A 55-year-old hiker from Indiana is in stable condition after a grizzly bear attack at Denali National Park on Aug. 23.
The man told park officials that he was hiking through dense fog when a grizzly with two cubs nearby charged at him from bushes about 100 feet away. He was able to deploy bear spray only after being knocked down.
The bears left the area quickly and the man was able to walk 1.5 miles to the Eielson Visitor Center, where he met a park transit bus that happened to have vacationing medical personnel on board. They administered first aid while the bus driver called the bus dispatch office to relay the need for an ambulance.
The man was transported out of the park by park rangers via ambulance and transferred to the Tri-Valley medical team who brought him to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for puncture wounds to his calf, ribs and left shoulder.
Park officials said that due to the apparent defensive nature of the attack there were no plans to locate the bear involved. Female bears with cubs are naturally defensive of their young and there was no indication that this bear was unusually dangerous. Still two backcountry units of the park were closed to travel for one week.
