I'm calling BS on the story about the DII runner hiding in a tree to avoid a bear attack

She may have been chased by a bear, but 5 miles ? Probably not.

This page includes links to several news stories from recent years about bears in the Adirondack region. In 2013, a 22 year old woman stabbed a bear in the face when it charged at her ("From 2013, a hiker describes a dramatic bear encounter"):

https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2020/09/weekend-read-black-bears.html

Sasquatch?

I agree that the story seems very strange. Perhaps if the bear was injured or sick it would explain, 1) Why the bear pursued her for so long, 2) that she was able to stay ahead of it 3) that is was not able to climb a tree and 4) that the bear displayed unusual behavior.

I do think throwing clothing at a bear sounds ridiculous, but if it has you tree'd you would probably try anything you can think of. Maybe throwing the clothes was not a defensive strategy, but she just was out of options so she threw a dart in the dark. Perhaps the bear would like to chew/smell the clothing and become distracted.

Let's see...

Mama Bear charges her.

She runs away but somehow outpaces the bear, despite bears being much faster.

Most bears would abandon a chase quickly, but this one abandons her cubs, who she was protecting, and chases the girl for 5 miles, never catching her.

The girl climbs a tree, despite (most) bears much better tree climbers.

Bear waits at base of tree for hours - prompting the girl to throw her socks, shoes, and bra.

Later, she can find her shoes - but not her socks and bra.

GPS device loses battery, so no tracking or verification of her position is possible.

Young girl stays out all night but finds her own way back.

At the hospital, "toxins" are found in her system.

Don't see what other explanation there could possibly be.

It was not a normal bear.

Maybe, it was an undead bear- that would explain why it slow, remarkable persistent and can't climb trees.

More likely, it was like the monster from that film "It

This poor girl sustains TWO attacks in one week, one from a bear and one from anonymous message board posters enabled by selectively censoring mods. She's a college girl and an amateur athlete, this alleged hoax doesn't cheat anyone out of anything. If she were your athlete at Cornell, would you hang her out to dry like this? Nevermind, I think I know the answer.

I will admit, there are some funny jokes on this thread.

Aldo Leopold wrote:

I'm a wildlife biologist and smarter than all you dweebs put together. wigins, lol; has no right to post as a source of knowledge on on any subject whatsoever.

Indeed though, the story stretches credulity and something else was going on here. A half mile I can see, but a bear can run 35 miles an hour, at least for short distances, and probably 20 mph in the woods for several minutes at time. Faster than Rudisha or Bekele, for example. Black bears do switch from defensive aggressiveness (protecting cubs) to hunting, but a 5 mile chase? I'd say half mile.

Maybe she did encounter a bear with cubs. Freaked out, and ran into the woods, had a meltdown and hide up a tree.

Thank you, sir, for getting that out of the way. Its indeed broadly applicable.

The tale seems pretty unlikely to me but I hope its true or partly true. The other alternatives are not good.

I believe it’s partly true. I was skeptical about the entire story, but reconsidered after reading of the woman who stabbed a charging bear in the face in 2013.

Honey Bear wrote:

If black bears wanted to eat people they would eat people. This bear probably just wanted to give her a good scare and make sure she stayed away from her cubs. She says she kept turning left, so she may have never gotten very far from the cubs. Even if she didn't intentionally turn most people lost in the woods end up traveling in circles. Or the cubs may have been following mama bear the whole time. Five miles is nothing for a bear.

Is it possible that she ran 5 miles in circles reengaging with said mama bear on each loop? That would be epic.

I agree that this story can't be verified without the GPS info.

When I was on a run in Northern California I rounded a bend and came face to face with what I thought was a decent sized grizzly cub. I completely startled him and he took off up the hill and my first instinct was to run down the hill and climb a tree. I wasn't too worried about the cub but just knew the mama had to be somewhere close by.

While up in the tree, I looked across the forest service road to see a massive blackberry bramble criss crossed with trails for as far as I could see. After singly loudly for about a half hour I climbed down and took off down the dirt road singing even louder Army cadence songs.

Once back in town I relayed my experience to a local who said, "Oh, you ran into one of our local golden bears - no need to worry, they're pretty chill."

I believe this is probably partially true also.

The details are suspicious but that's journalism these days.

Say anything to sell a story; who cares if its not 100% factual.

Reminds me of the sensational story of about a year ago about the runner attacked by a mountain lion whom he bravely wrestled and strangled to death.

Truth was it was a 40 lb. or less malnourished abandoned starving youngster trying to survive.

The guy was made out to be Rambo.

Black bear encounter? Probably.

Scared girl? Definitely.

The rest of the story? Exaggerated.

I agree with you. Why would anyone publish the story? At a minimum, write she "alleges" this happened. But then again a town of several hundred also have apparently bought the story.

