A Grizzly had been raiding cabins in the area. It had also broken into several vehicles and stole things like cookies, jerky, chips, and other ediables. I was unaware of it and went to the river and pitched my tent. This Grizzly appearantly was associating human smell with food. Along about 1AM I was sleeping with my head next to the tent wall. Something pushed my head, and without thinking I slapped the tent wall. I must have smacked it in the nose or face. I heard a growl and the tent came down on top of me. I rolled away from the wall of the tent, but in doing so I rolled on top of my right arm, that was holding my pistol. Beefore I could roll on over and get my arm free the bear stepped on me and stood there. Then the bear started jumping up and down on my back. I screamed, alerting others camped near by. The bear kept shoving down on my back, and I was trying to roll over. Suddenly the world lite up, and the bear stepped on me with all four feet. Then there was a rifle shot, and I passed out.
The people came over and pulled me out of the tent. They made me warm and as comfortable as they could at the time. They were afraid to transport me thinking my back and neck might be broken. There was no cell phones back then, and CB did not reach out from there. I came to about an hour later, in terriable pain. I could not stand to be moved. Breathing hurt bad. I had a bottle of Percocett with me in my pack, and the woman in the party gave me two. That put me out for the next 12 hours.
It being a 12 to 14 hour misserable trip to the highway through some awsome mud, the man did not want to leave his wife and me there alone with a Grizzly in the area. Plus it was raining hard. There was no other way to contact anyone. When I finally came to I could feel my legs, and move them, but it hurt bad. So we spent the night, him saying he would go to the highway the next morning. The following morning I could move my legs but could not get up alone. He helped me to my feet, but I could not stand alone. Breathing also hurt so bad I could hardly talk. I told him to go on out hunting since I was not going to die, and would be better after some more rest. He shot a Moose that evening. I let him use my track rig to retrive it and bring it back to camp.
The next day I could get up, but could not walk far, and breathing still hurt. That is when I noticed I could not use two fingers on my left hand. It was still raining also. We spent that day waiting for the rain to stop.
The third day I was able to walk and convinced them we would need my track rig to get to the highway due to all the rain we had gotten. They helped me into my rig and the woman insisted on riding with me. I ended up pulling his tired rig out of several muddy spots, and at one point just draged him all the way through a long muddy stretch. When we got to the highway the folks at the lodge called for a flight back to Fairbanks. When I got to the hospital they told me I had four injured disk in my back, three broken ribs, and two broken fingers on my left hand. Along with bruising and damaged muscles.
The fingers and the ribs healed, as did the muscles. My back has never gotten over being walked on and the shoving done by that bear.
As for the bear, we never saw it again. The man followed the tracks down the river bed for about a mile then lost them due to the rain. There was no other tracks so that rules out a sow with cubs.
