After nearly being killed by a grizzly, Bob Nichols has learned his lesson: Don't take your shoes off in bear country.
Friday's attack north of Fort St. James came after Nichols, who had been hiking all day, took his shoes and socks off by a beaver dam to cool his weary feet. The bear, he figures, picked up his scent from the smelly socks."Within two minutes of me putting my shoes and socks back on and heading back up the trail, the sow came at me full blast from the side," he said Wednesday at Prince George Regional Hospital. "I couldn't get the safety off my gun in time I was so startled."
The 300-pound sow bit into his arm and leg, shaking him like a rag doll. Nichols, a 49-year-old longshoreman from Maple Ridge who was hunting for moose, fought back with a bone-handled knife.
"It was starting to annoy her and she swung around on my chest and took one big gaping chunk of meat out," he said. "Her jaws went right down to the ribs and took a mouthful of meat and I took three shots at her eye with my knife."
The sow shook her head as blood filled her eye and lumbered away. Nichols dragged himself to a tree and fired warning shots so relatives back at a cabin could find him. The bear's body was found the next day.