A Dauphin woman, on a run around Moon Lake this week at Riding Mountain National Park, has shared images of her encounter with a bear.
The post from Erin McKenzie on a Facebook Public Group shows deep cuts she suffered when she surprised a black bear about 4.5-kilometres into the trail. She says after being hit by its paw, the bear took off.
She has since been treated in hospital for a gash to her face – and cuts on her back.
Ken Zee’s Facebook Post reads:
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out and expressed concern, your words mean a lot to me.
I wanted to write to everyone who has asked me questions in one post, so you all can get the full story.
I frequent Riding Mountain National Park every day with my dogs, as many of you already know. Yesterday was no different.
I took four of my dogs, the fifth dog is very old and sick so he doesn’t run with me anymore.
I decided to run around Moon Lake, a 10 km loop trail which I hike every other day or so.
I was wearing headphones (mostly to drown out the sound of the bugs, which are horrible right now) and my four dogs were running a couple feet in front of me as we went around the trail.
About 4.5 kms in, as I was running up a steep hill, a black bear suddenly came out of the bush onto the trail, about a foot in front of me. The bear was very clearly spooked, as it must not of heard us coming. Instinctively, the bear reacted in fear, striking me in the face with its paw and then again on the back. Everything happened so quickly, my dogs, (who are all okay and unharmed) had just passed the spot where the bear emerged, did not even know what was happening.
As soon as I was hit by it’s paw, the bear took off. It was not an aggressive bear and didn’t want to pursue attacking me, it was simply as shocked as I was when we spooked it and reacted in fear.
I was obviously scared afterwards, because all I could see was the blood pouring off my face onto the rest of my body, not knowing how bad the cut was freaked me out.
I called my brother who calmed me down, and then my mom, who stayed on the phone with me for about 40 minutes as I hiked the last 5 kms back to my car, where my boyfriend met me and drove me to the hospital.
The doctors decided not to stitch my face up due to the cut being made by an animal claw, to watch for signs of infection they used skin strips instead.
I am okay, all I will have to deal with going forward is a deadly scar across my face. I am so thankful that I didn’t lose my eye or my life yesterday.
Thank you all again for the love and support you have shown me. From now on I think I’ll be wearing bear bells when I run/hike in the park ?? @ Riding Mountain National Park”
A link to the Facebook post can be found below.
UPDATE:
