his experience, and then proceeded to make all the necessary calls to his girlfriend, the operator, and the nearest hospital to warn them of his arrival.
Thankfully, Orr is well on his way to making a full recovery. He concludes his Facebook post with, “Not my best day, but I’m alive.”
You can watch Orr’s self-filmed video here. It’s not for the faint of heart.