Check out the link below;

Just to take several elements of the story:

1) black bear cubs are born in January typically and stay with their mother 1 1/2 years, so it's plausible to see bear cubs with their mother in August or September.

2) female black bears typically cover a range of 2-6 miles, while males may cover up to 15 miles, but the record excursion is 126 miles (it does not say how far each day they travel):

"Black bears usually don't travel very far. A female bear will often have a range of 2-6 miles, while a male's range may extend over a much larger area (up to 15 miles), and overlap the ranges of several females. Despite their tendency to stay in one area, black bear excursions of up to 126 miles have been recorded."

3) here's a story from three years ago where a Kenyan runner in Maine on an 18 mile run ran to a house and the bears didn't break into the porch where he went. Not sure how far he was chased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8rMm1SPEjk

4) Grizzlies can run 2 miles at 25-28 mph, at a rolling lope.

https://www.backpacker.com/stories/ask-a-bear-how-fast-can-you-run

So, it's possible that a bear would follow someone without catching them.

5) several details in the story sound made up or sensationalistic (I had a question as well about the claim that the next morning she ran 12-15 miles back when she said she'd run 3.5 miles away when she encountered the bears and then 5 miles to get away (but always left--maybe she stayed too close to the bear cubs), where the farthest she'd be away from home would be 8.5 miles. The 12-15 miles in the morning would account for her taking longer to get home, where a good deal would be slow until she reached a trail.

6) sometimes bears tree people but do not climb even though they can. I heard stories on to the best of our knowledge from a bear expert who'd survived many times with bears by climbing trees despite being within climbing range for any bear.

Ernest wrote:

Let's see...

Mama Bear charges her.

She runs away but somehow outpaces the bear, despite bears being much faster.

Most bears would abandon a chase quickly, but this one abandons her cubs, who she was protecting, and chases the girl for 5 miles, never catching her.

The girl climbs a tree, despite (most) bears much better tree climbers.

Bear waits at base of tree for hours - prompting the girl to throw her socks, shoes, and bra.

Later, she can find her shoes - but not her socks and bra.

GPS device loses battery, so no tracking or verification of her position is possible.

Young girl stays out all night but finds her own way back.

At the hospital, "toxins" are found in her system.

Don't see what other explanation there could possibly be.

And don't forget that her friend conveniently finds her at 10:30 am. Sunrise is like 7 am and there are 400 people out there looking for her but her friend finds her 3.5 hours later and drives her home.

The only thing more unbelievable than all of this is that the local volunteers, media and RW all took it hook, line and sinker as well.

This advice was in an article about grizzly chasing after people in Glacier the other day.

"Throw a backpack or other object (like a hat or gloves) on the ground as you move away to distract the animal's attention."

All I'm saying is that the story is not necessarily false and may even be true but some elements are probably misremembered or hyped up.

rojo wrote:

And don't forget that her friend conveniently finds her at 10:30 am. Sunrise is like 7 am and there are 400 people out there looking for her but her friend finds her 3.5 hours later and drives her home.

The only thing more unbelievable than all of this is that the local volunteers, media and RW all took it hook, line and sinker as well.

Hmm. She says she ran 12-15 miles to get back home, accounting at least for the late return.

listen up female runners- dont run alone, at night, in the woods, without pepper spray; dont discard clothing (even as a defense) dont pee on yourself; and if you have a good story, dont exaggerate for effect

daytripper wrote:

listen up female runners- dont run alone, at night, in the woods, without pepper spray; dont discard clothing (even as a defense) dont pee on yourself; and if you have a good story, dont exaggerate for effect

But keep it in context. At worst, she’s falsely accusing a bear of chasing her for publicity or to cover something up. Hopefully she’ll only get slightly embarrassed and no more.

100% made up story.

there are multiple reasons why this is ridiculous:

1 - She runs through the bush for 5 miles??? She would be so badly scraped up AND it would take her hours.

2 - She outran a bear for 5 miles?

3 - A bear left her cubs and pursue a human, very slowly, and not attack or back off?

4 - She can climb a tree that a bear cannot?

5 - She didn't want to cry to preserve water? That's a ridiculous thing to say.

If I had to bet $ I would say this girl probably saw a bear from a distance, got disproportionately freaked out and ran 100m into the bush and then got lost in the woods and made up the bear pursuit so she didn't look like a fool that gets lost in the woods right off a local trail. She was embarrassed that all those people spent all night looking for her.

I am amazed at everyone’s gullibility. There never was no bear. She changed her usual morning run into an evening run because she was meeting up with friends in the woods to get high. She ended up hooking up with someone and passing out. Or worse. I do wonder if it is worse. And the bear story is a horrible cover story. No one makes up stories like this without having a reason. So the question is more what’s that reason?