Teen bear-ly escapes attack
By MARCUS K. GARNER
Peninsula Clarion
As Mother's Days go, Sunday wasn't the greatest for one Kenai Peninsula mother. And another mother nearly paid the price for that misfortune.
When 17-year-old Cody Williams of Kasilof shot and killed a charging young grizzly Sunday afternoon, he drew the rancor of the cub's mother, that responded with violent fury. The Sow attacked Cody twice before being chased off by gunfire and Cody survived. But not without wounds to accompany a mother of a Mother's Day tale.
"We're so thankful that he's with us for sure," said Birdie Williams, Cody's mother. "It's kind of like a nightmare and a miracle all at once."
She said the irony of the day the incident occurred was not lost on her son, who she said apologized continuously Sunday while being treated for his injuries at Central Peninsula General Hospital in Soldotna.
"He kept saying he was sorry for giving me a bad Mother's Day," she said.
The Skyview High School junior went hunting for black bears with friends Matt Weaver and Scott Oldenberg on Sunday afternoon near Bear Creek along Tustumena Lake's southwestern shore.
The trio split up to find trees to climb where they would wait and wait for a bear. Then it started raining.
"I jumped out of the tree and heard some huffing and puffing," Cody said. "Then I saw something to my right. A bear was coming at me."
Cody fired one round from his .30-06 rifle and dropped the bear, which was later found dead and determined to be a 2-year-old sow.
Weaver was in a tree nearby and said he saw two brown bear cubs and a mother that appeared to have been agitated by what he thought was a low-flying airplane.
"A plane had spooked them and they were kind of running all over," he said.
Cody said he saw the mother after shooting the cub and turned to run for the nearest tree.
"It wasn't more than 30 seconds later that mother came after him," Matt said. "He took off running and tried to climb a cottonwood tree. He got up about 10 feet, but kept sliding."
Matt said the sow was about 8 or 9 feet tall. Cody said the adult sow closed the nearly 100-yard gap between herself and the tree he was in just three more seconds than it took him to travel 10 yards to the tree.
"I knew they were fast, but I didn't realize just how fast," Cody said.
"She grabbed the back of my leg and jerked me out of the tree and dragged me five yards to the bottom of the hill. When I felt her latch onto me, I remember thinking if this is how I was going to die."
Matt said Cody was on his stomach with his hands over his head while the bear was dragging him, but the bruin only had him for a few seconds.
"The first time she got off, I was thinking whether I was going to make it to Matt," Cody said.
Matt said the bear let up and Cody attempted to retreat down a hill. But the mother gave chase and jumped on him again.
"I could feel her chewing on my head," Cody said. "It was kind of weird. It wasn't really painful at the time, but my head felt different. It felt like part of my hair was missing."
During the second attack, Matt said he saw his friend reaching inside his coat for his shoulder holster where he kept a .44-caliber revolver.
"He hollered at me to shoot her, and I said I am,'" Matt recalled. "He said, well keep shooting her.'
"I stayed back a bit so I could get the shot off. And I didn't want to be too close to the mauling."
Weaver jumped from his perch and fired a shot at the bear's back with a .338 Winchester rifle.
The bear stepped back from Cody and he struggled, and eventually stood up. Within 10 seconds he said the bear was coming at him again.
"She must have felt threatened," he said.
Cody fired three shots into the grizzly's chest area and hit her a fourth time behind her shoulder blade as she turned to retreat.
"I shot at her two more times while she was running away," he said.
Matt also pumped three more rounds into the animal's back as it left the scene. Neither recalled seeing the second cub again.
They called for help on Matt's mobile phone. Weaver said the battery was nearly dead, from making earlier calls attempting to meet another hunter.
"We only had enough for one more call," he said.
Matt and Scott tended to Cody's wounds and got him back to their 20-foot boat for a 20-minute trip across the lake and back to the boat landing where medical help was waiting.
"(Scott) just hauled butt all the way back," Cody said. "He never slowed down for the sand bars."
Cody was taken to CPGH where he received treatment for slash marks, puncture wounds and bite marks on his head, the back of his legs, his both arms, before being released. He has 42 staples over his right ear and on that side of his head and his right hand is broken.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife enforcement officer returned to the scene Sunday and Monday to look for the mother, with no success.
"The investigation is still ongoing," said Fish and Wildlife officer Rob Barto. "He did obviously defend himself from the brown bear. We just don't want a wounded brown bear up there suffering."
Cody said he learned a lesson from the ordeal and is glad to have made it through alive.
"I figure I was pretty lucky. It wasn't my time yet," he said. "As powerful as she was, she could have done a whole lot worse. She just wanted to get me out of her territory.
"She left me with a lot more respect for their speed, size and strength."
