World News Korner

Another bear mauling less than twenty miles from my house. It must be summer time in Alaska.

Courtesy of ADN:

The second grizzly bear mauling in less than two months on the outskirts of Alaska's largest city has sent another runner to the hospital with serious injuries. The attack this time came in Bird Valley, just south of Anchorage. It follows on an attack at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in mid-May.

Both attacks involved people surprising grizzly sows with cubs. The JBER attack involved a sow with small cubs of the year. The latest attack was launched by a sow with two nearly grown cubs, probably 2-year-olds.

Runner Suzanne Knudsen, who lives in a roadside community called Indian south of Anchorage, was less than a mile down the Bird Valley Trail near her home on Monday morning when she encountered the sow and cubs, according to Jessy Coltrane, area wildlife biologist with the Alaska State Troopers.

This poor woman was hit from behind by the mother after almost running into her two cubs.

The bear really did a number on her, and after it left she still had to wait an hour before she was rescued. Not too many things I can imagine that are more frightening than that.

Like I said in the headline this is only about 28 miles from my house and it is very close to one of my favorite hiking trails near McHugh Creek. (Which itself was the scene of one of the most brutal attacks in Alaska history.)

I take kids into the woods all of the time to go hiking, and these stories always send a chill up my spine.

I am very cautious and make very careful choices as to where to hike, how big of a group to take, and how to behave on the trails, but of course there is always the chance that my precautions will not be enough to avoid a confrontation.

Living in Alaska has been described as being surrounded by terrifying natural beauty, and I think that about sums it up.

I love it here but part of living in Alaska is also living with the fact that the state is almost like a serial killer waiting to take me out if I ever let my guard down. (By the way we have a lot of serial killers too.)

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