A woman running alone on a popular Anchorage trail fought off a brown bear with bear spray and walked herself out to safety, the latest in a string of bear attacks across Alaska this summer.
The unidentified runner was on the Wolverine Bowl Trail near the Prospect Heights trailhead when a brown bear attacked her Thursday. She deployed bear spray during the encounter, drove the animal back, and made it to the trailhead on her own before being transported to a hospital for treatment. Officials have not disclosed the extent of her injuries.
Alaska's Fish and Wildlife Department said biologists interviewed the woman and went to the attack site to look for signs of bear activity. They collected samples but found no bears at the scene. Officials placed warning signs at the trailhead and reminded hikers to stay off closed trails.
The department pointed to heavy summer vegetation as a factor that raises the odds of a surprise encounter. CBS News reported that the agency urged hikers to rehearse using their bear spray before heading out, "particularly removing the safety and being sure any additional shipping zip-ties are cut away."
That advice sounds mundane until you picture fumbling with a plastic zip-tie while a 600-pound brown bear is closing the distance. The woman on the Wolverine Bowl Trail clearly had her spray ready. That decision likely saved her life.
Thursday's mauling was not an isolated event. Fox News reported the attack came less than a month after another woman was mauled by a bear in the Bear Valley neighborhood near Chugach State Park. That victim had been hiking with a friend and three dogs in southern Alaska when a bear attacked and injured her.
In July, a resident of Kenai, a small city on the Kenai Peninsula, roughly 150 miles south of Anchorage, was mauled by a brown bear that had climbed over the fence into her front yard. The bear brought its two cubs along. The Alaska Department of Public Safety confirmed that incident.
And in April, two soldiers from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage were injured in a brown bear attack during a training session. Four serious encounters in roughly four months, all in or near the state's most populated region.
Last year, a woman in southern Alaska suffered serious injuries when a bear attacked her outside her home as she stepped out for a jog.
The numbers explain the pattern. Hundreds of thousands of bears roam throughout Alaska, and wildlife officials estimate the density in southern areas may reach one bear per square mile. An epidemiological study by Alaska's Section of Epidemiology found that 68 people were hospitalized following bear attacks in the state between 2000 and 2017. Brown bears accounted for roughly 96 percent of those attacks.
The department's public guidance, as the New York Post noted, tells hikers to move away slowly while keeping their eyes on a stationary bear and to use a deterrent "when the bear is within range" if it keeps approaching. Officials also advised choosing hiking routes with good visibility and staying away from known attractants like salmon-bearing streams.
The Fish and Wildlife Department put it plainly:
"Thick, dense summer foliage can block sightlines, making surprise encounters more likely."
That warning applies to every trail in the Anchorage bowl this time of year. Mid-August brings the peak of Alaska's growing season. Brush grows thick along creek beds and trail margins, cutting visibility to a few feet in places. Runners, who move fast and often quietly, are especially vulnerable to stumbling into a bear at close range.
The woman's survival reinforces a point wildlife managers have made for years: bear spray works, but only if you can deploy it in seconds. The department's emphasis on rehearsing the draw, removing the safety clip, cutting away shipping zip-ties, reflects a hard reality. People buy the canisters and strap them to their packs without ever testing the mechanism. In a sudden encounter, that hesitation can be the difference between walking out and being airlifted.
Officials have not said whether the bear was later identified, tracked, or killed. No trail closures were announced beyond the existing warning signs at Prospect Heights. The woman's identity and the full extent of her injuries remain undisclosed.
What is clear is that she did exactly what the experts recommend, and she lived to tell the story. In a state where bears outnumber people in large stretches of the backcountry, personal preparedness is not optional. It is the first and last line of defense.
