Todd Orr, a 50-year-old man from Montana, shared his terrifying encounter with grizzly bear and how he survived two repeated attacks minutes apart in a Facebook post.
Orr's bear attack incident took place early in the morning when he was hiking in Madison Valley scouting for elk. To not frighten the bears along the way, he kept hollering out "hey bear" every 30 seconds.
However, Orr's hollering didn't seem to have helped much. A sow grizzly bear with cubs, which seemed to be running away, charged him unexpectedly. Though he shouted loud enough to escape the attack, the bear wasn't ready to spare him. Orr even used the bear spray at the beast as it advanced, but barely did anything to stop her.
The moment the bear attacked, he fell facedown on the dirt with his hands wrapped around his neck. The bear that stood on his back started to bite his shoulders and arms forcefully, which the 50-year-old referred to as similar to a "sledge hammer with teeth." The bear bit him repeatedly, pausing every few seconds.
Then, the grizzly bear vanished all of a sudden, giving Orr a chance for escape. Though he was badly injured, he got up and started moving toward his truck about 3 miles away, thanking God along the way. He was in such a hury to get away that he didn't stop to tend to his wounds. Unfortunately, Orr didn't know that his ordeal was far from over.
After about five to 10 minutes walking down the trail, Orr heard a sound and turned around to find the bear just 30 feet away from him. This time, the attack was more severe, and one fierce bite on his forearm made his hand numb. A couple more bites on his head tore the skin above his ear, letting blood flood on his face.
While Orr was lying motionlessly knowing that moving would prove more deadly, the attack stopped suddenly. The bear stood on him for over half a minute silently and left the place.
"I picked everything up and moved down the trail again. I couldn't believe I had survived two attacks. Double lucky!" wrote Orr in the Facebook Post.
"Blood was still dripping off my head and both elbows and my shirt was soaked to the waist and into my pants. But a quick assessment told me I could make it another 45 minutes to the truck without losing too much blood."
Orr then drove to the hospital by himself where he had eight hours of stitching to patch up him up.
Photo: Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith | Flickr
