I once hit a brown (grizzly) bear while driving the Parks Highway. Pretty much the same thing happened--a bear was beat feeting it out of the bushes like it was being chased by something. Since no other vehicles were around, I attempted to slam on the brakes and swerve, but I still caught the bear with the right bumper and proceeded to roll over it once it was down. Bump, bump! (Poor thing!)
My toddler daughter thought it was a fun ride (Giggle, giggle! "Do that again, Mommy!"), but my sleeping hubby came instantly awake, wondering what I'd done to his truck! Since we were now stopped in the middle of the road, it was pretty easy to look behind us and see the bear lying on the center line
next to our license plate! We eased the truck back toward the bear, and my husband very cautiously got out of the vehicle to retrieve the plate while I had my trusty can of bear spray locked and loaded if the bear should twitch. The poor thing looked like he was taking a nap!
We continued down the road to the nearest pay phone where we straightened out the fender (it was rubbing against the tire) and reported the incident to the Troopers. Since we only got an answering machine, we don't know what happened to the bear. On our way back a couple of days later, we stopped and scouted the scene. We couldn't find any evidence that the bear was dragged into the woods by the Troopers, nor was there any blood to indicate the bear may have been dispatched. We tend to think that was one tough bear that simply had his bell rung good! He probably woke up and stumbled off the road under his own power.
The only damage to the truck was about a four inch gash in the front bumper. Our license plate is now wired on since the bolts went missing that evening.
As we were driving along the Parks Highway after that incident, I kept looking at the shoulders and for the life of me couldn't figure out why I didn't see the bear sooner. The shoulders are pretty wide and clear of brush.
My husband was wondering the same thing, but wisely kept his mouth shut!
It wasn't until we returned along the same route and stopped at the scene that we noticed this happened at the only place along that stretch of the Parks where there wasn't any brush clearance. The brush touched the edge of the paved shoulder. Needless to say, darling hubby gained a greater understanding of what I had faced.
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News, Coffee-Seeking Driver Hits Grizzly Bear in Alaskan Street.
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